when you enter the ashram through gate no.2 at 0630 as part of your morning walk, you could easily be thinking that you have now stepped into another world. lots of trees line the road and the entire area is so green, past the canteen and cheena bhavana and since the buildings are slightly recessed, it could be the entrance to a forest reserve or some such. you hear the sound of water falling and look for some spectacular waterfalls. there seem to be many streams, going by the sound. while your eyes and ears are getting their chains yanked, your mind says ‘wait a minute… waterfalls?… in here?’
the water that’s pouring from some height is from all the visva bharati quarters, hostels and other buildings that are on either side of the road. overhead tanks which are overflowing because none of them have a float cock installed – yes, like the one installed in your cistern in the toilet. as you walk on, you reach hathipukur and there again the tanks on the quarters on your left are doing their thing and then past the girls’ hostel and the building opposite sangit bhavana, in fact almost all of the vb buildings across santiniketan, including quarters opposite ananda patshala and in purbapally, – all of them waste good water, long years in their making, brought up from deep inside the ground and then just being wasted perhaps because we are not bothered..
today our vegetable vendor ram, who is from next-door bhedia in burdwan district, said that the district authorities have asked farmers not to plant their third crop. the third crop is entirely dependent on ground water in west bengal. a sure sign that someone in authority is waking up to the fact of fast depleting water resources due to indiscriminate boring of deep wells. visva bharati university and santiniketan with more intellect per square feet than any other own in west bengal maybe ought to know better. is it possible that we can raise funds for providing overflow stop cocks which may be around ₹ 300 a piece?
