Baba often jokes with kids “I am going to take a shower and I will use all the available water. There won’t be any water left for you to shower” or “I just had a shower and I used all the available water. No water for you."(“ನಾ ಸ್ನಾನಕ್ಕ್ ಹೊಂಟೀನಿ. ನೀರು ಖಲಾಸ್ ಮಾಡ್ತೀನಿ. ನಿನಗ್ ನೀರ್ ಇಡಂಗಿಲ್ಲ” or “ನಾ ಸ್ನಾನಾ ಮಾಡಿ ಬಂದೆ. ನಿನಗ್ ನೀರೇ ಉಳಸಿಲ್ಲ”).
In Gulbarga, while growing up, potable water shortage was a constant problem. We were not privileged enough to have 24/7 water in the tap. The city would release water only a couple of days a week and only during specific times in those days. We scheduled our day around the water schedule as it was the/only source of water.
Storing water for later needs was one of our morning routines. The pipes wouldn’t run all the way to the house. On the streets where pipes were laid, we would make a hole in the ground to reach the pipe, and then make a hole in the pipe to fix another flexible pipe. This flexible pipe was used to fill “small”(~16 liters) containers. We all, as a family, carried these containers from the nearby street to our house. The houses had larger containers(100s of liters in capacity) which stored the water. The distance between the street to house varied - in our case it was approximately 100 meters.
Baba’s joke worked in parts because it made kids laugh and in parts because it motivated them to take a shower while we still have stocked water.
We moved out of Gulbarga to larger cities. Most of Baba’s grandchildren are born in the larger cities where water shortage is better managed and they have 24/7 water running all the way to our houses. Our younger generation doesn’t know what carrying a water 100s of meters is or what running out of water is. In addition to that, the bottled water and water tankers carrying tons of water makes life so much more convenient.
Like a dry fruit that has lost its water but not the sweetness, the joke has lost its relevance but still gives me a chuckle.