A Tribute To Water

Imagine the External Affairs minister of India Mr. S.M Krishna paying an official visit to the U.S Secretary of State Hillary.R.Clinton in America, which they frequently do, in a conscious joint effort to build and strengthen relationships between India and America on humanitarian grounds of much publicized Indo-US strategic dialogue. On his arrival to the United States, Mr. Krishna is greeted with a two litre bottle of water presented by Mrs. Clinton which the Indian minister accepts with awe, and the other Indian subordinates being presented with just a litre by the respective subordinates of U.S Secretary of state which they accept gleefully but at the same time frown expressionlessly from within on sighting their minister being presented by a higher volume. Bear in mind, the bottles of water presented to the Indian dignitaries is pure, hygienic as per the standards and thoroughly drinkable to the last drop, but the irony of it all is that it is not meant to be drunk; rather it is presumed to be preserved as a memento, a national treasure, meant to be showcased in the Foreign ministry office premises.

Another such show of mutual understanding, which instantly captures my imagination, celebrated blissfully by us Indians with much fan fare and pomp is the marriage ceremonies. Nuptial ceremonies to my liking are an exasperating show of wealth and treasure, more than a middle class family seems to possess. So imagine in such a ceremony, the bride’s family gifting away barrels of water or the bridegroom’s family demanding dowry (a shameful defiant act in Indian society) as barrels of water for a certain number of years in order to quench their extensive needs and sense of dryness, failing which the marriage would be terminated. Visualize, instead of tons of gold jewelry, specially designed miniature water packet necklaces and bangles being used to adorn the bride in order to enhance her beauty and after marriage people distressfully gifting the bride and bridegroom items made out of water packets in the reception ceremony. You may believe that the above events  are an exaggerated, unrealistic, out of bounds and far stretched imagination, good for gut aching humor, but not possible in the wildest of dreams. Well, let me caution you; give it a second thought…

A day will surely come when water will be treated with utmost gratitude and respect, like the sole precious and priceless commodity on earth, i.e. if we do not mend our ways or intention and respect it’s unchallenged and irreplaceable existence. Water for most of us is a common, daily usable commodity, one which we cannot, by any means, part away with, but it’s sheer presence has come under scrutiny as scientists round the world have started examining and debating on the facts of it’s sources diminishing by the day. Prima facie of the problem is lack of awareness and responsibility among the people who believe wasting water generously is a fundamental right, which no one can deny them. Going by the statistics globally established and circulated with mutual consent by the scientists worldwide, ninety-seven percent of the water resources present in our life sustaining planet is salt water, two percent is glacier ice and the rest one percent is fresh water that we can actually use for our daily needs. Just one percent? We already have a shortage enforced by nature, and our more than sufficient expendable usage (in addition to the ever meteorically rising population) is threatening it’s default scarce presence.

People can live several weeks without food, but can barely survive few days without water. Let’s try and visualize what the conditions will be like if not a drop of water is left on the earth’s reliable sources to drink. First and foremost the water cycle, which we all have or probably should have studied in our first or second standard sciences, will be ceased. So what if it ceases? You may question competently… Well if it ceases then there will be no vapors, no vapors mean no cloud formations, no clouds mean no rain and no rain means the end of the story as simple as that, No rain!!! What looks, our gorgeous planet will boast off, if there is no rain? Blatantly speaking earth will then probably be a mirror image of the moon or mars, dry, desolate and devoid of any living form, summarizing in brief, it will bring an abrupt end to the human race…Water scarcity is a major problem not only in India but also around the world where ground water levels are depleting at an alarming rate. Taking water for granted is no more a whimsical notion which we can afford. We need to act now or else our future generations will start facing the brunt of it’s limitations.

Water pollution is another notable menace leading to the dearth of fresh water sources. In Delhi and it’s surrounding areas the Yamuna river has almost been reduced to a mere sewage drain due to the constant dumping of industrial wastes and harmful chemicals in it’s banks. Overlooking from the Agra fort, the river which was once an inspiration for every poet, with the enchanting Taj Mahal in it’s backdrop, the reflection of which, in the river’s steady, calm waters in a moonlit night, sent chills down the spine of every person admiring the magnificent sight, is now meandering in a pitiable state, best described as a sewage stream carrying human wastes and hazardous chemicals induced by the industries built around it. Is this the way to treat our rivers, which has always blessed us and satisfied our ever increasing needs, unconditionally? Great civilizations have nestled on the banks of these significantly nourishing water sources and also been wiped out due to the deficiency or drying out of such sources. The day is not far when the complete human race will be eradicated from the face of the earth if we do not start heeding Mother Nature’s ceaseless warnings and it’s quiet sobbing in pain which it suffers at the hands of selfish and unmindful humans.

The water woes are same if not worse and increasing by the day, in Mumbai and it’s suburbs, as the case is in Delhi, where people are suffering in an identical way. No water for two to four days at a stretch brings life to a complete standstill. The other day I came across a story by chance in one of the newspapers about a water thief in Mumbai. The water thief, most pleasantly surprising for me was a lady who used to steal water from the tankers, which normally supplies water to the societies demanded by. So this lady had a pact with the driver of the truck i.e. by mutual treaty of some kind they had agreed upon that the driver would stop the truck at a distance outside the society, away from the ever intoxicated and sleepy surveying eyes of the society watchman. The lady on seeing the truck from a hideout, like a soldier waiting to attack on the enemy, would come charging in with her empty vessels and barrels and fill as much water as she could. She was not the only one though, committed in the sinful act, which was more out of anguish than desire, there were others as well, but she got highlighted as she was perceived by the general public as the master of all the thieves, the commander in chief. The truck after appeasing all the female thieves would then make it’s way inside the society premises to dump the left over water. Slowly but steadily as days passed, the time for which the water, used to be available for the people living in the society reduced at an exponential rate. People started questioning the watchman and the chairman of the society for receiving such low volume of water in spite of paying the proper taxes in time. One day someone from the society decided voluntarily to keep a watch on the truck, following it like a detective by maintaining an unrecognizable distance, soon found out the exact cause of the Mission he had set out to accomplish, i.e. “Mission Missing Water”. The lady thief and all her disciples were caught red handed and bashed up by the women of the society, parading her through the streets with her face bleached in black. Eventually the procession was brought to a halt, much to everyone’s dislike, when the police arrived at the spot and took the lady under their custody.

The above story just serves us a reminder about the many small wars being fought in an around us for the divine liquid we so desperately crave for and without which our life would be totally in disarray. Small wars such as these accumulate with time and take shape of a major war which globalizes and outbreaks into a world war. A world war scenario, which will be the last nail in the coffin for us, beleaguered by the water woes, is building up steadily like an active volcano ready to erupt at any moment, all because of the inadequacy of one simple but life saving resource known as WATER!!!

The Ganges is considered to be the most sacred river of all in India, but even she has not been spared by the torments we humans have unfortunately bestowed on her. The bulky river is slowly dying in fragments and will be long gone if we keep polluting it the same way we did to the Yamuna. Image of the people standing in the bed of the Ganges with water up to their waist, praying and paying tribute to the Lords (according to Hindu mythology the Ganges originates from Lord Shiva’s elongated hair locks) by releasing the holy water from their folded hands, will be soon be a distant memory and fittingly replaced by the fact, i.e. people standing in it’s dry bed and releasing the ashes of our dear dead ones from their same folded hands, in a bid to pray with numb and tearful eyes and ask pardon to the Lords for the sinful act of not treating water with the due respect it deserved, pleading in disbelief for returning their life line back to them, which will be too late and very much a myth to depend on, in an effort to bring back our thirst quenching fluid. HOPING FOR DIVINE INTERVENTION IS LIKE DIGGING A WELL AND TRYING TO FIND WATER ON THE MOON, WE NEED TO ACT NOW!!!