It's World Water Day

More than 1 billion people on the planet don't have access to clean drinking water.

• 884 million people, lack access to safe water supplies, approximately one in eight people.
• Each year, 3.575 million people die from water-related disease.
• 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation, including 1.2 billion people who have no facilities at all.
• Every 15 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease.
• Millions of women and children spend several hours a day collecting water from distant, often polluted sources.
• At any given time, half of the world's hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from a water-related disease.

Water Crisis in India

India’s huge and growing population is putting a severe strain on all of the country’s natural resources. Most water sources are contaminated by sewage and agricultural runoff. India has made progress in the supply of safe water to its people, but gross disparity in coverage exists across the country. Although access to drinking water has improved, the World Bank estimates that 21% of communicable diseases in India are related to unsafe water. In India, diarrhea alone causes more than 1,600 deaths daily—the same as if eight 200-person jumbo-jets crashed to the ground each day. Hygiene practices also continue to be a problem in India. Latrine usage is extremely poor in rural areas of the country; only 14% of the rural population has access to a latrine. Hand washing is also very low, increasing the spread of disease. In order to decrease the amount of disease spread through drinking-water, latrine usage and hygiene must be improved simultaneously.

Source - http://www.water.org/

I find these facts so hard to digest. And I guess that in itself should make me feel grateful about the kind of life I and the people around me life.

I am grateful for the 24x7 water supply I get.


For more facts visit - http://water.org/waterpartners.aspx?pgID=916

Happy Holi...

The holi highlight of the year was most definitely Khushboo saying 'Deepaliiiiiii pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee you don't need to say it. Everyone would figure that you don't play holi'.
Lol you all know me too well.

I hate the smell of the colours and I fall ill if I am wet for too long. So I totally avoid Holi. I don't miss it though. So it's all good.

This year though we didn't play 'catch' with water balloons :( maybe later in the day. Use to be hilarious when we would - everyone is so scared, not of dropping the balloon but rather of seeing that the balloon is far away from their body and that they catch it softly.

Anyway here's wishing everyone a colourful day :)

PS - I know the abridged version of why we play holi (which is so good cause I am not into mythology and cause lots of people around don't know why the festival is played).

A Holi Dream

Well I don't remember my dreams usually but many years ago on Holi I saw the most vivid dream and one that I actually remembered. Now though some details of it has been forgotten but I still hold it dearly cause I actually remembered it. Please note that this was way before the Tsunami and the 26/7 flooding in Mumbai. It was on Holi and that's why I call it a Holi Dream

Anyway it's was obviously caused because the children in the next building were making a lot of noise while playing on their building terrace. I realised because the first thing I did is actually go to the balcony window and look out lol.

So none of this will make sense unless I give a few details of my balcony view. I don't live next to the sea but because we are on a small hill sort of thing, and by living on the top floor we get a view of the sea from our balcony windows (West). Because of top floor advantage we don't have a building right outside our window but there are a few taller building slightly out. Hate them cause they actually do block some of the view. The buildings right next to out are one and three floors below ours.

So anyway my dream starts with a storm (ya I was so loving it) but the funny thing is we were actually sleeping through it. All we did was close all the windows. The rain was first lashing at the windows. It kept pouring all night and the sea level started rising. All the fishermen got back to shore and swore that the tide would come in and we would all be wasted away so they started building an embankment to keep the sea out. Obviously it didn't work as the water kept rising and started over flowing. The good folk then just ran cause obviously being on the coast wasn't the wisest thing. Anyway the water level keep rising and with it come big waves. The waves are so big that they start hitting our windows. Obviously the area is getting flooded but the water isn't high enough to affect us.
So I wake up in the morning (in my dream) because I hear lots of voices and I look out and look straight down at the building where all he noise is coming from (slightly to the left). There are people on the terrace walking around with their pants rolled up, filling buckets of water and throwing the water off the side of the building. My eyes then move down to the streets where there is about 3 - 4 feet of water (all dirty brown water) just collected and not going anywhere.

So I'm standing there thinking 'wow some storm' and move my gaze up to see the sea. And what do I see - one (or maybe two) of the tall buildings is GONE and in it's place is standing this huge ship. I even remember it was blue, grey and white and had Damania written on it. I think I had seen the picture of that ship in the newspaper a few days before the dream. And I am thinking there is no way this is happening. And if feels so real because I woke up right.

Haha so anyway I ACTUALLY wake up and run out to the balcony and look out and it's a normal day and the kids on the neighbouring terrace are having fun with their 'pichkaris', water balloons and colours.

What a dream. Not because it was so crazy but because it was so vivid.