DEW DROPS ON PARCHED LIPS!
Hyderabad is the darling of so many souls. The city has a unique rugged and rocky terrain. Of course every city has some attraction but in this city, attractions galore! It is full of hills and rocks and the climate of Hyderabad is so salubrious that it may be one of the reasons for it being the darling of so many souls. It is one of the safest cities on the earth. There are so many calamities and disasters on the globe but these do not touch Hyderabad. Only one thing which pesters Hyderabad is paucity of the water. The region has been experiencing one of the severe droughts so far. Hyderabadis are forced to indent water tankers even during this rainy period. Recently the water level has fallen to such an abysmal level in the city that one English national paper wrote an article about vanishing cities and cultures due to dearth of water and frightened the people that this city also may meet the same fate, which is totally fallacious.
I start my daily morning walk, usually at 5 to 5.15 a.m on all days without fail. I am a firm a believer that age is only a number and one can be fit and agile at any age till death. All able longevity is possible only through strong and active living. Sadly we have forgotten the art of living and dying for filthy lucre. Today, when I started, the sky was cloudy but no rain. Rain season starts here in june and by this time we normally have lot of water. I go to the nearby play ground by walk, which is about 1.5 k.m. from my house. Today while walking, I noticed that a new apartment is being built on the way and a bore is being drilled. Rock dust was billowing from the bore work. The bore is drilled above 1000 feet depth, but only rock dust is billowing without any trace of water. One thing which is abundant in Hyderabad is rock! Which is plenty upto kilometers of depth under the soil also plenty above the ground. Hyderabad is being bored relentlessly, for water, may be the government should intervene and regulate.
When I was about to reach the ground, it started to drizzle. I enjoy getting drenched in rain, but not experienced that pleasure so far in this rainy season. So I continued with my walk. Slowly the drizzle started increasing and started raining, many of the players and athletes started moving under the 2-3 structures that are available in the ground to shelter from the rain. I walk along the periphery of the ground, which runs above a kilometer. I walk about 10 to 11 rounds a day. I continued with my walk. Dogs enjoy life and procreate during the rainy season. Now the ground was empty due to rain, normally on Sundays more than a thousand people play and walk but a group of dogs were running across and around the empty ground in the rain. One female dog which is young and healthy is running and 5 males were following it, but were no match to it. Who said, female specie is weak. Here 5 males were chasing one female, but were no match to it! May be this is the way the female specie wants to ensure the survival of the fittest! Surely females know as to how and when to use their arrows! Left to themselves, the females know well as to how to choose their mates well. Our social customs and mores have totally restricted the females of their choice of choosing their best mates. ‘Log kya kahenge’, has done more damage to our society than anything else. Similarly the ‘black water’ concept of the medieval ages has done more damage to India than anything else. In India we have lot of sick fellows advising free health tips to other healthy fellows. These things killed our initiative totally. May be we should ponder and change. God has endowed the female specie with more patience and pain bearing capacity, they may not be muacular but they are more tenacious.
Hyderabad Metro line runs by the side of this ground. Trial runs are going on from Uppal to Mettuguda. Today they are doing more trials than other days, may be they also love the rain! Thanks to L&T, though Hyderabad metro work started very late than many other cities their execution is very fast. One gliche in their planning, is forcing them with trial runs for months without revenue.
Rain started to increase, the dry ground changed color and started looking wet. The dry earthen sponge could not absorb any more water and started oozing in down areas but the up areas still bore dry look. I was totally drenched and continued with my walk. About hundreds of small pits were dug up in and around the ground along the borders, waste areas and margins to plant trees about more than a month and half back as part of the ‘Harithaharam’’ program. No plants could be planted for want of rain but now they must do this work immediately. Few days back, Times of India’s article about this program commented as follow : ‘thanks to the prolonged dryspell , about 40 to 50% of the plants wilted’ How foolish to thank the dry spell and spit venom on the new born state. It does not behove a national paper to write like that. Now the rain became downpour and the whole ground became a water pool.
I completed my rounds and returned. While returning I had to wade through the water streams and pools in down areas. One hour of drizzle and half an hour of rain really proved to be the ‘Drew drops on the parched lips’ of Hyderabad!!
