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Friday, April 26, 2013

'Neer' (Near) Issue

Do people in India even think of water becoming a scarcity in the future ? I highly doubt it.

I was met with a very disturbing sight today morning on my ride to the office. A procession of sorts... pouring water all the way on the road where the procession is about to walk through.

I really do not have anything against people who organize a procession in some God's name and those kind of stuff. But the objection kicks in when they are not doing a lot of thinking when they organize it.
Ofcourse, there need to be processions for God's and India as a land of varied cultures will have a lot of festivals - almost one every month. But people do also need to understand that God does not demand anything from you. This idea of appeasing the God, by sacrifices and stuff - is something I strongly disbelieve in. That aside, the point of this discussion was the way water was being used in this procession.

There was a big water tanker which was moving a few feet ahead of the procession slowly enough for a person to hold out a pipe and pour out water on the road indicating that he is cleaning the road for the people who are walking holding the belongings / offerings to the so-called God (I have no idea which God it was for). And it was not a small pipe. A rather large pipe which is generally used to fill tanks in houses. And the amount of water being wasted - its just unbelievable. Even if the water tanker I saw can probably hold around 500 gallons (~ 1900 ltrs) of water, that would give drinking water to around 1900 people.

Just got me thinking -
Do these people really realize the importance of water ?
Do these people really think that God would mind if the people walked on a dry road ?
Do these people even know that their relatives in their respective villages do not have enough water to farm and earn their living ? Forget about the rest of the world - there are countries where people are dying from water scarcity.
Do they know that many cows and other domestic animals and now even wild animals are starving for water ?
Do they even think about the future situation of India when now itself, we are facing the consequences of global warming and famine and drought ???
Do they really believe that water is never going to be extinct ? Maybe several thousands of years down the line - but it is definitely going to be a huge scarcity.

I had half a mind to get off my bike and give a piece of my mind to them. But I am in fact scared to the extent to which people in India are mindful when it comes to going against a certain person's decisions about appeasing a particular God. I have seen it with my own eyes, and experienced it in my own house what objection gets you. If I cannot even handle the stares and the talks behind my back in my own house, how effective will my thoughts be in the public ?

Then again, how much water savings are we doing in our own houses ? Are we saving enough ourselves to reserve the right to question these people ? Do we stop the taps when we are brushing our teeth ? These are small things to consider.

People in India seriously need to stop and think before taking action. I would like to call out to the public to please save water - even a single glass of water can quench someone's thirst and people are fighting for mere few drops. Not to mention - please save the animals being sacrificed at the end of such processions - animals have rights too.

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