Two Atoms of Hydrogen and One Atom of Oxygen

“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.”
— W.H. Auden
Have you ever imagined life without water? The rivers run dry, the skies turn barren, and life as we know it vanishes. Water, the silent hero of life, has shaped history and sparked revolutions—just as it quenched the thirst of Bhisma Pitamah on his bed of arrows.
Lying on a bed of arrows, one of the greatest characters in Mahabharat – Bhisma Pitamah’s parched lips, cracked by the agony of war, implore the heavens for relief. The only solution for a dry throat is water. Water, despite being lifeless, possesses the power to sustain the lives of millions.
For the skylark, there is water in the Arcturus stars; for Vedic rituals and ceremonies, there is the holy water of the Ganges; and when we are exhausted, those two sips of water are nothing less than nectar.
From the boiling whispers of a kettle that sparked James Watt’s vision of steam engines, to the sunlit glint on sea waves that inspired Sir CV Raman to discover the “Raman Effect” as we know it, water has always been nature’s source of inspiration for many discoveries.
When people living on different islands were not introduced to each other yet, courageous sailors such as Vasco-Da-Gama, Marco-Polo, and Columbus connected us through sea routes. Sea Routes laid the foundation of Global Trade.
Water balances the environment and generates oxygen as well. This is the major reason why water is unique and incomparable to any liquid on Earth. They say that water has memory(and not just in Frozen II). Just as Vasco da Gama’s voyages on water connected the world, a single drop today connects our past, present, and future. Keeping nature’s special gift – clean and safe drinkable water- is our ethical duty and the need of the hour. Today, water carries not just life but our hope for the future. Yet, we have turned this elixir into a crisis. Let us act now, for tomorrow, no sip of water, no rainstorm, no ocean will be left to tell our story. If we fail to act soon, Earth without water will eventually become a planet without life.
As an anonymous person has eloquently penned –
“Water, oh life-giving stream,
A treasure that’s beyond all dreams,
From river to well, tap to bottle,
A journey of change that’s full throttle.”