ABSTRACT
As I was walking down a narrow alley in North Calcutta (Kolkata) on a bright sunny winter morning, I was struck by the uncommonness of a common sight. It was that of a man taking a bath at a roadside public faucet. Growing up in the city, I was familiar with the long lines in front of public roadside taps like that where women, men, and children would collect drinking water. It was not an uncommon phenomenon. Public space for private use such as this one meant a lot of things. The city faucets were for community use. It meant that there was a collective acquiescence that not everyone had running water at home, or even proper showering facilities. Scorned by a Western audience as an affront to one’s dignity to take a bath on city streets in public, it was not something most Indians would cringe at.
