Da Men is for women, Herren is for men
By Kumar Anshuman
I went to a restaurant last night to have food. After
some time I decided to go to the rest room. There are two doors. The writing on
the both is in German. On one door it is written- DaMen, on the other- Herren.
As I don't know German, so I try to depend on my English skills. Common sense
would say that DaMen is for men. In fact yesterday one of my friends told me
that De Maan in German means husband. So I thought this restroom should be for
men. Also another one was Herren, in English we use Her for women. So with full
confidence I entered the DaMen restroom. Used the toilet and came out. When I
was at the washbasin, a woman came from another toilet and gave a smile to me.
I was freezed. Sorry-I am really sorry. I came by mistake-were the obvious
words which I uttered within a fraction of second. She understood my situation
and told me to relax. When I came outside, one or two people looked at me and
gave a naughty smile. I was followed by the lady and she was also smiling. I
was really embarrassed. What do I do? I just left the place in hurry to save
myself from further trauma. Had it been in India, I was screwed. In the
morning, I was at the hotel reception checking for a WiFi connection and again asked for the restroom. The lady at the reception guided me to a large
restroom. When I went inside, there was a lady at the washbasin. This time I
just came out without saying anything. I went straight to the lady at
reception. “It’s a common toilet,” she said. After little bit of research I
came to know that it’s a common practice here in Germany that if the male toilet
is occupied you can go and use the female toilet. Of course there are different
toilets inside with doors and you only encounter a woman on the wash basin. But
somehow this is something I am still not able to digest or rather accept.