Field Notes:
Delhi, India – 2001
(dedicated to my buddy, Rajiv Gupta)
WATER
As gift and greeting
to my Western sensibility
not rare or precious
just – water
to my hosts
as central to their lives
as if they lived
on the planet Dune
to my Western sensibility
we were on
the planet Dune
this was Delhi – 2001
ninety degrees F.
humidity off the charts
air relatively clear
not yet the gas chamber
it would become.
Rajiv has brought me
to meet a real-estate broker
We’re standing on the downward slope
of a lawn that rolls like a green wave
from the broker’s office door
Water
as gift and greeting
delivered by a servant
carried on a silver tray
held in tall and sweating glasses
Rajiv and I are corporate cas(ual)
broker and servant are trad(itional)
in white khurta and pajama sets
a procession of two with the servant leading
with the water -
leading
imagination might summon
elephants and parasols.
The water is offered
and though I’m as hot and humid as Delhi
I hesitate and find myself on the spot
Looks are exchanged
as I run the math of
need health hospitality and custom
a moment of disassociation
phantom cameras whirring
one of those dramatic crane shots
of four players
diminished in size
on a ridiculously green
and well-watered lawn
I accept the gesture
re-enter my body
our tiny world exhales
and business begins.
Tips passed
fees negotiated
addresses exchanged
we return our glasses
to the servants’s silver tray
and shake hands in that gentle Indian way
ritual
test
and business
blest and complete
contract written
in water.
(PS: I came to
learn the preciousness of water.
Delhi is a dune city built on sand and rock. The population in 2001 was about 13 million,
as of this writing it is nearer 28 million.
When the population was a mere 17 million, 46% of
those had no access to piped water.
Water is politically allocated.
Middle and upper class cantonments have greater access to clean water
than the majority of the population.
Even so, scarcity is an issue.
Many of my co-workers were forced to rise at four
a.m.,to wait for water trucks so they could get their families’ daily
allotment.
“If you like the oil wars, you’re going to love the
water wars.” Zack Works
The perennial conflict between India and Pakistan over
Kashmir is less a sectarian or land dispute than a resource dispute. Water is key.
The dispute comes very close to war on a regular basis.
The broker’s tip did lead to a fabulous sub-let in
Gurgoun, a.k.a., electronic city. Rajiv
informed me there was no way we were paying a fee for a meer “tip”)
RW
Guanajuato, Mex.
.
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