W for Women, W for Water : Respect your Lifelines, EVERYDAY

When was the last time you went without food for a day?

Well, I am on a diet these days, I just did a fast, some of you will say.

But when was the last time you went without water for a day?

Can’t recall, right?

Now let us rewind the cycle of time a few years back.

Can you remember a day when you came home from school and did not find your mother home, waiting for you eagerly?

Fast forward to the present day:

Can you think of a day when you came home late at night from work and did not find your mom or wife waiting for you on the dining table?

None, perhaps... you would wonder.

But wait...

Why are we talking about food, water, mums and wives?

what is the connection?

As simplistic as it may sound, there is a deep connection between water and woman.

Woman and Water- these two W’s constitute the essence that we are made of.

To begin with, both are life-givers - it is impossible to imagine the birth life without the presence of either.

The Earth is covered with 70% water and 30% land.

In a Womb of the mother, surrounded by water, the human life thrives.

No wonder then, every time scientists discover the possibility of water on Mars (or any other planet), they are excited because that signals the possibility of LIFE out there. And the miracle of giving life has been bestowed on the Woman of every species. Ever thought why? I believe because Women, like water, have the fluidity to take on something within them and make it completely their own.

In our science lessons, we would read water takes the form of container in which it is poured. Isn’t that true of our mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters. A woman leaves her home and goes to a new family but adapts to the ways of her new family with ease like salt dissolves in water.

Water has no form or color of its own. Much the same way, there are so many women- ordinary or celebrity wives who have erased their identity, curbed their ambitions, given up their dreams for the sake of their families.

It is only a great pity that we as individuals and as a society have failed to give the importance that is due to both these life forces. Millions of gallons of water are wasted every day, right from the morning when we gush out water in our basins till the end of the day when the half-dipped glass of water after dinner is left to be discarded.

Women seem to be assigned a similar fate- they face the same neglect, they are taken for granted as much as water is. right from the breakfast, they make in the morning, taking care of household chores, of kids, elders, fighting out office politics, warding off those vulgar eyes, answering, challenging, disproving those unspoken questions in everyone’s eyes- what does she do the whole day sitting at home? how did she get the promotion, she must have been too friendly with the boss.

Why is her dress so short? Why is she let down? Why was she out till so late? Why is she smiling at the boys? How could she have a boyfriend before marriage?

Fighting all these whys and how’s from daybreak till the end of the night- trust me this constant pressure to prove yourself as a woman, this constant compulsion to be accountable for everything you think or say or do- it is the same pressure that water in the rivers is subjected to when restrained in dams.

And yet, just as water breaks all dams and gushes forward, sweeping all obstacles blocking its way, so does a woman break the shackles of orthodoxy and surge forward towards her goals.

Water and Women are like oxygen- we do not feel their presence when they are around but their absence can make life hell.

So do not take either for granted- treat both with care. Both are precious.

‍Cheers,

‍Lovneet