Before I tell you what I am really setting out to write about, let
me remind you: I don’t endorse the use of bottles and disposable cups for
storing, transporting, or even for drinking from. It is one of the losing
battles I waged against myself after resolving to abstain from using non-biodegradable
disposables.It is one of my only failures. All I have managed to do so far is to
minimize their usage. It is certainly better than nothing, and a step in the
right direction.
Photo Credit: Dr. Ajmal
Around 71% of Earth’s surface is covered in water. That doesn’t
mean you will never go thirsty regardless of where you go. Forget about the 97%
which is saline; the remaining 3% fresh water is mostly not in potable form as 68% of it is stored in
icecaps and glaciers. I wonder how Samuel Coleridge Taylor knew all these
statistics as early as the Romantic period when he lamented in The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner:
“Water, water, everywhere, / Nor any drop to drink”.
It is said that 57-60% percent of our body mass itself is water. It
is even greater in kids and slim beauties. We need water for everything. We
can’t survive without water for more than three days, whereas we could stay
alive for about three weeks without food. Obviously this rule has exceptions,
but it would apply to most people as it is based on scientific consensus. It also
makes sense intuitively. We have read stories of people who died simply because
of dehydration … even in the middle of the ocean, which holds 96.5% of all Earth’s
water. The same fate befell those unfortunate enough to be stranded on small
islands after being shipwrecked or airdropped.
We’ve been told that some plants can absorb vapor - the gaseous
form of water - from the air to keep them hydrated. After carbon, water is the
only substance I know that is found in all three states of matter: solids,
liquids and gases. This is truly amazing; I wonder if water could transform
itself into a plasma state as well. However, evolution hasn’t equipped us to switch
to that plant mode even in a case of emergency.
I am equally fascinated by the phenomenon of rain as the very
object it showers on us. We are living on a planet where a good number of people
are experiencing perpetual hunger, simply because of a lack of rain.
Sacred water, thou are truly - as the wise men of yore put it - the
elixir of life, though nobody I know of has ever built a temple in your honor.
Photo Credit: Dr. Ajmal