Paani Paani re! (Collaboration with Nimish Tiwari)

मित्र..कैसे कोई जुुुगत लगाई जाए ??

कैसे यह प्यास बुझाई जाए ??

संकट के बादल घिरते प्रतीत हो रहे ,

प्यासे चेहरे मायूस खड़े तक रहे ।।

..

सूखते हुए कुएं ,सूनसान हो रहे नल-कूप ,

प्यासे निराश पंछी..घटते हुए जन-जीव ।

सूखती हुई नदियाँ , सूखते हरे-भरे पेड़ ,

अमृतमय होने वाली ‘पानी’ की हर बूंद ।।

..

स्तर गिरता भू-जल का ..मित्र

हाँ,गिरता स्तर मानवता का भी ।

कम होती बारिश भी अब तो ,

और कम होते इंसानी जज्बात भी ।।

..

चलो..सजग हो जाते,कही देर न हो जाए ,

पानी को ही लेकर कही युद्ध न छिड़ जाए ।

रुपयों में भी ‘जल’ न मिलेगा,मित्र तब तो ,

क्या पता पानी में भी पहरेदार लग जाए ।।

..

बिन पानी जीवन है असंभव ..अंत निश्चित है ,

कुबेर हो या सुदामा दोनों की यह समान जरूरत है ।

श्रेष्ठ प्रकृति वरदान है ये , इसे व्यर्थ ना जाने दीजिये ,

जिम्मेदारी समझे या समझिये मानव-धर्म ,

इसकी हर बूँद बचाई जाए ..

इसकी हर बूँद बचाई जाए…

– Nimish Tiwari

The third world war, if fought, will be for water and not land!

The poem and the abovesaid statement themselves signify the importance of water, rather fresh water, in our lives. We have the oceans and the seas around us but their water is what we cannot drink. I think Agasti was the first and the last person to drink the water of the seas, according to our scriptures. It means that He must have found some technique to purify the ocean waters and made it potable. Israel today has also to some extent succeeding in doing so. But that’s not what we want to talk about, today!

We want to talk about Water…

Jeevanam sarva jeevanaam

Paawanam sarvato mukham,

Amrutam Parmam tatvam

Pranamami Muhur muhuhu:

Call “Jeevan” and “Amrut” in Sanskrit (one of the many names for water in Sanskrit). “Jeevan” signifies life and “Amrut” long life, or rather eternal life.

Water is not only the need of humans, but of the Soil “Dharti Mata” too. Water quenches her thirst too. She is so large hearted that she stores it inside for her children. But we, her children, are so selfish that we do not care. We have stooped to such a level where we have used up all her saved water too. The ground water levels are depleting. Just another day, our society tried to dig up a bore well, due to scarcity of water. To everyone’s dismay, we didn’t strike water even after digging deeper than ever before. The time has arrived that the urban population needs to think about this seriously and sincerely.

The studies around India have shown that the ground water levels all over India have gone down and the wells are drying up.

Isn’t this a sign by Mother Earth, to correct course now and quench her thirst?

Wouldn’t we care for ourselves atleast, as selfish as we are?

Why even think of next generation when we ourselves would be deprived of water?

After air, water is one of the nutrients absolutely essential. It forms 70% of our body fluids. It needs to be recycled everyday otherwise it leads to physical and physiological problems. And so medical science advises us to drink atleast 8 glasses of water everyday. And we all very well know that dehydration can even lead to death. And we all do take care of all this to live a healthy life.

Recycling is done by nature as well. Now when it does recycle annually, shouldn’t we take care of the water, the way we take care of ourselves. Shouldn’t we prudently use water? Shouldn’t it be reused? Do we share the responsibility with nature?

Every drop of water falling from the skies counts. I recall a poem I learnt in 8th std of my school days.

छोटी छोटी सी यह बूंदे सागर को भर देती है।

If the droplets can fill up oceans wouldn’t they fill up our rivers and the streams and our lakes? But have prepared for that. It is not till we plan to hold and stop water from flowing into the oceans, will we be able to quench the thirst of Mother Earth or ours!

We are a blessed country. We have so much that the others dont have. Israel, for example, has so little rain, yet has mastered agricultural techniques and created wonders in the field of agriculture. The fruits and the vegetables they have grown is astonishing. We sincerely need to learn from them. I recall a statement by one of the Israeli PM’s “If you (India) can give us anything, then we wish you give a cloud full of rain.”

We are a race who has been taught to find and see God in everything. Even in the non-living or abiotic as they call it nowadays. We see God or Divinity as some might say in soil and sky, in space and air, and yes of course Water. We believe that we all have been made from these 5 elements of nature (Panchmahabuta). So let us take care of all of them, beginning with water.

The other day I was reading that a person needs 20 litres of water a day for his daily activities, so roughly 140 litres a week, 560 litres a month and 6,720 litres a year. A family of 4 would need 26,880 litres a year. Can a household not harvest even half of its water needs.

Rain water harvesting is the need of the hour. We need to collect the rain water in underground tanks beneath our houses and buildings and societies. And atleast use it for drinking and cooking, as it is medically safe.

Make checkdams and recharge wells and quench the thirst of Mother Earth. Make the ground water levels rise. Prudently use ground water for the next few years so that their levels rise.

Make small lakes on the outskirts of the village and store water in it which can be used by all the villagers at their time of need.

Shrimati Amla Ruia, a Mumbai based social activist has transformed over 100 villages in Rajasthan, including the lives of the people living in those villages. She has used the traditional water harvesting techniques and built check dams too. She has founded Aakar Charitable Trust with a view toward creating a sustainable and permanent solution for drought hit regions of Rajasthan. Uptil now, her Trust has help build 200 check dams and impacted over 2 lakh lives.

People like these and many more are doing their bit. However big or small their effort might be, it is highly commendable and needs to followed or copied. Every village, town and city have their own pecularities and they need to find out solutions through public participation.

It is an individual effort.

It is a family effort

It is a society, village, tehsil, district , state and national effort

Let us start thinking about ourselves and changing our behaviour to help a good cause, not for the next generation, but for our own generation.

It’s now or never!

Save Water Save Life Save Earth

(PS : I thank Nimish for writing this poem for the write up. Actually he is the one who helped write this article and edit it too. A good human being to the core and a future doctor of my country.)