Drinking water and immunity from it

Today evening, tired after mowing 3 bags of grass, I wiped sweat off my forehead. Feeling thirsty, rushed to the closest faucet, washed off dirt from my hands and bent over to drink the cool, tap water. No sooner than I was done, it reminded me of my son's terse reminder of what I always tell him, to wash his hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds before eating or drinking out of it. I did not do any of that.

 

In our school days, during the recess and post HPER (Health Physical Education and Recreation) period, we used to drink using our folded palm from the rusty faucet under a huge water tank inside the school premises. There was hardly any soap available to wash hands. It was rumored that many mice, lizards and cockroaches had taken water burial inside that tank, so the water must have been Protein fortified.

 

Yet nothing alarming ever happened to me. The immunity I got from drinking that water over years, has probably given my stomach a protective coating. I still have the confidence to drink straight from tap water using my palms. The tap water here is safe anyway.

 

Soon I moved to the hostel in REC (now NIT) Rourkela. During the monsoon the brown, muddy water from the tap was exactly the same as it's source Brahmani river flowing nearby. It could rival the yellow water served in our dining hall, (as the DAAL was sarcastically referred to, you need to churn and scoop for minutes inside the container before you can find traces of the legume).

 

The inept and corrupt authority hardly did anything to fix the water supply problem. No wonder typhoid, jaundice and water borne diseases were common, though I was lucky to escape any major ailment. The campus doctor, nicknamed as GHODA (horse) was a curse on the "Hippocratic Oath". He would give substandard medication to the poor students, while rumored to siphon off the more effective ones, greasing his Superior's palms.

 

My grandmother used to say "GA**I RE JADI DHULI LAGIBANI, KI PILA SE" - What kind of kid one is, if its ass won't be soiled by dust" ? It was a matter of pride for her to see me return with pant full of sand after playing on mounds of sand. That per her, would make me the son of the soil.

Kids these days hardly play in dust or dirt, their parents being too protective. My son can't boast of having the same immunity as me. During his last trip to India, he picked up some bug, threw up and had loose motion for an entire day.

 

Fortunately he recovered on time. But staying outside, over the years, I have started losing the immunity to loose motions, if I eat street food back home, I get an upset stomach. One fine evening, I gobbled up a dozen GUPCHUP (Odia term for GOLGOPPA or PANIPURI) washed down by LASSI (sweetened yogurt) from a road side stall.

Next couple of days I spent controlling the floodgates which opened from both ends. After the recovery I felt a lot lighter. My jeans felt no more tight. The road side food did wonders, in so less a time which no diet for exercise can do. One thing I have learnt the hard way. It's always best to eat the street food steaming hot and careful with the water you drink. Prevention is always better than cure.