There is a phrase in Hindi “Aag lagne pe Kuaan Khodna”, which literally means one starts digging a well when fire erupts. In a country of 1 .2 billion humans and almost an equal number of animals, drought is a common subject every year, drinking water problem is a perennial problem and shouting for drought relief package is a general practice of different governments/politicians across.
It knocks my memory to recall a news headline in a popular newspaper almost a decade ago which showed/displayed picture of a little girl hanging inside a well, holding a rope in one hand and a tumbler in another in a dark and almost dry well, with a headline “ Look who is down….. it’s not the Sensex”.
At least 330 million people are affected by drought in India, the government has told the Supreme Court. Imagine, in a country which claims to be the biggest democracy in the world, the apex court has to intervene to provide a glass of water for your thirsty throat.
“Paani wali rail gaadi”, thanks to this government, particularly Mr. Suresh Prabhu,our railway minister who tried to serve the humankind, but this train is also derailed and caught into a quagmire of politics where politics prevails over humanity and parched throats. Where a photojournalist trying to click a photo has self become a “photograph with garlands”.
Thanks to nature Latur which is more popular for droughts than anything else tasted early showers last week – some relief for the boiling pot without water.
Weather predictors (who most of the time fail to mark their presence with accuracy) say, this number is likely to rise further.
The drought is taking place as a heat wave extends across much of India with temperatures crossing 45 degrees Centigrade for days now.
“Cheers”, great thinkers of this nation, social activists, politicians, administrators, industrialists and environmentalists are also bothered about their thirsty throats and that is why they are discussing this grave problem having bottles and glasses of aerated water and whiskeys on their tables and few amongst us must be trying to get asylum in places like Kashmir, Himachal, Uttarakhand… Switzerland.
Have a nice summer vacation; see you next year with another same kind of a story on the same issue.
