The thirst-quenchers

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20090608/edit.htm#5

The thirst-quenchers
by Jupinderjit Singh

Journalism takes one to places. And which place is better than diverse India? Travel a few kilometres in any direction and one discovers how different we are. Our language changes, our dress, food habits differ. Our gods and ways of worshipping them also changes.

Different communities often clash with each other. They kill, loot and plunder. We fight over anything — religion, caste, land, relations, right of way, marriages, love affairs, dowry, garbage and water.

But despite all gloom and bloodshed and hatred and regional divide, the spirit of true India lives on. The spirit that knows only how to help and serve and to give food and water to the hungry and thirsty is omnipresent — be it the cruel Thar desert in Rajasthan or the chilly and blood-mixed peaks of the militancy-ravished Jammu and Kashmir or the now green and now gold fields of Punjab.

The finest example is of the “piyaoos” seen in the country.

The Piyaoo is usually situated inside one’s premises or just outside along the wall. It usually has a tap hanging outside for poor persons, who live off the road, carting rickshaws, rehris or carrying loads over their heads.

In Rajasthan, the Piyaoo is in form of urns or big mud pots. All are placed on a small and often worn-out table inside a thatched hut, which keeps the water cool. There is hardly any road on which you won’t find such free water supplying units.

Supplying water free at a place where each drop of water is costly is definitely some service. It becomes more important in the backdrop of reports about people killing others for right to drinking and irrigation water in the state. More so when many wells are still out of bounds for lower castes in the state.

Cut to Jammu and you see taps attached to large water containers or water coolers, peeping through a hole in the walls or craned over it to offer free water. There are also cemented enclosures outside homes for animals to quench their thirst.

In Punjab and especially in Ludhiana, the old part of the city has earthen pots covered by wet sacks for the same purpose. In the new section of the city, water coolers, locked inside an iron box, and filled with fresh water many times a day provide the free supply.

Indian spirit permeates each region. One remembers the tale of Bhai Kanhayiaji, who despite being part of the Sikh Army served water to the wounded enemy — the Mughal soldiers. Indians may be fighting, clashing, rioting over trivial issues but the soul that offers water — the elixir of life — is the same everywhere. Only the form varies. Salute to diverse yet same-spirit India. May there be no one thirsty on this land. Amen.