I may or may not have bragged about the wonderful fitness center (gym) at Imperial College known as Ethos. I, after some procrastination, decided to have a go at it. I had a 3-hour break between my classes on Tuesday so that was a nice time slot for me for a light workout. I was also told that the gym usage at morning and afternoon hours are light but tends to get crowded after 4 and may even require waiting periods. Anyway, it was almost 1200 when I went to the gym, passed the secure entrance, went up to the changing room and kept all my stuff in a locker. I slipped in my new adidas gym trainers and went down for some activity. I did a 3-km jogging session on treadmill followed by only 500m of rowing (first day after a break, couldn’t do more!). I also did some light crunches and decided to end the session. I went up to the changing room again and asked a guy where the showering facilities were. At this moment I did see some weird things, which I ignored (more later!). I walked in the pointed direction and found, to my utmost surprise, that there was a showering area was communal without any partitions or even curtains! It was a large area with wall-mounted showers and a little distance in between. barriers! Okay, in case farooqk reads this, the changing room for women are separate

Now things began to make sense. The weird stuff mentioned above was some guys walking back to their lockers completely naked. How on earth can people shower like that? It’s like the guys face the wall and turn their back as if saying “mate I’m not looking at you, so you shouldn’t either.” I asked a friend what the heck this was? He replied “dude! why are you shy? we all have the same things!” At this point I thought that not only toilets were a problem here but showers as well. Apparently, this is normal here and in most parts of the Western world.

I turned around [not in the shower, duhh!], and walked back to get some more information. I found there was only ONE shower which had curtains where you’ve to wait for your turn in case there are many shy guys at that time. I showered in that area and walked back with clothes to get my stuff. Then a guy in a short towel around his waist (hardly!) asked for a favour. Apparently his digital locker wasn’t opening, he was almost naked, and his clothes were locked in!!! So he asked me to go down and get some help, which I did.

These common showers also made me realize why bromance is so common in these places! Besharam Log!