Does...

..being an engineer make me a non-believer?

re:Water

Courtesy: GWI -August 2008

Truth

This life is neither real nor absolute. We refine ourselves, iteration after iteration, till we are convinced we converged. The achievement gives us a meaning, though it is only a simulation of an empirical code. The Truth is elsewhere. The very fact that we exist is proof that we haven’t found Truth and the very fact the Truth exists means we are all unreal.

My Two Lives

Image copyright: Worcestershire CCC

Recently I was watching a cricket match from the past on YouTube. As I relived those classic moments (India defeated Pakistan), memories came hurling at me. I remember how I used to run home after school to watch the TV when some match was on. The fact that only bits of info—we would get scores during our lunch break either by sneaking out to the nearest store that had a TV set or via friends whose home were walking distance from school—were available before you got home finally was something of a thrill. My life has always been identified by cricket moments (I know it sounds dull and pathetic, but that’s me!). It’s ironic that I be a water resources man. The rain keeps me in business while I would do anything to prevent it as a cricket fan and amateur cricketer. This new match, Rain vs. Cricket, presents something similar to an expatriate’s dilemma in choosing to support his team.

Like Anything Else

Life is like a contaminant in a water body. Sometimes you get a big plume, but over time, natural attenuation steps in, and the effects are diluted.

The Grand Anicut

Called Kallanai (Kal-stone, Anai-dam) in Tamil, the Grand Anicut is supposedly the oldest dam in the world. Karikala Chola, a famous king of the Chola dynasty of South India is reported to have built it during the 2nd century A.D over the river Cauvery. The dam was made of stone and mud, with outer granite layers in lime mortar (FAO, 1995). This humongous block of stone is roughly 1080 feet long and 60 feet wide. Later, in the 1830s British Engineers built a dam over Kollidam, the river’s northern tributary (it splits into two before both empty into the Bay of Bengal), basing their design on the Kallanai. This came as something of a shock to me. I had known of the dam but didn’t expect it to be to the oldest standing water structure in the world. It fills me with shame as someone from that region and someone who is a hydraulic engineer.

The dam serves irrigation purposes in the Cauvery delta, one of the fertile lands in all of India. I read somewhere that India has the largest cultivable area in the world (about three-fifths) and that its lands are generally very fertile. That’s probably part of the reason why its sons and daughters are so fertile too! A footnote before I end: Karikala Chola is supposed to have raised the banks of the Cauvery to aid in controlling flooding problems. The factuality of the matter is under doubt. I am trying to find out more information on this.

Reference in Text: Food and Agricultural Organization, 1995. Reservoir fisheries of India, FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 345 by V.V. Sugunan.

World Water Day

First published Thursday, March 22, 2007

Today is World Water Day. Even as I write there are a billion people without access to clean water. Lucky are we.