Water

Water...a precious creation of the Divine and a precious gift to the universe. Our globe contains water in the majority of its parts. Our country India consists of water at three sides of it. Moreover, the human body consists of 70% of water. While nature has provided its importance, we should definitely respect its presence in terms of its usefulness.

Rima is a little girl of 9-years-old, who uses so much water in her daily activities. She will take bath for a quite long period, she will wash her slippers with a full tub of water after coming from the playground, she will even wash her tiffin box for almost 15-20 minutes. Her mother was tired of telling her multiple times, not to overuse water. At that moment, Rima will agree but later on, she used to follow her own way of using water.

It was the summer holidays. Rima had visited her grandmother's home, who was living a few kilometers away from Rima's place. Initially, Rima's habit of overusing water was not noticed by her grandmother but slowly, slowly, when she started noticing Rima's bad habit, she thought to talk to Rima's mother. She asked Rima's mother that 'why don't you tell her not to use so much water?' Rima's mother described that she has told her several times but that never worked well for a long period. She described this particularly bad habit of Rima regarding the use of water. Her mother also added to Rima's grandmother that 'maybe, Rima is not aware of the importance of water.' Listening to Rima's mother, her grandmother thought to realize the importance of water to Rima.

In next afternoon, Rima saw her grandmother is sitting on the veranda with a sad face. She came near to her grandmother and asked her why she is sad? Her grandmother indicated her finger towards the sky. When Rima looked upwards, there were so many crows and other birds were chirping, flying here and there at a particular space in the sky. It was looking as if they were searching for something. Being clueless and with curiosity, Rima asked her grandmother, 'are they searching for something?' 'Yes,...her grandmother replied.' 'What? Rima again asked.' 'Water.., her grandmother replied.' Rima was again clueless.

At this time, Rima's mother came out from home to the veranda and told her that, every day, your grandmother used to keep a pot of water for these birds. This is summertime and there is already water scarcity going all over the country, so your grandmother helps these birds by providing water. Oh...Rima replied. Then, Rima asked her grandmother, 'why didn't you put water today for these birds?' Replying to Rima's question, her mother said, because...you have used so much of water that there is not water left to fill the pot for these birds. Again, there is no electricity today, so, we cannot switch on our motor to fill the tank. That's why today there is no water left for these birds and these birds are feeling thirsty. Listening to this, Rima also felt sad like her grandmother and said sorry to her grandmother and also to those birds. She suddenly ran inside the home and took out her water bottle that she has filled with water for herself. She again ran into the kitchen, took a bowl and filled that with water from her water bottle. Like this, she filled 3-4 bowls with water and offered them to the thirsty birds flying over them. The birds rushed down to have water. They just finished water within a couple of minutes and filled happily to their home. After this, Rima's grandmother and mother, both blessed her with good wishes for her good work. At the same time, both of them also realized the importance of water in daily life. They taught her about the usefulness and its requirement in terms of amount. They realized the difference between using it and wasting it. Moreover, they also added that, whether it's summer or winter or any other season, you should use it in a proper way with a proper amount so that everyone can avail of its usefulness. 

After listening to her grandmother and mother, Rima could understand her previous mistakes and also promised to follow their words with respect to the proper use of water.