Ah ! Rain, I am on my way to Rajasthan, Its such a joy, but I couldn't jump out of the train, No need, I already soaked myself enough in Kerala, I can sit inside, sip a cup of coffee and enjoy watching the rain from my window seat. This is Trivandrum-Jodhpur long distance train and it has a pantry car. I was getting a regular supply of coffee.
I am talking about coffee when I am supposed to talk about water, The most refreshing drink
Any one wants to argue ?
After millions of years of evolution we are still at the mercy of nature.
Water generates life.
Almost all the civilisations flourished on the banks of rivers. No water, no life.
We can buy water, we can purify it, boil it and drink. So no problem polluting the rivers ?
But what about other creatures, these birds and animals, water belongs to them too. They drink polluted water and get sick and die for no fault of theirs.
They have as much right to pure water as we do. They cannot form a union, organise a protest rally or create awareness, this is something we have to do.
They already have enough problems to deal with, they don't pray to God for rain, they simply perish, leading to slow extinction.
This open bill stork has enough reason to complain, its called open bill stork because his bill has a gap, poor chaps, have lot of problems drinking water. Half of it spilled out of the gap.
What ever water they can hold in their open bill, they have to take off and fly and feed their chicks, They have to make number of trips carrying water back and forth to feed one chick. Poor guys.
I took these pictures in March this year, I felt thirsty myself, I realised that it was too hot for the month of March. I felt the heat of May. I almost had a sunstroke, had to take shelter immediately.
Now these chaps cannot afford to wait till their chicks learn to fly. They have to fly away when its time. Half the chicks of migratory birds die on the way.
What ever the data says... what ever expert may say, this is all due to global warming. These birds are unable to adjust their timing according to abrupt climate changes. Is it their fault if they do not know how to adjust themselves ?
Clean or polluted, they have to drink water. They have to survive, Its too much for us to expect them to adjust themselves for human folly.
I watched on BBC today. there are 25 000, yes you heard me right TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND privately owned luxury aircrafts, and ten thousand more coming this year as business is booming.
Aha ! take a look at this take off !! This flight is a pure joy ! and they don't pollute the air we breath.
Blunt knife
Photography and travel Blog
23 comments:
You have really captured the rampant water gathering, almost like a movie. I especially love the train window photo. Here in Michigan, people always complain when it rains (except the farmers, unless it's when the crops need to dry), something I have NEVER understood. Sometimes it ruins a picnic, sure, but I'm always grateful for it.
Rauf, have you seen the new Indian film "Water"?
It is raining here today. I love water, I try to drink 4 litres a day. I know I am lucky. I know some countries have to have it shipped to them. We send water to america from Canada. It makes our power. I read an incredible book called Water by Marq de Villiers, he says, There are 19 million new Indians born every year-a Canadian every 1 and 1/2 years. In 1993, the last time anyone counted, fewer than half of urban Indians (42.9 per cent) had any access to sanitation facilities, and a puny 3.5 per cent of rural Indians. Some 16 per cent of city people and 20 per cent of rural people had no clean drinking water. Farmers currently take 85 per cent of all India's renewable water, and ,just to feed the new people, demand will rise 50 per cent by 2005. Industrial centres, most of them in the same areas as the most fertile land will triple their demand for water by the same year. As an FAO study put it, the results do not identify India as suffering from severe water stress but Indias percentage is well above worse than, the solvable water level.
On the other hand, the ramshackle sprawling chaotic ethnically complex more-or-less democracy that is India was widely expected to be an international pauper and an agricultural basket case by the 1950's, and instead it has become self-sufficent in food production and a net exporter of food grains.
On the other hand, the Green Revolution and the grand scheme of large-scale water development projects launched by Jawaharlal Nehru after independance have now run their course. India's ambitious use, or overuse, of its rivers served their purpose in their time. They helped knit the unweildly country together, and food production rose from a measly 0.3 per cent to well over 3 per cent, a phenomenal increase. But they have also caused irrigation and antagonism in downstream countries. Indias quarrals with Pakistan and Bangladesh are not just religious and ethnic, they are resource-based. The Green Revolution depended not only on more productive seed grains but on irrigation and pesticides. Both have run out their string, maximized their potential. There is no more water to be had; irrigation is increasing the amount of saline soil; and pesticieds have poisoned an unsettling amount of what land is left. And the inexorable grind of population is now negating what few grains are still to be made.
People worry about war and oil.
Rain is starting to look pretty good isn't it?
...we need to help each other...over and over...
i'm always scared...scared that one day there will be no water left. There's a saying: don't bite the hand that feeds you. Well, that's humans all over for you, isn't it? The earth feeds us, and we 'bite' the earth in return.
it doesn't make sense, but then so many things that we do don't.
But you're right - if we suffer from no water then it is our own faults...the animals however are caught in the crossfire. It's always the innocent that die in this world.
Ruth, I am sorry I got into a lazy mode.
My city of Chennai has always faced water screcity, which is our own making. City is growing out of proportion. Flats are coming up every where. In one small piece of land there are 30 families living drawing ground water, which dries up fast and they are forced to buy truck loads of water coming from surrounding agricultural land. No water in rivers no water in the ground. Now all we do is pray for rains. After 3 years of continuous dry spell the sky opened up last November causing floods all over the state of Tamil nadu. This happens when we tilt or tamper the earth's natural balance.
No Ruth, never heard of it. I asked my friends they say Deepa mehta has made films on 'elements'
I have not been watching movies. After a long time saw 'Pride and prejudice' liked it very much. But I don't see passion in film making anymore Ruth.
People of my age are lucky to have seen the best in music and movies.
From Black and white to colour, from 78 rpm records to ipods. The first Beatles records were on 78rpm, then came 45's tapes CDs
Candy, I just finished my second bottle of water since morning. We buy water, and thank goodness it is available and it is affordable for lower income group like me.
My mom is not alive today to see me buying water, she would have fainted. Can't imagine what would happen to future generations.
You have mentioned India's problems with neighbouring countries over river waters. Believe me Candy, within India states like Tamilnadu and Karnataka are fighting over rivers, so are other states.there are court cases, riots damage to public property, people from particular state are targetted and attacked, cars trucks buses with number plates of a particular state are damaged burnt, all because of fights over river water. Water is a big issue in local elections.
Laila, I have lived all my life in Chennai right from my first class in school. But I was born in a forest in Coorg Karnataka. the forest no longer exists. Right from my childhood every year we used to spend our summer holidays in Coorg. The route was Chennai-Bangalore-Mysore-Coorg. Chennai to mysore by train and from there by bus to Coorg. On the way we had to cross many rivers full of water.
today the same travel is painful. all the rivers are dry, not a drop of water. there is some water in big rivers like cauvery, but it all depends on the rains in my home district of coorg from where river cauvery originates. Building of dams allowing water to another state has resulted in so much confusion and anger that two states are always fighting. sometimes its like war. people dying in riots, all for water.
Why ?
You have given the reason in your comment.
You always surprise me with your wisdom Laila, now i am getting used to it.
We've got to find a way to desalinate it and share it and all kinds of options. All effectively. I am glad you can afford water. Can you believe we charge money for water...once food was free too...
the only solution is to slow the world down. but mediocre people have taken over the world by making 'speed' not effeciecncy, quality or beauty the deciding factor.breaking, their stranglehold will determine the survival of the world.
the only solution is to slow the world down. but mediocre people have taken over the world by making 'speed' not effeciency, quality or beauty the deciding factor. breaking, their stranglehold will determine the survival of the world.
Candy things have changed. You can.t say don't spend money like water. Now we have to say please don't spend water like money.
Desalination is a costly project which only oil rich countries can afford. Where there's a will there's a way. But there is no will. Politicians spend money like water (there I go again) on election campaigns, with money spent on one election, they can have 50 desalination units.
Free food ? what a dream ! The day is not far Candy when we have to pay for clean air to breathe.
That is when you'll see the economic divide you mentioned in your blog to its fullest evil effect. By that time people will forget what love is. Love would be a thing of the past. No love between brothers sisters mother child. It would be a fight for survival. Just hope that day doesn't come.
Chinna, its coming in my next blog. reverse the evolution. But we have to find a wayto show profit in reversing the evolution and in slowing things down to the politicians, otherwise they'll ask
'whats in it for us ?'
The tory leader, David Cameron goes to his office on his cycle. 2 cars follow him with his personal effects papers and a suit 2 shirts.
plus security cars.
Rauf,
Simply wonderful! Water is a powerful metaphor for life.
In the 1980s I heard a Romanian man speak who had been imprisoned for many years for his political beliefs. He was tortured, forced to drink his own urine, etc. He spoke about things getting worse physically in the world in the decades to come, but he believed things would get better spiritually. I believe this is possible, but it will take a great will, as you say, and it will take people like you (and me, and everyone here) continuing the evolution of the human mind to a place of love. It's possible that we are too late, but I don't think so. I'm sorry for the graphicness, but sometimes we need the shock to get the will.
Fresh, clean water is the elixir of life. but we love to color and sweeten it.
Rains and monsoons make me think of the Philippines, and perpetually damp shoes, walking in the pools of water and mud. It rains a lot in Holland, but it's nothing compared to the heavy rains and regular typhoons during the rainy seasons in Asia.
Beautiful pictures of rare birds.
Thank you Don.
We have a guy who delivers a can of water every day. If he doesn't show up there's panic in my house specially when we run out of drinking water in the night.
No it is not shocking Ruth. It is the determination of such people that leads us through evolution in the right direction. We see hear and act. Any atrocity torture happening in Chile and how people revolt, affects me and opens my mind. People like the Romanian you mentioned are the building blocks of human evolution.
I don't think we are late Ruth, Awareness is the first step. I think we are moving in the right direction. we have heard the warning sirens. SOS everywhere.
Elixir Yes Imenine. It is getting scarce. I have seen some scary science fiction movies No water anywhere. people kill each other for one fruit. You are very lucky to get rains Imemine.
Images--
old as life itself.
Snapshots--
of feelings,
racing through us
faster than light.
Stills--
but momentary glimpses
of what's there
and disappears before
the artist even lifts his brush
from the still wet canvas.
Images--
tiny reflecting pools
where we can almost see ourselves
if we look quickly.
Once I even saw the man
behind the camera,
but he was gone
in a blink of the eye.
All--
picture reality
in whatever light appears
for as last as it lasts.
Imagine that.
Rauf, I have insufficient words to comment. Can only say .. "Brilliant, as usual."
Don, I am thankful to the technology, and thank you so much for your delicate thoughts
Davo, your post 'cut and paste' was terrific, took an hour to type out my comment and posted only to see it disappear. I'll make another attempt. one thing i learnt and i would advise readers is to copy the comment they type on any blog before posting it.
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