Just like “Mr/Mrs” in English, in our Mizo culture we address senior citizens with the prefix “Pu” or “Pi” depending on the gender. This is like the prefix “Shri/Shrimati” in Hindi or “Thiru/Thirumati” in Tamil. Our English guests took a long time to get used to this and tried their best not to laugh because the two prefixes Pi and Pu are pronounced “Pee” and “Poo”.
(At this point, I’m glad I didn’t introduce them to Pu Mafaka)
Speaking of pee and poo, has it ever occurred to you that some of the greatest ideas and innovations were conceived while the person is sitting on “the throne”?
Maybe that is why Auguste Rodin’s “The Thinker” strangely resembles a man deep in thought, sitting on what looks like a medieval European toilet.
Newton discovered gravity because of the apple, but ask yourself this: What was he doing under the apple tree in the first place? Remember those days the lavatory system at home wasn’t that modern? So sometimes people would just go outside their house and do “it” behind the bushes or under the tree.
Little Newton just happened to be doing his thing under the tree when the apple fell near him. At first he was like, “Cool, something to chew while I do” and he assumed the apple would ease his motion inside when suddenly he realized there’s a different kinda motion involved and voila - Gravitational force was born!
Likewise, Archimedes was happily taking a bath… and you know how much we guys love to pee during a shower
And so there he was just peeing inside the tub and whistling an old Greek pop song while air-harping with this right fingers when suddenly… splashhh! The water overflowed and he discovered density! 
One of my favorite episodes of SCRUBS is Season 3, Episode 13 entitled “My Porcelain God”, which also features Michael J Fox as the guest actor.
In this particular episode, the casts get an epiphany while sitting on the roof toilet! Hilarious, especially with the sound effects of an epiphany building up. Lolz.
The free online dictionary defines Epiphany as:
- A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something.
- A comprehension or perception of reality by means of a sudden intuitive realization
Basically, it means something that will make a light bulb suddenly appear over your head. Tingggg
And this is indeed true for many of us, especially those of us in the creative field. Some of the most profound concepts we came up with were generated in the loo. We sat. We shat. We conceptualized.
That’s the beauty about the loo. If we are not reading any book or newspaper, there is nothing else to do except just sit. Sit and think. That is when those of us with restless minds spring into action and come up with really crazy mind-blowing ideas. Our mental frame swings wildly in all directions.
And there’s nothing more irritating than somebody disturbing that moment of tranquility. It’s like somebody rudely awakening you just when you’re on a speedboat and Pamela Anderson calls you “Tommy”… That’s when you wish you had a shotgun inside and blasted the mofo to Kingdom come.
Now comes another brilliant act of creativity. In order to prevent such interruptions, our Creative Director came up with this totally rad idea – Install three different bulbs as indicators so that people outside will know what exactly you’re doing inside!
The restroom is free.
Somebody’s doing No. 1.
Somebody’s doing No. 2.
(Isn’t it funny how we call them politely as no.1 and no.2 ? I wonder who came up with such names! Quite funny if you really think about it.)
Read our Agency blog about these bulbs: Creative Sanitation, Webchutney Style
This made life soooo much better for us. We no longer need to wait outside without knowing how long the person inside is going to take, and we are not disturbed either once we’re inside. This idea is the kind that makes you go, “Why didn’t I think of this first???”
But in spite of such a cool innovation, I must point out that it is still one bulb short. After all, peeing and pooing aren’t the only things guys do in the loo, right? Maybe we need a white bulb indicator for that.
Errr… hold on, I was talking about changing clothes inside the loo as the fourth indicator. What were you thinking?
Moving on, this is to show you all that crappy situations need not necessarily give rise to crappy ideas. In fact, if an attractive (and often seductive) woman from an Advertisement agency presents you a concept, do remember that there is a high chance she came up with that idea while she was… in a “position” that’s not so attractive nor seductive, if you know what I mean. Of course don’t try to picture her in your head. I said stop. Still doing it? Goddd…
So to end this post, I must get back to my opening paragraph. Pi is pronounced Pee and Pu is Poo in Mizo. But no matter how much crap you get, explore all possible horizons, angles and perspectives. SWING your thoughts in every direction. After all, if you join “pi” and “pu” together, you will get “Pipu” which means SWING in Mizo!!!!
Ah! Lame, but at least I managed to connect my points. Lolz. And yes, pipu really does mean “swing” in Mizo. Maybe this shows that creativity is universal and is not bound to any specific language. Or maybe this shows that a crappy blog post is universal and can swing any ways. Hehe. Good night.
