Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Drinking water from wash basin

Water is fundamental whenever you are out. It is like necessity to make you quench your thirst of even feel confident. I belong to the world where drinking water is virtually difficult.Nepal is second richest country in fresh water.Water is at its natural condition in some areas of Kathmandu and rural Nepal and one can drink water directly from source like dhunge dhara, or common tap. However, in most city areas, the water availability is less and  have to go through series of water filtration and processings to get drinkable water which I believe is a shame on claiming to be wealthy on fresh water resources..

My sister Amreeta trying to drink ambient water from local stone spout in Badikhel, Lalitpur
In core city areas like Balaju and Ghattekulo, I remember waking up at midnight trying to fill up water in tanky or at least in some jars. This is not uncommon for any of city dweller Nepalese. The condition is more or less similar in many of metropolis of many countries. With the concept of efficient use of water with water treatment technologies, the water that comes is different to that comes in kitchen basin. So, it is very important to drink water only from prescribed place either filter or euroguard or boiled water. At least one is not supposed to drink from wash basin anywhere in house.
Crowd for drinking water which has to go through series of filtration( demotix.com)
I had all these in my head before i left for Norway. I have weird yet wonderful experience the second day of my class in University. At second hour of regular class, My water bottle was empty and my thirst was  unbearable.As it was an hourly break for 15 minutes, most of the students were out for being fresh. I turned back of my desk, saw a blonde guy, with tatoo and like a modern hipup guy.I thought myself inferior like as i was poorly dressed, still tired of long travel and had tired eyes. I decided not to talk. Ohh! it was unbearable and there were no students so close to me despite my Nepali friends and some internationals from Asia.

 I came to think, how long will i talk to myself and avoided the companywhich i choosed by choosing to come to foreign country. I choosed to adjust with aliens and I should not be afraid of my reality. So I turned back greeted him, talked for a while thugh it was hard for both of us to undersand each others tone. But, he was soft despite his looks. He was a Norwagean and was in Aquatic Ecology course. After sometine I came  to the point and asked him where I could fill some drining water. He pointed to washing basin at right corner and class and said
 'Well, you can dring water from washing basin',
 And that sounded weird to me. But i could not get angry and i asked for reconfirmetion,
 'Is it? Do you drink from there?
 Some blonde students near him were looking at me in amusement. He confirmed 'ya ya... we drink from there'.
I had no choice. I filled up my bottle and quenched my thirst.

Filling my water bottle from wash basin :D
Since then I have been drinking from any wash basin I see in University. It might sound weird but also from washroom. And so does everyone.

2 comments:

  1. Hmm nice one. Did you make friends with that guy? The more you interact, the more chances there are for making friends :D
    I want to read about sampling macroinvertebrates too! :)

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  2. This reminds me of my experience. I bought half a liter of water for NRs. 450 as soon as I got here, and it was the first thing I bought here, and I thought to myself, this is freaking expensive. Later I found out that you can drink water from any taps and sinks, what a waste of money, eh?
    Also, I agree with Anandeeta about the whole socializing thing. :D

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