“Sitaron se aage jahaan aur bhi hain
Abhi ishq ke imtihan aur bhi hain
Har ek maqam se aage maqam hai tera
Hayat zauq-e-safar ke siwa kuch aur nahin”
Roughly translated…
There is a universe beyond the stars we behold
There are even more tests of our love awaiting us
Your destination is beyond every known destination
The entire joy of life is in the journey itself ! (Not the destination)
When we first moved into our property thirteen years back almost to this day, the daughters (they were barely nine and three then) and we were fascinated by the multitude of fireflies in the forest. We had not yet put in any of outside lights or structures yet – so it used to be a panoply of ephemeral fluorescent dots darting across a impenetrably dark backdrop.
For the sound effect, there used to be the constant drone of crickets all over us. All we would do is just grab a couple of chairs and immerse ourselves in raw nature.
Last evening, I took the dog out for a walk. It was getting dark already. And as I walked up to our gate, we saw a familiar scene from yesteryears again. Of course, the fireflies come every summer. It is just that something called life has rudely interjected my routine. Stood there watching the fireflies and took a short video.
The dog eventually got impatient and insisted on going out of thee property for his walk!
This goes back a few weeks when Sharmila and I had this debate about distilled water. She had bought distilled water to make coffee at home. We get our water from our well and it can sometimes clog up small appliances because of very small debris.
I was arguing the case that we should not be drinking distilled water. Any water we drink needs to have some amount of minerals etc. Which is why all the cities process the water and add certain elements before it is sent out to the house taps. I also have very severe doubts if the water she bought is truly distilled – that would make the water very costly. It is probably super filtered or something.
Yesterday, when picking up water at the Kroger near our hotel, I noticed “Distilled Water” was the only thing left in the shelves (in the big size container I was looking for). What caught my eye was the marketing twist the label had.
It did state that it is produced by steam distillation. I can’t still fathom the costs of all the energy required to boil the water and then cool it back again after capturing the vapors.
But what made me laugh was mentioning that the source was “Deep Wells”. I suspect to give you a sense of pure and cold water?
My question was – How does it matter? You are distilling the water. The source can be from anywhere in this world – the output will be exactly the same. It is DISTILLED water. It will have no other molecule than H2O. You can boil dirt water and distill it and get exactly the same product.
But I guess these are the days of marketing. We have seen Smart Water, Vitamin Water … Why else would we pay exorbitant prices for tap water put in a bottle rather than have it from a tap?
