MAZHA- THE RAIN
Dearfriends, Todaymy posting is round about rain. It is raining period in Chennai, temperature iscoming down and water is flowing at allrequired places. Unlike Kerala, Tamilnadu and in particular Chennai is moreplain and draining water is more difficult. The first effect of a good rain iscooling the atmosphere. Daybefore yesterday, it was with heavy lighting and thunder. I felt the lightningwould have affected trees. But it affected electrical points. My BSNL Modembecame faulty, my UPS became faulty. After contacting the AE in telephoneexchange, who was available in the evening, somehow I replaced modem through aFranchise. For the UPS, after attendingmany other cases, technician came with a new UPS, changed, took the old one forrepair, and distilled water topped up in the battery, somehow made it to work. Myreverse osmosis man called and informed, if the machine do not work it could bedue to the small transformer inside became faulty. Somehow it was not affected.Some information about rain Sincerely, GopalaKrishnan 22-09-2021 1. Rain in Middle East. Afterseeing the wider roads with 4 lane traffic, more cars than buses, and busshelter with information about bus routes and schedule, with fewer men forming the queue system I looked around for drainage in the roads atDubai during my first visit. I couldfind none. Iasked my son in law how the rain water might go if it rains there with a little hesitation. He answered me it rains there nowmore occasionally , roads get flooded, but after 10-12 hours the water get absorbed and till such timewater would be gradually decreasing. There is blocking. Iam told the planning has not looked in to drainage earlier and now thinking of solutions. It wasin 2002. Some5 years back, there were rains at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia , unusually much more where my son is working. There theroads were flooded to waist lever wateror more. Somehow my son could drive and reach through knee deep water, he toldme when I called him after watching the TV News. Inthe last vacation when I asked about the drainage there, he told already theyhave started initiative there, since flooding is more and sometimes buildings alsogo in water in low lying areas. From his talk I understood, there would be upsand downs to certain extent there. 1a. Drainage in Trivandrum Evenwith drainage systems the condition was not so good, especially in the KeralaState capital Trivandrum till 2004 when I was there. If there was continuous rain for a day, there might be knee deep water at East fort and water usedto enter to the steps of Pazhavangadi temple. Thampanoor used to have morewater even to waist level. Somehow having a lot of ups and downs, it usedto drain in 2-3 hours maximum. Without wetting clothes it was impossible totravel by any means in that area. Fromthe nearby open area water used to enter my residence quarters in the compound.People are accustomed to the raised water level at East fort. Even now nochange has come. 2. Rain water absorbing. Rainwater get absorbed to ground and making it wet and absorb gradually to inside.It is this rain water getting absorbed reach water plate and coming to wells. Yearsbefore in a rainy season there was atalk in Tamil Doora darsan channel, about keeping the sides of open wells withsoil and only the front plat- form to be cemented. This would make waterabsorb in to the well which is a reserve. 3. Water collection to bore wells InChennai and nearby areas it is compulsory to approve the building plans to havea water collection near bore well or open well . The rain water from roof tophas to be essentially connected to this collection point. In this point waterget absorbed to the ground making available more water. This collecting point is somewhat similar to a soak pit and extended near towell .Area for about 16 sq. feet around bore well is filled with good soilwhich would absorb in to the ground. Itis observed after a good rain bore well water fill the overhead tank in halfthe time, comparing to previous days. 4. Laksha dweep islands WhileI was in Trivandrum Training centrepeople from Laksha dweep coming fortraining has told me without leaving a litre of water from rooftops they collect water in special tanks made. This water is filtered and usedby them for drinking. For them the rainwater is very costly and precious. 5. Rain water flowing through slumtrenches. Oneobservation I could make is with all efforts the dirt and waste would be there in the trenches. With rain water it mightflow away to certain extent and there would be good cleanliness. Even in the black top roads after rain the cow dung and allmiscellaneous items sticking to the bitumen might wash away and the road appear good as if newlylaid. Most of the roads are re-laid inmy area once in two years. 6. Water harvesting system Manymunicipalities have planned for water harvesting system. Concrete trenches aremade on sides of streets and roads, with special instruction not to connectwaste water lines. During rain, water from roads is collected through thesetrenches falling on the roads to a lakecalled Eari in Tamilandu. Thissystem is implemented in my area, I could see through this trench, water flowing even after 2 days , the rain hasstopped. The municipal water supply is made through digging bore wells about500 metres away from this Eari. Slops and inter connection are made in thetrench. In Chennai our area is one where there is not much queue for tap water in thestreets. 7. Rain water drinking In primary classes I learnt rain water after first rain is pure,collecting in pots from the open andgood for drinking. However I have seennobody doing so either earlier or now. Most use well water or tap water comingthrough municipal pipes. 8. Good water taps in the house. Whilebore well water is lifted , a tap isprovided in the work area which would give good water before it reach the overheadtank and going through pipes. Afterthree days of my new home construction in Chennai , my wife asked the lady servant to get water from a tap. Thinking it is theconvenient tap, she opened the pure water tap and took the available water and closedthe tap!! . Next day the bore-well was found not lifting water dueto air block. Having no other source and not so familiar to neighbours, we tookwater from street tap not only for drinking but to pour in to pipes to clear the air block with anearby electrician. Mywife too understood the importance that tap then only.( The lifted water was exhausted without knowing the bore wellproblem and not even a drop was in the overhead tank.) As munjagrithai muthanna, no more risks, next day I installed the reverse osmosis and aqua guard and made the taptoo tight. Now very familiar to the tap,it is used to open and see whether airlock is there after switching ON the borewell. 9. Use of well water after big rains Inopen wells we can see after continuous rain for three or four days water asmuddy. The colour would be slightly changed. After fetching the water and keeping in a pot the mud would settle down andclear water is seen at top . This water has to be filtered again and boiled before using. Still colour may notchange much in the boiled water but soil content would be less. 10. Full water in wells Aftera good rain for two or three days we cansee water to the ground level itself in the well. This is rain water throughthe soil coming to well. It will go down like anything after two or three shinydays. 11. Jala dosham Inmy boy hood days I never understood body condition created due to water. It is created not only due to drizzling orheavy rain, but also due to not drying away water fully from the head after abath in any part of the body. 12. Teaching about water I am concluding this posting about water after telling a small incident before a fewyears. I went to the local high school here to include my wife’ name in the voters list on last Saturday. Therevenue staffs were to issue and collect filled up forms in a class room. Since they came a little late, I was justgoing through the black board in the class. Thedifferent source of water was written with chalk piece and it was written “ Water is used by people inmany ways”. Iam not sure the board writing was by a student or teacher. I got astonished notto see: ”Water IS MOST ESSENTIAL for human life”. Thiswould have been the first line either the student would have / teacher wouldhave taught or corrected. Iasked my wife to look at the board to pass the time. She simply repliedwhat is written is correct and it meanswhat I meant and diverted the topic- Other people are listening us. Don’t talkof your old working experience asteacher here. I think for that you are talking now. Therevenue staff luckily arrived by the time. MY FINAL NOTE- This posting might be simple. Theaim is to make understand our ipad kids about water and its essentiality andproblems created by rain as information if some member asks the kid to read it.Recently there was a mail from member from USA that he asks the kids mypostings since he found very useful. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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