Mansi - 2
It's a hot day. April is drifting away swiftly. Over this region of central India, Sun shines vertically at least once a day. The temperature soars to more than forty degrees Celsius is common. Mansi is at her home. Just this moment, she feels tired and relaxing over the porch. The home is covered with tarpaulin, supported by wooden pillars, stiffened & stuffed with mud and coated with cow dung and lime. It is illegally situated at the edge of a pond near the far end of the town.
For the hundred-odd people who live here forming a ghetto, this pond is at the center of their daily activities. From defecations around its other un-inhabited edges to washing clothes over its ghat, to bathing, and also plucking the lotus flower that grows in it for selling in the market, it's of criticality to them. The water remains stagnant, only replenished with rainwater.
The pond is also being used by the ritualists of the city who live nearby. They would use it for religious acts like the immersion of God's statues after the festivals, daily throwing of used flowers, performing rites of the departed, etc. All this immersion fill the pond with various nutrients causing the population explosion of algae and other organisms which feed on it. Post their death and decomposition it uses the oxygen from the water and at last depleting it down to narrow margins. This makes the pond a dead zone. Fish would die. Flowers wouldn't grow. Water would emit the smell of ammonia and sulphur gases. It's also harmful to humans, like Mansi to inhale. She doesn't know why sometimes she feels irritated sitting by the pond...
The roads are dusty. During the day there are local heat waves that flow in the region. The pond provides a cooling sense from the heat not just to the slum region but the city as well. It has the tendency of balancing the heat. The over concretization of the city, soil erosion due to the deforestation for building homes and making roads has blocked several acres of pores and conduits for the surface water finding a way to the ground aquifers. This made the summer water scarcity problem further grave. There is a higher frequency of the demand for water tankers for the people. The water problem seems to deepen even before the summer starts.
Mansi uses the hand pump near the house. But in summer, it also nearly dry up. Water forming a key element in the dailies, take a big share of time off her day.
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