Drops of life

“It is life, I think, to watch the water. A man can learn so many things.”
― Nicholas Sparks

There's no water. The overhead tanks were being repaired. By the end of the day even the lone bucketful was depleted and only a couple of jugs could be filled. The jugs became a symbol of all that a daily routine, and life, represents. I became suddenly aware of even drops being wasted.

Strangely, I also became conscious of sweat. In this humidity there can be embarrassing perspiration. However, I'd let the beads of sweat remain on skin; it's as though they were replacing water.

Bath was a towel dipped in water to clean up, followed by lots of wet wipes. If you can't have bread...; the awareness of being elite comes soft-footed. It comes as bottled water and as images that make you cringe, even if momentarily, about the many who walk miles to get just one bucket, about those who have to pull and tug into wells, who have to wait before water taps in a queue, who collect water near rivers where flotsam coats the liquid, who bathe in any collected pool of muddy water, who sometimes die because their thirst was unquenched.

These are images for us. For them, it is life.

Under watcher

If anyone of you has had the pleasure of diving, then will you please tell me how important is it for you to look at the time?

This watch by Rolex is one big fat catch, but why market it as a ‘diver’s watch’? I don’t know the habits of watch buyers and mine don’t fit in this scheme, yet I don’t think you would be impressed by something that reassures you that you are on time. Is it that you have an appointment to keep with a very special fish or have you been informed that the sharks will appear at such and such hour and you had better get to the shallows?

300 metres under water you would be looking at the sea bed, marveling at what nature has to offer, not looking at the time. I also don’t think any sensible person would want to go for a casual few laps in the pool with a watch on. Imagine skinny dipping with a timepiece…you can at least say you had something on.

So, anyone who wants to sell me anything water-resistant, think again. I only have my sweat and tears. And all the time for them.

Is this funny?

I probably have no sense of humour, but I do not find this ad funny at all. You place a bushman who starts digging the ground, finds something, beats on it, holds it above his wide-open mouth, squeezes it and a drop finally appears. The other bushman shouts out, “What are you doing?” His attention is diverted and the drop falls on the ground. They chase each other around a thatched hut while the voice-over asks, “Thirsty?” A bottle falls and then there is the chant of “lemon, lemon, lemon”.

Just what the hell are they trying to convey by using people who are poor, considered backward, living in isolation? Is this their target market? No. Why are bushmen used at all? There was a film ‘The Gods Must Be Crazy’ but it was supremely satirical about consumerist habits, especially that Coca Cola can falling for the sky. And it was not selling anything.

Parle, the manufacturers of LMN the drink, would have been equally culpable had they used Indian villagers or farmers on parched land. It is insensitive and serves no purpose. How can anyone who likes bottled drinks and lives in relative comfort be motivated? I am not.

If this is considered entertaining and humorous then I seriously don’t think I have a funny bone.

Please tell me if you do and why. Also, would you be motivated to buy this drink after seeing this particular ad? I am not judging anyone; I seriously would like to know if something is wrong with me.