I found my friend Mahabala

Our street - Devaparthiva Road - was in two parts divided by Vani Vilas Road. Our house was on the southern side of it.  Street boys usually found their play mates on their side of the street where their houses were.  In the bygone 'pre-TV' and sparse traffic decades, most boys and girls were found playing on the footpaths and roads during evenings.  Only an occasional scooter or cyclist passing by interrupted our games.  

Seldom did the southern and northern side children crossed over for play on a regular basis, but there were exceptions. I sometimes used to go near the Peepal Tree [Saced Fig/Ashwatha] at the northern end where many boys gathered to play various games esp. cricket. We played marbles, gulli danda, hide and seek also. Some of the boys went of the same school as me.  But one of them was a [Sarada Vilas] high school classmate [1970-73] in whom I had found a companion for indoor games like chess and carrom.  He was 'Mahabala' which meant 'great strength'.  But we compared his stature with that of Bheema of the Great Epic Mahabharata. Bheema was a great virtue of strength and a gigantic personality. But this Mahabala was a complete misnomer, yet, was a bundle of energy and renown for little daring acts to rattle timid boys like yours truly. I sometimes used to fear him like he was the original Bheema!

Mahabala and I were separated by our future courses of academics.  He lived just 100 metres away, yet we hardly met.  I learnt later that after completing his degree [he was as intelligent as he was adventurous] he had moved to Delhi.  Years passed and we lost touch completely and I had joined work.  Then in 1983 I was to go to Jammu for a cricket tournament. It was a very long train journey and Delhi was on the route. I had planned the schedule so that I could halt at Delhi for 3 days with my relative ML Ravi who was also a classmate in college. Before going, I had collected Mahabala's address from his parents. When I told Ravi about my interest in meeting this little Bheema he gladly agreed to take me which he did.  It was to Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, a renown school of music.  In fact, those were days when even telephones were only used for emergencies and long distance calls were only by Trunk Booking which the younger generation can never think of now! My prior intimation to Ravi was only by 'inland letter'. So he knew my coming there.

After my Jammu tour, I returned to Delhi again.  Ravi took me to Gandharva Mahavidyalaya where Mahabala was learning music and also staying.  But to my bad luck, he had gone out at that time of our visit to the school. Disappointed, we went away on some other local sojourn.

Years passed and somehow, this little Bheema used to pop up in the mind many times.  His parents also had left that house. So I had lost hope of seeing him again. 

Bue one fine day in 2010, when internet had abound, I thought of trying my luck by 'googling' the name of Mahabala in a bid to locate him.  To my greatest joy, I found his site: http://www.kvmahabala.com/index1.html  

I felt like Archimedes and nearly ran out of my chair as I was 'cyberslacking'. I verified from his photo shown in the link [also shown here] that he was the same little fellow.  Using the contact address given there I mailed an intro to him with "Your old Mysore friend - Chamarajapuram" in the subject line so that he does not delete this as spam mail!  I was sure it would hold him.  It had been more than 30 years since we had seen each other! My delight knew no bounds to find his quick reply:

"Dear Dinkar,

I cannot express in words how I felt to see your email in the morning.  I keep my blackberry right next to me with it's power chord on, so that I can see the glowing time on the phone.  As soon as I hear the alarm early in the morning, regular routine is to glance through my emails and to delete all the junk mail.   Today when i browsed my email, I came across your email and did not strike at first.  After reading first few lines, I jumped out of my bed (which otherwise usually takes 10 minutes!) and read over and over again.  Thank you for taking so much effort to track me and bringing my good old Mysore memories.  How can I forget those days of playing with you and your brother.  You were so kind, matured even at that age and spending time at your place was like finding peace and calm in my heart.  You wrote about the Radios in your house and I remember that there was a big radio on the window of your living room.  It was on always.  I remember your mother always eager to feed me food.  I do not know if you remember, we even staged a drama in your house and I was a comedian. The other attraction of your house was that big mango tree..............."

He was to visit Mysore in two months to look up his parents and what a joy it was for both of us.  He visited again a year later and we met again. He remains the same, but the Bheema has been transformed by his music life into a wonderful individual full of maturity and serenity.  He is a devoted Sitarist and has already many concerts behind him.  He intends to do it full time after calling quits with NY City Transit where he is for the last 20 years. 

Music is in his blood but before he gave any clues to me in our play-days, we went our ways for academics. Read the intro in his website and see how much he is into Music.

From the other side of Devaparthiva Road, I had known two sportsmen who were famous. N.P.Raghuveer, a National Tennis No.6 seed of his time, R.Thyagaraj, whose house is canopied by that heritage Peepal tree - he was a state level Basket ball player and now Mahabala, the famous Sitarist, a disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar'sdirect disciple. Then there were Phani, Jeweller Ananda Rao's sons, Shankar, son of the one and only G.Sachidananda, the Hindi lecturer in the Mysore University, Sudhakar and brothers known as 'cricket team family' because they were 11 children, N.D.Srinivas Prasad, et al were all our friends from "that side"!

Thanks to the internet, I found this "Great Strength"! 

End of the Telegram Era

Everything is silent and everyone is sleeping, wee hours in the night, the sound of the gate being opened is heard.  It would be only one man at that odd hour whom people dreaded.  Then in a few seconds his call of "Telegram" and knocking at the door would send shivers.  For, the telegram had become so renown in the bygone days as a harbinger of sad news from a relative in another town far away.

The Posts and Telegraph Dept. was playing a very important role in communication of all kind. Beyond the decades of this mobile phone revolution, the telegram was the only dependable means of conveying especially urgent messages across this vast nation.   The popularity of the telegram was because of its reliability what with dedicated telegraph operators.

Somashekar who is in his early 70s now and heads the Youth Hostels Association of India in Mysore shared his touching story on the radio during an interview a few months ago, how during his service as a telegraph operator he himself delivered a telegram at an odd hour to some family a long way away as he had read the gravity and urgency of the message that had been received from a relative of the addressee.  When the message arrives during the day it is normal, but when they arrive at night the operator will be the only one or two persons on duty on the night shift.  They had to brave the night-time vagaries, risk themselves from thieves and stray dogs to deliver a message. They are armed only with a torch to search the house numbers and they came on bicycles.  There will be many incidents like Somashekhar's which can moisten people's eyes. Their humanitarian concern despite their job pressures needs a warm applause. 

There was my own maternal uncle Shankarnarayan who joined the postal dept. as a postman and retired as a postmaster after a long service.  He was also a trained telegraph operator in the 1970s.  He would sometimes visit us after his work hours when he used to tell us how his wrist pained from the heavy workload of operating the Morse Key, a testimony to the popularity of the telegram service.  Messages were sent in the Morse Code.  Then, messages arriving had to be attentively decoded for delivery and written down before printers came into the scene.  The picture on the left shows the receiver [bigger box] as well.

Wedding halls, many companies and government organizations had a "Telegraphic Address" like postal address.

Sending 'telegram greetings' to the bride or bridegroom on their wedding day in another city when the person could not attend was a wonderful thing.  It was to make them feel important and a show of concern, a friendship bond.  Wedding halls had its unique telegraphic address which would be printed in the invitation cards.  The telegraph address [for sending telegrams saved word count in the full postal address] in short was "Grams". See in the picture to the left how this got a prominent place ["rectangled"] in wedding invitation cards.  In fact, I received 3-4 greeting telegrams from good friends and well wishers at the wedding hall itself, but I could not trace them now in time to include here.

See another invitation I found at home - move your eyes to the bottom left corner "Grams".

~~|  Click on the pictures to enlargify  |~~

This is another morse key [image from the web]. It is to be electrically connected to the transmitter that sends the message to the other end. My uncle used to tell Katta-kadaa-kadaa-katta etc.  Katta=dot, kadaa=dash.   -/./.-.././--./.-./.-/--  Ignore the slash. This is "T-e-l-e-g-r-a-m" in morse code. When sending, there will be a distinct pause between the letters than between the dot or dash in a letter.

Telegraph stamps were used solely for the prepayment of telegraph fees. The customer completed a telegraph form before handing it with payment to the clerk who applied a telegraph stamp and cancelled it to show that payment had been made.  See picture on the left from the Victorian Era.  Later, this was stopped and a receipt issued with an dated ink stamp.  Charges were on word count.

My blogger-friend Abraham Tharakan [click name to see his blog] during a recent exchange mentioned that I write a piece on this subject and sent me this Wikimidea Commons image for me. He is himself a prolific blogger.

During my radio-hobby days, when I had the lucky opportunity to monitor for the BBC around 1987, the Transmission Planning Unit used to send its monitors telegram messages to check frequencies they were surveying on the radio bands.  We needed to tune in to those indicated frequencies and had to report back.  It was fun. And at the same time, we got paid small sums to cover the cable and postage charges for sending our reception reports.  Here are a couple of the telegrams and letters I got from the BBC.

​

Here is another.  Note how the message is pasted.  The message was printed continuously on a strip of paper that unrolled from a spool. Then the operator would cut pieces at suitable places and paste them in lines.

Here is what I had sent in one of my reports. Shown below is the receipt I was issued at the Central Telegraph Office [Sayyaji Rao Road], next to Lansdowne Buildings.  This facility was available in the city only at this place.

One of the letters the BBC wrote to me.  These monitors they choose were of immense help to their technical team.

At other times, we had to use the forms for rating the reception conditions. We were supposed to mail these at regular intervals.  The form code was E65.

Mahatma Gandhi used the telegram service to convey important and urgent messages. Here is one he had sent to a relative of mine connected through my grandfather's brother-in-law.  It was sent from Wardhaganj to Bangalore in 1940.  Date is clearly seen.  The message is handwritten at the telegraph office at Bangalore where it was received and delivered to "Sampige Venkatapathaiya, Advocate, Bangalore". The telegram reads:

"No question misinformation my objection on principle supported by experience Maharaja's prestige will be enhanced by doing right thing.  Gandhi".

Sometime ago, Murthy, my grandfather's nephew had showed me this telegram.  So I went to his house requesting for this and he kindly obliged.  

Sampige Venkatapathaiya featured in a magazine and in our family photograph [cropped out some people from this].  SV - 1884-1963, renown politician and advocate, had connection with Mysore Congress from 1930-33, founder of 'Hindu Mahasabha', first Principal of Sarada Vilas College [where I studied] and many other credits besides being a renown advocate.

Now some snippets.

~o~o~o~

The arrival of a telegram was part of the story in various Kannada movie sequences also.

I used to send home a telegram "Reached safely" when I went on my cricket tours, from the nearest post office.  A telegram would end the anxiety as this was the quickest mode of communication, even in the 1980s.  

The shortest telegram in the English language was from the Irish writer Oscar Wilde. He was living in Paris and he cabled his publisher in Britain to see how his new book was doing. The message read: “?” The publisher cabled back: “!”

Born in Calcutta [now Kolkata] in 1850 during the rule of the British East India Company, the 'Indian Telegram dies from Technology' on 14th July, 2013, aged 163 years. A sad end to a glorious life. It is not pleasing to write obituaries, even if it is a telegram. 

The final Sanskrit Exam!

​I was failed in my Second Year Pre-University Course ['PUC' here, the equivalent of 12th Grade] for not passing in one subject, which was Sanskrit.  The penalty was spending the 'fail term' a la 'jail term' at home for one year. My attempt in the Supplementary exam in September 1976 brought the same result. So I was to take it again in March 1977.  

For one who has always disliked attending school the 'fail term' was a wonderful godsend.  I never felt ashamed at all.  It was the best time when I did so many things relating to my several hobbies.  Believe me, this was my second such beautiful term in 3 years.  I sat out in the First PUC also.  All my classmates had bade me goodbye and marched ahead!  People in the neighbourhood were aware of my 'fail term' which was no secret. 

Sanskrit, which was Latin to me, but a glass of water to others for 'some reason'.  It was the sharpest thorn later in my academic career and the nemesis!  To me all subjects were thorns, for that matter! 

One afternoon in March 1977, the main exams were looming large without my knowledge!  I was lying down on a mat preparing for the post-lunch snooze a habit I had fallen into.  I was feeling wonderful. 

I heard my [late] aunt who was at the gate outside, talking to her friend, who was passing by, inquiring about the PUC exams. "Did Dinu take the Admission Ticket?  The exams are starting tomorrow."  She was shocked and came rushing in to pass this shock to me!  It is still a mystery why I had not inquired anyone before!   So there I was happily lying on the mat, listening to the radio, reading a comic book preparing for a snooze! 

Panic struck. I sprang up from the mat like a monkey, quickly changed the dress, combed my hair in a jiffy and was in college in 3 minutes flat. The college was half a mile away and I went on my bicycle. There was a short queue at the office issuing Admission Tickets. I also re-confirmed on the Notice Board and that the exam was indeed TOMORROW!  It was almost 4 in the afternoon and the exam was just 17 hours away.  This may probably be some record with regard to the very small time-gap for knowing, preparing and attending an important exam.

I raced home in the same urgency as a toilet visit and changed back to my pajamas. Straightaway headed for the bookshelf, blew some imaginary dust from the Sanskrit book and opened it.  The pages creaked!  

I must have sat with the book for the next nine hours which meant reading in to the wee hours, so alien to me! During this time, I had to skip my evening cricket session and also bring in my friend Shankar who lived 200 feet away across the street.  He was one year junior to me in age, but far ahead in intelligence. He was also taking the same exam but he was attending college as a regular.  Shankar spending an hour with me in such a tight crisis to clear my doubts will never be forgotten.  I remember we had a tough story "Prathijna YougandharaayaNa" which Shankar explained to me in simple terms, in areas I could not understand!  That is how brainy he was, like his illustrious forefathers, Sachidananda and Gundavadhani. His presence was such a confidence booster. At other times, he used to come to play scrabble and many games.  But this time, for teaching.  

Not in my life till then and never again did I study at that length and with such attention!  It was as if at 'gun point'. For a person who hardly studied, this was hard study, literally.  The brain fatigued very soon, the gray cells moaned with this never-before-applied load!  "Mother of all languages" was hard on the gray cells!  Even harder was the "Guide" which was in Kannada.  Even though it was the mother tongue, my medium of instruction all through my career was English.  We had the option of answering the Sanskrit paper either in English or Kannada.  I had chosen Kannada.

My grandmother always reminded me not to do "Yuddha kaale Shastraabhyaasa" [practicing the handling of weapons at the time of war, a proverb] but to prepare well in advance.  Now it was the eleventh hour already! 

After a few hours of sleep, I got up early to look at the book one last time.  Another bad performance would tantamount to one more year at home.

It was a tradition at home that before going to the exams we were to do a prayer in the worship room and light two 'ghee lamps' with wicks.  Either my grandmother, mother or aunt would ready it.

So with this 'record study' to back I went to the 3-hour exam hoping it to be the last one, which would also decide the course of my career.  If I say I wrote well, I would be lying.  I have never done such a thing in exams. All 'papers' in my academics were tough to me!!  I came home relieved. Relieved of not having to study for another few months!  For the results, I have always kept the fingers crossed.  It was like lottery!

I was shocked when the results arrived more than a month later.  I had passed!!  But I would like to say 'they passed me' - someone did not want me to spend another 'fail term'.  See the marks they gave me in the picture. Click on it. And also notice the years of passing the subjects.  :)

Whichever way, it was sweet news for everyone!  My two 'fail terms' seemed to have been forgotten, just like the mother forgets the pain when the baby arrives.  Finally, I had crossed the big hurdle and in what circumstances!

What if my aunt's friend had not mentioned about the exam schedule?  I dread to even imagine. 

RWH - for copy - DG article

I like this logo!
 HOW I STARTED

In 2008 I had contributed an article on rainwater harvesting.  Read it here in this link. (Click on it).  There are many pictures showing how I began to do with crude methods using mostly available-at-home materials with little or no investment.  But the purpose was served for the time.  Some basic information about the subject is given and so repeating here would only amount to duplication. So, please visit that link.

 GENERAL INFORMATION

The amount of rooftop rainwater that can be collected during a season can be estimated using this calculator in this link:

http://www.rainfoundation.org/index.php?id=161 

or here:

http://www.friendsoflittlehuntingcreek.org/description/roof.htm

Here is an interesting site. You can view your house rooftop using Google's satellite imagery to calculate the catchment area!

http://www.save-the-rain.com/world-bank/

  Mysore's rainfall is about 80cms. per annum (in about 52 rainy days).  If it falls on a 1000 sq.ft. roof area and the whole lot is collected, it would amount to about 1,88,640 litres of water, which is a lot of water!  It is calculated @1 inch of rain on a 1000 sq.ft. area will have 2358 litres.

 I collect from a rooftop area of about 380 square feet into the sump through filters. Using the above calcuator, I get about 65,000 - 70,000 litres per annum. A rough figure from wastage from 'first flush' deducted. The sump capacity is about 7000 litres.  We will be using municipal water supply usually but during the regular rainy season, I stop the supply and utilize rainwater which keeps topping up the sump. Without watering the garden our daily consumption would roughly be 500 litres [4-5 person's average].  I do not use the hose pipe to water plants, nor do clean the car and vehicles with it.  I also collect directly from other spouts in barrels and use it for gardening. If it is more than sufficient for gardening, I divert it to the main sump by which time, water will be clear of sediments. Since we do not use it for drinking or cooking at present, I have allowed both to collect in the common sump.  If space affords, a separate sump exclusively for rainwater is the best option.  One can also make a partition in the sump.  Bigger the capacity, the better.  

 THIS IS HOW I COLLECTED RAINWATER FROM THE DOWNSPOUTS AT OTHER PLACES

In the yard.. helpful for gardening

 PET bottles can be useful as it has many options like that!

 Simple direct collection on the balcony.

 PET bottle again. It has many options for angles!

 Collection from 3 spouts at a single point. Small balconies above bays.

 In the open yard - they can be used to flush the bath and toilets (requires carrying by hand, but it saves flushing and hence, pumping up from the sump). This part gets a lot of water.  The extra outflow runs out into the yard.

In the open yard again... more collection.  I no longer do this as many changes in the house have taken place and collection has been streamlined.

 THIS IS HOW I SET UP THE EXPERIMENTAL FILTER

My high school classmate and friend Ramesh Kikkeri who is an organic farmer and environmentalist, suggested me to try a full sand filter that works from the bottom.

 It works on this line:

I was not satisfied with this method.  I wanted something better without any hassles.  So it was time to have a rethink after using it for a short period. I met U.N.Ravikumar who along with Ramaswamy was among the first to implement rain water harvesting methods in the city.  I invited him to take a look at the system.  He saw all the other crude methods and suggested me to go for a fixed [pucca] system.  It was enough inspiration.  So, upon his suggestion, I replaced the 'Ramesh filter' with the new one which worked with gravity (inlet from top and outlet from bottom).  I procured the filters from one Gururaj, though I could have made them myself.  He made the first flush and the sand filter for me, including stones, sand, net, sponge and all fittings for the barrel.  He charged a reasonable Rs.1,300/-. See next part.

HOW AND WHAT I HAVE DONE NOW - THE MODIFIED VERSION

Rooftop rainwater that flows down carries many particles.  I found out that in our house and location, the dust particles are way too much, reasons being the closeness to a road with heavy traffic and old gabled roofing.  Such dust is called 'fugitive dust'.  Imagine they waft in the air and settle on first and second floors, yet they slowly settle down when they get into water. The 'Gururaj set' with one 'first flush' was insufficient to cope with and it quickly clogged the main sand filter.

 

Look at that!  It's too much.  You can't see the blue sponge, now clogged up with particles!  Picture taken during a heavy downpour.
 The first flush is like this, inside:

There is a plastic ball inside the holed pipe. It blocks when the barrel fills to that level and all the water that flows thereafter will flow into the main filter.   This barrel will hold up heavier particles.  Flushing this often esp. during a rain will help keep water cleaner.
 This is the 'improved' set of filters.  The first flush tank is seen at the back. It collects the first flow.  This picture was taken in unused condition when I set it up. The main sand filter is topped by sponge layer 1" thick.

 Later, I added one more filter using a sponge to reduce the load on the main filter. When it is raining, I wash this sponge often esp. in the first few minutes so that dirt does not escape to the main filter and quickly clog the sponge layer there.

 It is collected in a small bucket.  I have made a 3" diameter hole in its bottom. I keep it on a collection basin which I have made too.  You can observe how I have cut the hole in steel and fitted a pipe to it. This is similar to the one to which the conical mesh is fitted at the first stage.

 The picture below was taken when it actually rained and water is flowing through the down spout, conical mesh, first flush, first sponge bucket filter and then into the main sand filter.

This system was insufficient to keep out the fine dust particles and even some chips of cement paint (old house with lime plaster) that collects on the crevices of roof tiles and other corners and they flow down with heavy rain.  They seem to mix up almost continuously for a longer period.  The main sand filter clogged too quickly which resulted in overflow and wastage of rain water before filtering.  So what did I do?
I added a 'second flush' in between the first flush and the main filter so that clogging of the sand filter is further reduced, also its maintenance.  I bought a recycled barrel (30L, food grade) and removed its lid to use my own. See it in the picture below. Luckily, it was a barrel that previously contained enzymes for agriculture and narrowish, suitable for my purpose. The higher it is, the better the chances of the heavier particles of dust staying down!  The inflow to this fills up from the bottom through a pipe with holes in the bottom. This is to reduce splashing which would disturb the particles and aid in its escape from the top.

 

This is how the new filtration set is: 

See below, how the conical mesh filter at the initial stage works in holding back bigger particles which can be leaves, little twigs etc. In our case, there can be a lot of caterpillar poop (like tiny mustard seeds).  Those hairy caterpillars abound the city in the rainy months, more in old houses with gabled roofing.  Some live beyond and their poop come down with the first rain many weeks later - as you can see here.  We use the water that gets collected in our main sump only for washing purposes.  For drinking, we collect the 'municipal supply' directly in the mornings.

This has to be removed manually.
 This is what I made for the 'lid'. This barrel would fill from the bottom and 'overflow' into the sand filter, leaving behind more heavier particles at the bottom. The force will make some finer particles to escape and we cannot stop it.  An old plastic bucket bottom was cut up to fix the pipe as here.  After one rain, I saw that it worked nicely as you can see particles stopped here before entering the barrel.  

  

 This is how the second filter gets its inflow. Observe the sediments trapped.  Picture taken during a heavy rain. I have aligned it in such a way that water first falls into the bucket area and then overflows into the central pipe and also through the holes, into the barrel. The brim of the cut up bucket is higher than that of the central gray (inlet) pipe.

Lots of debris trapped!  Otherwise, it would have gone further to clog the sponge and sand.  Now I can remove it easily from here!

This is how dirty water can be in the second filter.  With continuous rains, it will be progressively cleaner. You can see the pipe that allows overflow diverted into the sponge bucket filter which is actually the inlet for the main sand filter.

 Picture below shows the valve to flush out dirty water from the bottom (cleaning purposes).

 THE MAIN SAND FILTER

Let me now show how the main sand filter is made.  It is a 100L barrel, sufficient for the volume of inflow for my location. Bigger the catchment area, bigger the filter volume.  Inflow pipe on top right and filtered outflow pipe with holes at the bottom.  90mm pipes are fine for my location. 

 

 The bottom is filled with stones up to the level of the holed pipe, which is about 6 inches from the bottom. This is to hold down the finest particles that may have escaped the sand. 

 

 Fine Nylon mesh is used to hold sand. See the fingers for comparison of mesh size.

 The clean coarse sand 'bundle' is kept on the stones. 

 We can tie the corners of the nylon mesh for easy removal.  The second bag will be placed on top of it and then comes the sponge. 

 In the meantime, I also learnt that dividing the sand into two parts will help easier removal for cleaning as it would also be lighter to lift up. So I put one half in another separate mesh bundle. The sponge on top will hold up the escaped particles and when they further escape, the first bundle catches them.  So it will be the first bundle that would require cleaning up more often. 

 HOW THE SAND IS CLEANED WHEN IT GETS CLOGGED UP

In this picture I have removed this sand bundle out for cleaning. You can see the dark colour which is nothing but fine dust which prevents good filtering and causes clogging.  The gaps between sand particles are extremely tiny.

 

  

This is clean, coarse sand. See the difference in colour.

 Since this sand is coarse, we can clean it easily by rinsing it in a bucket of water a few times. On the right bucket (pictured below) you see it darker. It is the first step of cleaning.  Running the fingers or some implement to stir the sand while in water, will remove the very fine dirt (which is actually fugitive dust).  Pour the 'dirty water' out (may be into some plant bed).  The left bucket is cleaner sand as it is waiting for one more rinse. This should be done till stirring brings out no further floating particles and this sand can be put back into the nylon mesh.

 

 This is cleaned sand ready to be put back into the mesh. You can observe the colour difference with the above picture.

 The filter is asking for cleaning when we observe an overflow from the top even during a moderate rain and by observing a thin outflow into the sump.  It means the sand filter has clogged.  This operation could be necessary about twice a year or more depending on the amount of dust in that area.  Cleaner surroundings may require less cleaning. 

 We get crystal clear water.  If rooftops are clean and well maintained, the water is potable. Many who are practicing it vouch that they use rainwater for drinking also (tastes wonderfully - water is 'tasteless'?) which is supposed to have cured some ailments too, besides rainwater-cooked food being tastier and vessels remain free from scaling. I visited two households that collect rainwater. One sump is exclusively for this - they planned it at the time of construction.  They are never short of water in any situation.

Rainwater is the purest water which we are letting go by.  Catch it.  It is free.  By catching, you will be reducing your use of water from natural resources. In some states of the USA, there are laws to prevent such collection!!

 One thing that is yet to be done by me is preventing runoff.  

That was an old picture before I laid out my garden.  

 Runoffs could be diverted into wells or pits - not into drains!  But in our case, we have to divert at present into the open drains - to flush out man made garbage - in the absence of regular cleaning.  There is a worse picture which I will not show here!

~~~~~~

 During childhood I used to play in the rainwater that flowed near road kerbs and floated paper boats in the fast stream that eventually flowed into storm water drains.  Many times when it rained after my school, I used to walk home making the feet with shoes and socks wet in such roadside streams soon after the heavy rains.  It was such fun, but did not realize that it was awful to wear the shoes the next day!  As I grew up, I began to wonder how much water went down the drains. 

 It is time the citizens realized the value of water.  It is a horrible sight for me to watch the servant of a rich family (there are many who do this without a care) close to our house use a huge hose pipe every morning to clean the owner's two cars and the pavement next to their compound!  Water floods the road! 

 ~~~

Harvesting and conserving water is every individual's duty.

Every drop of rainwater is precious - save it.

It might be the very drop that will quench your thirst one day.

~~~

Collection of rooftop rainwater is easy and not expensive! Let's do it - when we can wherever we can!

 

REUSE-RECYCLE-REPURPOSE OoOoOoOoOoO REUSE-RECYCLE-REPURPOSE

PRESERVE/SAVE ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES.