Text, Glossary and Line-by-Line Explanation

The Poem

Free verse, translated from Telugu by Uma Bhrugubanda. The text is given here in short blocks for study.

Water knows everything

Just as the water knows the ground's incline, it knows the generations-old strife between the village and the wada. Like the dampness on the well's edge that never dries, It knows that untouchability never disappears. The water knows everything.

Differences of race and caste

It knows the difference of race between the Samaria woman and Jesus the Jew. It also knows the sub-caste difference between leather and spool. It knows the agony of the panchama, who, not having the right to draw a pot of water, waits all day near the well with his empty pot until a shudra arrives.

Humiliation and rage

It knows the humiliation of the wada girl when he who poured the water from a distance, falls all over and touches her. It knows the righteous rage of Karamchedu Suvarthamma who opposed the kamma landlords with her water pot when they asked her not to pollute the pond water. The water is witness to centuries of social injustice.

The Poem (continued)

Water as a movement

When I see water I remember how my wada which would thirst all day for a glass of water. For us, water is not simply H2O, for us, water is a mighty movement. It is the Mahad struggle at the Chadar tank. A single drop of water embodies tears shed over several generations. In the many battles we fought for a single drop of water, our blood flowed like streams. But we never managed to win even a small puddle of water.

Memories of childhood

When I see water, I remember how we welcomed our weekly bath as if it was a wondrous festival ! While the entire village bathed luxuriously - twice a day. When I see water, I remember my childhood, when we walked miles to reach the big canal and carried back heavy pots, With the muscles and veins on our necks straining, bursting. I remember, its thatched roofs aflame, the Malapalle burning to ashes for want of a pot of water.

The destroyer

Water is not a simple thing! It can give life but it can also devour lives. The water that refused to quench parched throats became the killer tsunami wave, that swallowed whole village after village. The poor are but playthings in its vicious hands. Often, it turns villages into dry deserts and sometimes it drowns them in floods.

The commodity

Between the village and the wada between one state and another, this water can ignite many struggles and strife. It can make blood run in streams. But it can also sit innocently in a Bisleri bottle. This water from our village well that forces us to do many a circus feat, now slowly, surreptitiously, dances its way into the Pepsi man's bottle. With its new name 'mineral water' it takes to the skies, it raises a storm. Now water is no mean matter. It's a multinational market commodity. As they say water is omniscient. It contains the world.

Glossary and Notes

Note (background, not in the textbook): the Mahad struggle of 1927 was led by Dr B. R. Ambedkar at the Chavdar tank in Mahad, Maharashtra, to claim the right of dalits to drink public water. The textbook spells it "Chadar tank".

Line-by-Line Explanation

"Just as the water knows / the ground's incline" — Water naturally finds the slope. In the same way, and just as naturally, it knows the old quarrel between the village and the wada. The comparison makes social division sound as old and as fixed as a law of nature.

"Like the dampness on the well's edge that never dries" — A well's rim is always wet. Untouchability, too, never dries up; it stays even where it is not seen.

"the difference of race / between the Samaria woman and Jesus the Jew" — At the well, a Samaritan woman gave water to Jesus, a Jew, although the two communities did not mix. The poet widens her theme: discrimination is not only Indian. Water has seen it everywhere.

"the sub-caste difference / between leather and spool" — Even among the oppressed there are divisions: the cobbler who works with leather and the weaver who works with the spool.

"the agony of the panchama" — He may not draw water himself. He waits all day with an empty pot until someone of a higher caste comes and pours it from a distance. The empty pot is the image of a denied right.

"the humiliation / of the wada girl" — The man who is too "pure" to touch her pot "falls all over and touches her" while pouring. The poet shows the hypocrisy of caste and the double burden of a dalit woman: caste humiliation and sexual harassment together.

"the righteous rage / of Karamchedu Suvarthamma" — Told not to "pollute" the pond, she raised her water pot against the landlords. Her anger is called righteous; the pot, a symbol of service, becomes a shield.

"water is not simply H2O… a mighty movement" — For the wada, water is not a chemical formula but a political struggle and a history, as at the Chadar tank in Mahad. A single drop holds "tears shed over several generations".

"our blood flowed like streams. / But we never managed to win / even a small puddle" — The bitter irony: streams of blood, not even a puddle of water.

"we welcomed our weekly bath / as if it was a wondrous festival" — The contrast with the village that "bathed luxuriously twice a day" measures inequality in the simplest daily terms.

"muscles and veins on our necks straining, bursting" — The physical cost of fetching water, mostly borne by women and children.

"the Malapalle burning to ashes / for want of a pot of water" — Denial of water is not only thirst. When the dalit quarter caught fire, there was no water to save it.

"became the killer tsunami wave" — The poem turns. The same water destroys. "The poor are but playthings in its vicious hands", because the poor live where floods, droughts and the sea strike hardest.

"it can also sit innocently / in a Bisleri bottle" — "Innocently" is ironic. Bottled water looks harmless, but it is the same water that was denied and fought over.

"dances its way into the Pepsi man's bottle" — The village well's water is taken away "slowly, surreptitiously" by companies. The word dances contrasts with the wada's "circus feat" of fetching it: the water moves easily for the market, while the poor struggle for a pot.

"water is omniscient. / It contains the world." — The closing claim. Water knows everything because it has seen everything: caste, gender, region, profit. In knowing water, we know the world.

[Exam Tip] — Learn three contrasts for the long answers: weekly bath versus twice a day; blood in streams versus not a puddle won; the wada's circus feat versus water dancing into the Pepsi man's bottle.