The Taste(s) of Water
I never realized that water has a particular taste, or, for that matter, that it has any taste at all. Isn't it supposed to merely perform a function? Slake thirst? But as it turns out, I am quite off the mark. Yes, water does have a taste, as experts and wise men will have us believe. Taste picked up from running over rocks, bouncing off precipices, capturing a bit of the blue, red and pink of a tumultuous sky. A bit of the soil maybe, diluted just so and distilled out again, garnished with pebbles, rocks and boulders, each adding their own weight to a story that started out with drop. So, what then is water's story? Or its taste if you like? Is it sweet, tarty, tangy, sharp, hot, or is it a taste so different that it escapes definition. Dahiwadi In Dahiwadi, where my mother comes from, water is drawn from a well. It does not come gushing out of taps and cisterns at fixed hours everyday to the groans of sullen housewives and inquisitive neighbours. Its a long drawn process,...