The little one was excited since morning. That day she was to travel to her grand mom’s place. Her annual exams were over and she was looking forward to having fun time. She was going to be with granny, all by herself for the first time.
While packing her bag, she insisted on packing her swimming costume as well. I found it difficult to explain that she would not get to swim there. But thought of keeping it to myself. For a girl all but aged 10, hailing from a metro city , she had never know what was meant to be when they say, “Cutting Pani”.
If you are also not aware about #CuttingPani, let me inform you that it is an initiative by LivPure to save drinking water.
Let me update you dear readers that Yavatmal is a district place in Maharashtra. This rainy season, the city received the least rainfall. The sole lake, Nilona, that supplies water to the entire city has almost run dry. The water is supplied through the taps only once in 12 days and that too for half an hour. Most of the wells in the city have turned dry. The summer has just begun and the major water crisis is looming large over the Yavatmal city.
As a pact, the little one and I catch up every morning over the telecon. One day, when I did not receive the call, I got curious. When I called up, the little one said, that she was busy and promised to call me after sometime.
I grew anxious and checked my mobile several times. It was only around afternoon that I finally received the much-awaited call.
“Hello Aai*. Things are not good here.”
“What’s wrong Bunny?”
“Except for ‘water’, every thing is all right”, came a reply laden with sadness.
“You know, today Granny had to call for the tanker services to have some water in the house. I was busy helping Granny filling up water in overhead tanks and drums”
“I am happy to hear that you helped Granny”, I appreciated her.
“We have decided to save water. We offer half a glass of water to the guests. ‘Cutting Pani’, you see! From today itself, we started using half a bucket of water for taking bath. Granny now had bought disposable plates for having lunch and dinner so that water is not wasted in washing utensils. Granny has asked the house help aunt to use the wet paper for cleaning the window panes and that too only once a week. The driver uncle also uses half a bucket of water to clean the car every 4-5 days. Water is precious, I have learnt here”
“Though its sad to know that there is a sever water scarcity, I am glad that you have learnt a valuable lesson”, I responded.
“And you know what, every time we wash our hands or when we have to gargle, Granny has asked me to do it near the trees. Even the water from the washing machine is used to water the plants”, informed the little one.
“Once I return, I am going to tell all my school friends not to waste water from their water bottles. We must save it or use it for some other purposes. We should also not play Holi with water, instead we should use dry colours”, she said.
“For that you will have to come back to Mumbai. Are you ready to return?”, I checked with her.
“Oh no…I wish to stay here forever”, she replied promptly, “But I miss you too”.
With a laughter on both the sides the conversation ended on a positive note. I could see a green shoot springing in the young mind! We must save water to save humanity. Any effort to save even single drop is priceless!
As I kept the phone down, I recollected a very impressive video featuring a small girl professing “#Cutting Pani”
If you do not wish to learn lessons about water scarcity in a hard way, please checkout following links, by LivPure that will show you to the ways to save water.
5 ways in which the leftover water from your glass can be used
How to make use of water saved by #CuttingPani
Ways to educate the children at home to save water
Its not a sponsored post. I was looking forward to highlight the scarcity of water and hardship there off, faced by Yavatmal natives. Thanks to the contest by LivPure and Indiblogger, that I got the opportunity to bring it to the notice through this post. All that we can do is learn from it. Time to wake up and act! I have signed the petition, “Save water by adopting #Cutting Pani“. Care enough to sign the same? Please do…
Picture courtesy Pixabay
*Aai means Mother in Marathi
13 Comments
Rajlakshmi · March 26, 2018 at 5:41 am
She learnt a wonderful lesson about saving water. But it’s sad how bad the situation is. The underground reserves and Rivers are running dry … And as you said it’s just the beginning of spring. Hopefully the rain gods will me merciful this year. Excellent post on conservation of water.
sukrisblog · March 26, 2018 at 6:44 am
Very touching post. People living in urban areas don’t realise the value of water. We just buy tankers on call and almost always waste more than use. There should be some solution for the scarcity of water in interiorsnof the state.
Deepa · March 26, 2018 at 9:20 am
This is so sad. Agree Anagha, we dont realise the value of something until we dont have it. Its high time we all do something about it and teach our kids too.
Kavita Singh · March 26, 2018 at 10:20 am
The situation will get worse if we don’t pull up our socks now. Small initiative goes long way when it comes to saving the most important thing to stay alive. Thank you for sharing this post 🙂
shrikant madiwale · March 27, 2018 at 7:27 am
I am from Yavatmal and now working in pune l spend my entire childhood in Yavatmal. And situation is even more horrible than the mention by the author. Yavatmalkar now getting a water every after 21 days , and that is only for 1 hour. We all should show our not only concern but also help them in whatever possible ways. Only putting the things on the blog and on social media obviously will not able to solve there problem.
Anagha Yatin · March 27, 2018 at 7:46 am
Dear Shrikant, thanks for visiting my blog. I was born and brought up at Yavatmal and my parents still stay there. Right now, my daughter is vacationing with her grandparents there. I am aware of ground realities as much as you are.
My intention was to bring the plight to the notice of majority. Social media is a strong platform to generate awareness. This is my contribution to the city that I love. It was also my intention send a wake up alarm to all those like u and me, hailing from big cities, to scrutinize our own ways of using water recklessly.
Doing something positive is always better than not doing anything or simply criticizing.
the24x7homemaker · April 17, 2018 at 3:38 pm
Appreciated…very well written Anagha Yatin. Even though I live in a place where there is no much water scarcity, the #cuttingpani was an alarm. Will be more careful in future…thank you for such a wonderful awareness article
BellyBytes · March 28, 2018 at 6:16 am
I’ve experienced water cuts in Mumbai too! We used to get water only in the morning and had to store water in drums . Luckily this wasn’t forever ….
Anagha Yatin · March 28, 2018 at 7:43 am
Yes Sunita, my mother being a Mumbai girl, I remember having heard it from her as well. In my next telecon with her, will scratch her about it…another story, another lesson! Thanks for visiting.
Parul Thakur · March 28, 2018 at 6:27 pm
An important lesson learnt the hard way. But glad she did. My father brought up with a lot of focus on not wasting natural resources. But there are always things we can learn. Sweet post!
Emily Bloomquist · April 8, 2018 at 8:26 am
This lesson will stay with her forever. I am sorry for the situation that caused her to learn it so well. How fantastic that she is learning to reuse grey water by washing hands and brushing teeth near plants.
I do not understand why the person who commented that writing about it does not help. They obviously do not comprehend how important awareness of situations is in helping to address them. The more people who know, the better. Perhaps someone will read this very page and have some fabulous, helpful idea or invention.
A couple of years ago, we had a few years of drought in my area of Ecuador and for quite a while received all water by water tanker trucks. When the rains came and city water began to flow again, it was a great day.
GAYATHRI SHARMA · June 13, 2018 at 5:09 pm
Congrats for winning contest mam
Anagha Yatin · June 13, 2018 at 8:04 pm
Thank you Gayathri!
Thanks for dropping by as well!