The passage was dark. A little further to the left were two toilets. The door of one was open. He entered and, trying to close the door from inside, noticed that it was old and decaying. The bottom of the door was decomposing. The nearly perished bottom was covered with an iron sheet which had rusted over time. He tried latching the door again but in vain. He kept the water aside and in absolute darkness, attempted again, when he noticed a rope. He was reminded of his school washrooms that had such ropes tied to the nails of toilet doors to lock them up. He tied the rope in the same manner and sat down. It was dark around him. The stench that rose from the commode and entered his lungs via his nostrils was terrible. He had never faced such foul smell before. The stench maimed his intestines along with his heart and brain. He was trying to build up as much pressure as he could so that he could empty his bowels and rush out to breathe in fresh air again.

The darkness was slowly fading. In the little light that was now around, he noticed a used candle with half-burnt matchsticks lying in a corner. There were marks left by extinguished cigarette buds. He saw white insects crawling over each other on the decayed part of the door. Then he started staring at the commode. It looked like an ulcer. The ulcer had burst open at various places and was blistering now. Tiny, white insects were crawling over the blisters. One, two, ten, twenty, god knows how many! One of the white creatures was now attempting to crawl over Asrar’s slippers. He immediately poured water over it. The insect was swept off. But the moment this water went into the commode, a burst of stench rose from it. It was as if the waves of the stench were hidden deep under the dump. He blocked his nostrils with his fingers and looked away. He was astonished. There were many obscene figures drawn on the wooden door in front of him. Some words in Hindi were also carelessly scribbled. At one place a genital was drawn with small and big circles. At another place a couplet had been inscribed:

Is anjuman mein aap ko aana hai baar baar

Deewar-o-dar ko gaur se pehchan lijiye

He started looking at another obscene drawing with great concentration. One corner of the door was adorned with the drawing of a woman’s breast, one small and the other one larger with, ‘only for the purpose of looking and not sucking’ written next to them.