The rains have played hide and seek. Especially with the Met Department. Turning up when the Met writes off. And pouring through the roof, when there is ‘No Chance’ of rain ! That apart, the municipal corporation has effected a 30 % water cut which has had 100 % of the media make 150 % more noise !
Suddenly, the prospect of the next summer going without water in the tap, is very real. And as suddenly as that, there are newspaper clippings, figuring on the apartment’s notice board. Asking all to ‘spend water wisely’ !
And of course, there are these small notices which have periodically appeared just outside the apartment lift. Like this one. “As per BMC Notice, there will be short supply of water. Please co-operate’ !
You cant miss such notices. And if you are in a naughty mood, ‘please co-operate’ can conjure up many interesting things for your mind.
But quite often, there is conversation about this ‘notice’ in the lift. All the way up. A conversation t
hat dies off, only when people reach their respective floors.Ranging from the most co
mmon ‘This is ridiculous’ to other strands of ‘What do they expect us to do. Dig wells here? or “why don’t they just drill ten more wells here, we will all pay types”. ( All in accents of a distinctly foreign land which i spell as ‘HBO’).Contempt for mother Earth & mankind and/or wearing stupidity as a valour medal get my gut. They look at me and other ‘dimwits who preach conservation‘ with a certain unconcealed disdain which is fully reciprocated.
Many times i wonder if the rain Gods are playing hide & seek just to have some fun at the expense of such folks. That’s my grand premise.
Anyways, here i am. In the lift. And there is a family : husband, wife. two kids. And they converse. Between them, of course. I know this gent. On previous occasions, we have had, lets put it this way, ‘differences of opinion’ on water conservation.And so, the man goes on. ‘These admin fellows, they are not going to get any result with such generic messages like ‘please co-operate’. They must mention, exactly what we should do to conserve water. With a double emphasis on EXACTLY.
‘Yes. Yes’. I go in my mind. Looking into the corners of the lift. They have to tell you EXACTLY how many litres of water you need to wash your teeth, clean your face. And of course, they have to tell you to close the tap tight. To wash cars lesser …just to think of water.To educate your children…… THEY have to tell you all of that !
And just as i was thinking that, the kid says, ‘big deal dadda. Don’t take bath. Apply the extra perfume. Which you anyways do every weekend’. With a similar double emphasis on ‘EVERY’
My eyes try to look into the man’s eyes. He looks at me. For a brief while. He then looks away to search for mysterious cobwebs in a super clean lift. Theres a deafening silence.
I don’t know about the rain God. But i am having a ball. But you know what, since then, we have been having rains. Serious rains.
sitting on a foreign land, i tend to quickly compare….. always wanting our motherland to win… but it never happens… another example of that… here in dubai, there is nothing called rains and rain gods….. there is nothing called tube wells in apartments… with this harshest desert scenario, there has never been a need to put up a notice near the lift saying ‘please cooperate’ due to a water supply cut….. if here they can process sea water and supply drinking water to homes, why not in india?….. especially mumbai?…. never get an answer….. and i giveup more often not wanting to look for an answer…. as it never exists…. atleast our next generation shud see a better india….
ah kids!! Don’t you love them!!
Its true how clueless most people are about water conservation! Perhaps, the building people should seriously consider having a seminar of EXACTLY how many litres of water they should use per day!!!
Yes, it’s a shame that Indians in general know little or nothing about the preservation theory. I put it down to their belief in worshipping the demigods: if they please Indra, rain will come. But of course that’s not so true; there is only one thing that pleases Indra and it’s the pleasure of the Supreme Lord. Indra says when the Lord is happy, everything and everyone is taken care of. Now we’re discussing demigod worship :)) But the traditions of “everything will be fine if the gods are pleased” are both at once good and principled, and an obstacle to conscious thinking of usage and an acknowledgement of the earth’s submissive generosity….
Hahahah!!!! Wonderfully blunt comment from the child. Well put my little punk! Less showers and more perfume! Sounds like Dad could learn some things from this wise one.
🙂
Great post. And such notices are up in our building too, with an extra warning for those ‘types’ who ‘indiscriminately use water to water their terrace plants which are already receiving rainwater.’
And trust kids to prick the gas right out of gasbags, with a double emphasis on the fifth word.
Just aghast at what the child is learning, watching his father , in the lift and at home: Criticize the semantics of an honest effort and request by those worried about water. But cover your “dirt” by superficial sprays of perfume. Doesn’t matter what’s at the core. So long as you can hide it.
Kids may be too small to know. But they observe and learn.
It’s the same all over Mumbai.
Such a contrast- rain pouring down, but less water in the taps!
Nice narration of the interesting incident in the lift, Kavi!
You have captured people’s perceptions very rightly.
Now it is raining, I fear every discussion about water use and conservation would be happily forgotten. The Rain God rightly does not bother about such human beings, who do not bother about themselves!
Nice post!! Every time i read your blog,i cannot resist myself congratulating you for the wonderful writing!!
Great one!! The kids today are really great!! They are good at giving nice opinions..
Children lack filters. 🙂
As for conservation, everyone seems to be of the opinion that it is for others to do. Fewer showers, perhaps? Maybe one just washes with a rag most days, a nice shower Friday night? Maybe we water the plants with the left-over pasta water?
Water is a precious commodity. We really should be more careful with it.
Pearl
lol…fun reading the post.
yea..its been raining elephants i hear!!
Have you ever been to Las Vegas? It is, you know, in the middle of the desert, and the water comes from Lake Meade and the Colorado River, both of which are getting lower and lower every year. But Las Vegas is a city of a thousand fountains–some of the water is re used, but with the heat much evaporates. It makes me sick the water wasted with no regard to the future. I was told by a hotel employee that the reason for the fountains is it gives the tourists the “illusion” of coolness.
??? What selfishness…
Arunn : Forget sea water ! A billion litres ( you heard that right) of rain water, goes into the sea every year in Mumbai alone! I wonder why no one is thinking of harvesting that ! Someday, that would happen ! Hopefully ~
Roshini : Hmm. Perhaps that EXACTNESS will exact out promises on conservation ! Perhaps !
Braja : Well said ! The Earths ‘submissive generosity’ is not limitless ! And i hope the sooner we realise it the better for all of us !! Indeed !
Christine : Dad could do with some EXACT learning ! Indeed !!
🙂
Sucharita : LOL ! The 5 th word is a nice armament indeed. Especially if there are gasbags around !
Ugich Konitari : The greatest learning for the kids do not come from the formal lessons that are taught by the informal observations that they understand teh value and value systems from.
God bless our future generations !
Manju : Thank you ! Indeed !
Aativas : Welcome here. And indeed, this will be a forgotten topic once the lakes fill up ! Sigh !
Swatantra : Thank you !! And ofcourse, children are unbeatable on that count ! ARent they !
Pearl : Water the plant, with left over pasta water ! My my..thats some suggestion. Indeed ! I need to give that some publicity !!! 🙂
Rush : 🙂
Lou : We live in a connected world. And the world seems to have similar problems spread with different hues !
I have never been to Vegas. But this problem..that i am familiar with !!
Shameful how we waste water….
here in hyderabad, even when the taps are running dry and we’re buying tanker loads of water, i cringe to see the artificial waterfalls and fountains in plush complexes (including the CM’s residence) and malls…
and the CM goes to tirupathi to pefrom yagna for rain!!! GAWD….!!!!!
Here our apartment supplies 500 litters of good water per home for couple of days, except 24hours of bore water. The last conversation was funny.
The job of a secretary of a society is just not easy. Nobody will work, but everyone is ready to be an arm chair critic.
Life is playing in the court, and not commenting on nthe stand.