Do wishing wells exist?

The essential commodity in our lives is Life. We are lucky to live our lives with so much ease and convenience. Yet, not long ago, we were all busy 'hoarding' and 'buying' one of the free available resources that support our Life—no marks for guessing Oxygen Cylinder here. It was not long ago; it was the pun statement in our drawing rooms.

"We are buying water in a bottle now; there will be days when we even buy Oxygen."

I always thought this would stay as a metaphor. I live in the same house as I lived 35 years ago. Then, the shared water well with?Sushant Bharti?was the source of drinking water. Put the roped bucket into the well, and pull it up to fill the earthen pot. The only filter was cotton cloth kept on top of these earthen pots - Ghada as we say it.

With time, not sure if our 'asks' around better quality of Life got better or the water of well deteriorated with time. We had to buy a 'bajaj stainless steel candle filter' to remove 99% bacteria. 3-candle 15 liters filter had a prominent sticker that said "Prevention is better than Cure," and we suddenly felt that our lives had improved.

As kids, we used hand pump/borewell water in our playtime. Drinking-Water from the borewell directly was considered safe to drink. None of our parents ever instructed us to carry our water for play. The water break during playtime was a scene in itself. We all stood in a queue and drank water in turns. Taking water bottles in my middle school days was out of fashion. Instead, we drank from the taps directly from a typical drinking station.

With increased income, we saw a dwindling water table. The deterioration of the water table was so rapid that the all-season well turned into a monsoon well. Once upon a time, we had an "overflowing" well with water during monsoon (yes, literally), transforming itself to only-monsoon-well.

With years of progress and growth, our quality of Life improved but well dried. Eventually, it was just the "Harappan corner" of the house. We all had our "wishing well story." What next?

Once, we spent scarce money to dig the wells, only to pay it later again to fill it back. Now, stands constructed house area on top of filled well.

In short, a clean source of water is dead forever. The story of water isn't the story of my Life, which is officially half of my grandfather's Life and less than half of my grandmother's lifeline. The dried well replaced itself progressively with " supply lines of water" from government agencies and borewells. The supply line worked for three years before it connected to a drainage line somewhere. After that, the water wasn't fit for human use. The borewell worked for a decade before going dry during summer.

We all pursued climate action digging another deeper borewell to support the economic progress. After all, we all need to improve the quality of our lives. With borewell came its challenges - TDS checking, bacteria-free water dispensing investment - aquaguard, zeolite system on the main lines, and water tank maintenance system for keeping water potable. All of this now seems to me deepwater engineering. I won't like to mention those water solutions that exist. This remarkable machine costs you a fortune and gives you alkaline and base water (whatever that means). Not sure if we are humans or Chemistry Lab. All in the name of progress.

We were officially three times more people relying on Well for daily water use than we have today, living in the same Space. Two borewells to support a handful of people and a new High Rise, High Capacity Water Tank nearby.

All in the name of progress... In simple terms, our water consumption per person is significantly more now.

My son thinks that drinking water comes only in Plastic bottles. He attends the same school as I did. For him, it's just difficult to imagine that there was a direct 'safe' drinking water station. The taps from schools have gone for good. When he saw me drinking water from a handpump for the first time in my village, he expressed his genuine concerns about the hygiene. After all, we bootstrapped him to go with conditions and bias of healthy hygienic living as per the changing times.

TL;DR - not sure what happened in the last 35 years precisely at the same Space. Is it progressive Life with better quality of living?

This post is not a story about?FloCard. But a timelapse showcasing my immediate past. It lets us all visualize an assessment of 'speed' with which things have exacerbated.

If you are a millennial or GenZ and are alive reading this lengthy post, inbox me or leave a comment. We need to speak and exchange notes and views.

Thank You.