Water Wise

I cannot say that I entirely subscribe to the sentiments in the nursery rhyme, 'Rain, Rain Go Away'. There is a part of us that actually loves getting drenched. On a hot summer day, you can see children running through lawns squealing in delight as they get sprayed by the sprinklers. Others wade into public fountains. People throng the beaches. As children, I am sure many of us have enjoyed getting soaked by a cooling rain even braving the scolding from parents that followed. Hollywood paid tribute to the rain with Singin' in the Rain. You cannot even imagine Bollywood without the customary rain song and dance sequence.

Many cultures celebrate the arrival of rains after a hot summer. The arrival of the monsoon is greeted with song and dance. Poets have waxed eloquent about it. It is no wonder then that we too are moved to sing in the shower in the privacy of the bathroom. There is something very thrilling about standing under this simulated rain. Every day, in the midst of the morning rush to get ready for work, I do savour the shower. I guess it brings out the child in me. I often stop to thank the person who invented the little device. From the simple spray to one with many settings - from gentle to massage - the shower is truly refreshing.

I must confess to feeling a tinge of guilt every now and then when enjoying the shower. After all there are so many in the world who do not have access to running water or even a reliable source of it. Having lived through trying times of water shortage myself, I am very mindful of how I use water. The law here in California actually requires us to install pressure reducing regulators in the shower heads to conserve water. Many commercial establishments use auto-sensing faucets in the bathrooms to reduce consumption of water. Others, perhaps not willing to spend that kind of money, resort to spring-operated taps which force you to press down on the valve. I do not particularly like these as your hands may be dirty. Sometimes, the faucet is so tight that the water comes out only for a second or two before the spring recoils. Or it is very loose and the water keeps running even after you are done leaving you worried that it is never going to shut off. Or it splashes all over and causes a mess so that  if you are not careful, you will come out of the bathroom looking like you have had an accident, if you know what I mean.

Getting back to the shower, I did not always have access to one for the morning bath. In fact, running water was a luxury when I was growing up. Water would be available from a municipal water line for a limited number of hours a day and would have to be stored. Which meant that you had to use a bucket of water with a mug to bathe yourself. Not much to write home about much less to blog about. But fortunately many of the houses we lived in had wells. They actually offered an exciting way to bathe more than making up for the lack of a shower. Drawing buckets of water and then emptying them over the head is uniquely thrilling. It is sort of like the ice bucket challenge, but much safer and more enjoyable. The well water tended to be a tad warmer than stored water which always felt cold and not so pleasant. As Ogden Nash put it,

"I test my bath before I sit, 

And I'm always moved to wonderment 

That what chills the finger not a bit 

Is so frigid upon the fundament."

Visiting my hometown or village offered the opportunity for taking dips in the river which offered a different dimension to the experience. A bath in the river is a whole lot of fun. In a river, there is a lot of water around you and usually plenty of company from people and sometimes even animals (as long as the animals were downstream, you will not notice their presence!). There may also be fish nibbling at your feet. And you have to watch out for the flotsam and jetsam too. So, I can declare that wading into the river and immersing my body entirely in the flowing water made me feel close to nature. I wonder if the river would feel the same now when I am so used to the creature comforts that modern plumbing offers. I am probably more likely to notice the quality of the water, the pollution, etc,.

Kutralam Falls

Talking of nature, the waterfall is absolutely the ultimate shower. It is a combination of the shower and the bath at the well described above only many times amplified. I recall the thundering column of water that beat down upon my back at the famous Kutralam Falls which I visited many years ago. The water here comes down from a great height but the flow is slowed down by a crater midway making it safe for bathing. You would still be well advised to hold on to the railing when standing under the falls as you are being jostled by the milling crowd but the roaring water is guaranteed to render you oblivious to everything. Other thrills here include keeping your personal belongings safe from the many monkeys around.

Our scriptures prescribe the bath (snanam in sanskrit) as an essential daily ritual in itself. And no other ritual is possible without a bath first. Ritual or not, bathing in water that is flowing or pouring over your head (I don't care much for soaking in the bathtub) not only cleanses the body but invigorates the mind too. So I hope you enjoy every moment of this ritual as much as I do even if you are hurried in the morning. But let us be water wise and help conserve it too.

Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Courtallam.jpg/320px-Courtallam.jpg