Over the long weekend, we decided to drive off to the famous Murud Janjira area after making early bookings. This was wise because every single room was booked and overbooked. So far so good and we were all set to enjoy Incredible India with a French girl (exchange student) in tow. Kashid beach was awesome as usual and even with the continuous stream of pleasure boaters , banana boaters and horse riders making a huge din when a quiet beach would have been preferable, one understands that the locals have to make a living so one sort of goes with it. While all kinds of businesses seem to be thriving there is one business opportunity that street smart entrepreneurs seemed to have completely missed – bathrooms, yes those places where you wash sand off you posterior and do the numbers one and emergency two.
Now let’s just think about – what kind of price will ladies or even men pay for simple, clean, non-smelly bathroom, especially in such locations-. A hundred rupees a pop (oops) would be the right price and we would not think twice about paying this sum. What am I talking about? Has a sun stroke addled my brain to such an extent?
The idea, like all great ideas, is very simple- we can have a mobile, semi permanent or even collapsible bathrooms at any given location. This concept already works in western countries and chemicals are used to wash over, sanitise and destroy the bad stuff.
The question is how come some start up has not thought through this problem we Indians face at many, many locations like bus stops, train stations, public places and even roadsides.
The business models can be many, franchise based, owner based, leased etc. The joy of building a brand around clean loos for the health of our nation will have agencies salivating in the mouth and someone might even come up with a brand name called POTTY’S PARLOUR!
