The meeting

They met at a meeting, a professional one..in a complete professional setup.. 

There was something in him that she couldn't stop noticing..

She hurried back home because she had her 8 months old daughter waiting for her, but he thought she had an attitude!

She was often condemned in her office for this act of hers.- hurrying back home!

Few things that are typically said to females who work in professional setups are "If you have come to work, leave your reservations related to time, back home" "You can't complain everyday if you have some health issues, instead of wasting your and our time, why don't you resign?" And in case if she gets favored by a boss who is a little understanding... be it a male or a female.. the colleagues discuss "Oh, she must be having some personal terms with the boss, if not why would she be favored?"

She was used to this unadulterated sarcasm! 

Apart from this there was sarcasm on other fronts too! "You dont look good", "Gosh, you have put on so much of weight, why dont you go for some treatments" , "You know you should dress according to your size" and so on..

But she kept focussing on her work.. she was a columnist in a fortnightly magazine.

Social media has its benefits, she connected with him over the social media. After a few interactions, she found that she was addicted to talking to him... She then found out that it was not just she who noticed him, so much during that meeting.. even he noticed her and he admitted it!

But they didn't meet.. even if planned.. she cancelled the meeting due to just one fact.. She kept thinking "Texting and Meeting are different" "Why should I go and meet someone" But then she thought "But I am so comfortable talking to him!"

Time went on.. he moved to some other city.. they never met. She moved to a different city with her daughter. They kept interacting over messages, although the frequency of the messages kept decreasing.. one fine day.. both of them stopped messaging each other..

She started writing for a daily under a pen name. He shifted to her city. But they were not in contact.. so they never knew that they were in the same city.

Her parents also shifted to the city where she was, how could they leave their daughter alone, after all she needed a support-system to handle her daughter.

She was invited for a birthday celebration, she normally avoided going to parties..especially since her separation, but since it was a celebration at home and that too of a selected few, she decided to go. After a long time, she actually dressed herself up.. initially guilty..thinking whether she should get decked up or not..when she looked in the mirror closely she realised she had gained a better shape, all thanks to her regular exercise sessions! Leaving all reservations aside, she dressed in the most elegant way she could. When she stepped out of her room, her daughter exclaimed "Mamma ..aap kitni acchi lag rahi ho! Aap roz aise kyu nahi rehti?" She gave a quick peck on her cheeks and moved towards the door, leaving her with her parents.

She usually reached everywhere on time..and here too she was on time.. noone else had reached.. then the doorbell rang. Just to help her friend, she went and opened the door.. and guess who stood there.. It was Him!

She was at loss of words, just kept staring at him.. and talked to him in her mind "Why didn't you call or message? Its been so long"

He was indifferent.. neither did he say anything nor was he interested to talk to her.

And then the host exclaimed "Oh Wow look who's here!" The host introduced Him to Her as her distant cousin.. the party got over. It was very difficult for her, still she kept her calm. They interacted only what was accepted as a social norm. During discussions she came to know the fact that - He was supposed to leave abroad in the next few months.

With heavy steps she headed back home.. and while digging herself in the pillow, which had become wet because of her tears.. she kept thinking ... Should I tell him? What if its just a one sided affection?

The next day in some discussions the distant cousin came up, she so wanted to talk to the Host, about him, but she refrained. But then the Host herself told her.. you know my cousin is so talented, but he has become very quiet after his divorce and he's shifting abroad, forever!

She came home and decided, she wont ! There was no point...

Not all stories have an ending!

The extra-marital affair - Part 2

Click here to read Part - 1 of the story 

After meeting her family which had her husband and 2 sons, at some social gatherings she realised that there was some relationship issue between the lady and her husband, which was very much evident, despite of the fact that both of them were successful career wise!

And then the UN-expected happened, she found out after cross-checking a certain facts that her husband was in a relationship with that lady and it was not a recent one but a seasoned one by now. 
Now her children were in their high-school, she barely had  time or energy left, after the part-time work and the responsibilities at home to confront this issue with her husband. And she kept on thinking "Oh, He's so good to me, he's so good to his parents and there couldn't have been a loving father than him for my children" 

She was now meeting several people for work and found out that such affairs was not something out of the blue in offices. There were quite a few people on good designations in her husband's company, who started giving her compliments for her looks, her style of work, her dressing sense, her way of talking, her management skills.. almost everything..

Compliments.. oh how she missed them.. getting compliments from other people versus your soulmate is something different. and whatever may the world say.. a female does have Huge expectations from her life partner ..and compliments are one of them. Many a times she couldn't stop herself from observing that her set of compliments were going to someone else, right infront of her!

She started consulting a Psychologist, thinking its only her fancies and weird imaginations which led her to believe she was a lesser being. She started on anti-depressants .. her health began to deteriorate.. her parents started wondering what happened to their charming and beautiful daughter all of a sudden!

One day when she was sitting all alone in the office, a good friend of her husband came to meet her...it took her some moments to realise that this Gentleman who had come was trying to get close to her emotionally.. more so because he precisely knew everything.. everything about her husband's affair ... about her weak mental and physical state.. She was stunned! Is this how the world is! This Gentleman who had come to approach her was her husband's childhood friend and a frequent visitor to their home. She made an excuse and left for home. She muttered to herself - "Why didn't he stop his friend from taking the wrong step?" "And even if he didn't, from where did he get the guts to approach me in the same way?"

Thinking this she left the office... reached home, took an early dinner and slept! In the morning when she got up, she was a new person. She realised that no-one is wrong, neither her husband, not the Lady and even not the Gentleman! What was wrong was her expectations from the people to behave the way she thought was right.

She resigned from the office, started taking regular classes for Yoga and Meditation, started reading and joined classical dance classes, in short she started staying happy for herself! She could have taken drastic steps to confront her husband, or the lady or the gentleman ..but she didn't because she knew there was no way out. "Its a bad maze, with no end to it, and I am the most important family unit, without me, the family would break into pieces, the in-laws the beautiful children, I have to stay calm and manage everything" - This was the last thought that came to her mind when she slept that night.

Now its almost 25 years to her marriage. Nothing much has changed, the husband's extra marital affair is still On, children busy in their lives and jobs.. but despite of knowing all the facts as they are, she is still happy for herself.. because she knows - I have to be Happy for ME MYSELF MY OWNSELF 

The extra marital affair - Part 1

12 years in a marriage is a long time..
Blessed with twins - a boy and a girl and a doting husband she couldn't ask for anything more out of her marriage! In-laws which is usually a point of complaint for females, she was lucky in this respect also, as she was blessed with a good, caring and supportive joint family. There were so many people in the house, why would someone need to even move out to chit-chat or spend time.. it all happened conveniently within the family!

Mother in Law, Father in law, Husband's elder brother his wife and his 2 daughters, her small family unit and a sister in law who used to visit every year because she stayed abroad. There was a small servant's quarter just beside their house and the servants were available for all sort of domestic chores.

Business kept her husband very busy apart from the fact that there were so many days every month that he used to travel. Being a Masters in Finance, she knew she could become a useful hand in the business but since one partner should take care of the children, she decided to take the backseat. Dutifully she took care of everyone in the family and unlike normal cases she shared a very good camaraderie with her co-sister in-law too! Their frequent evening trips to the garden or to the market was something which kept both the females happy!

The elder brother got transferred to some other city and after a year his family unit moved on with him. She started feeling very lonely after that, but the children who were in the primary school by now were pretty much engrossed in their school and extra-curricular activities hardly got a time to miss their cousins. 

She had worked for sometime even before marriage but 12 years was a long time. With her husband's frequent travel trips happening, she decided to give work a shot. She joined his office on a part-time basis. This is what normally females do, start working as if they are obliging themselves by doing so, since they cannot reduce their dedicated time slots which have earlier been occupied by their families!

She started to give her husband advises over the phone and also over video-conferencing. She started to get a grip over her subject and she also managed to save some money which otherwise was going in random expenditures of the company. She was sensible enough to sense the good relationship between a female in the the board of Directors and her husband, and she was pretty comfortable with that. Slowly she began to realise that the frequency of trips of her husband and the female were becoming a regular affair.. or maybe it was the same even before she joined.. She thought to her self - "Oh please don't be silly, stop over imagining things"

Click here to read the Part 2 of the story

"New boy in Corporate" by Banjara Panchi

Written by - 'Banjara Panchi'

Introduction - 
Written at the age of 23 years, when Banjara Panchi had just joined the first job in a corporate in a metro city. Its been more than a decade, hence a few people might not be able to relate to it, try reading it from the perspective of someone who worked in a corporate in a metro 10 years back.
My take - I feel this describes the dilemma of a person in their first job. Would be eager to see your comments.

The night is loosing its grip and yet I am in the state of darkness,the darkness that is never ending , awaken like a predator deprived of its prey ,here I am in the midst of several shouting mindsets, roaring to tear apart, every single bit of peace inside me.
And I wonder why? Why is this happening and sometimes How? Tired of setting an “all is well” aura, I m doing my bit to shatter the deafening silence of the unsaid.
Every morning ,they say is a whole new beginning. But in my case its nothing but a series of monotonous gestures of the livings and also trust me..”of the dead”..no don’t be spooked here.

The morning bus takes me to the place where they say careers are carved and built. The career I always aspired for,the mouth watering careers, in lieu of their extravanza, are hiding inside them, the devils that holds the power to manhandle an innocent little soul into the choking grips of the monstrous satin-d replica of extreme disgust.(again don’t be scared)

Why I am saying this is because I am disturbed, I am having an issue, issue that is felt by all of us, issue that is magnanimous but yet is reeling in its microscopic domain, this needs to be addressed, I feel... and so do,I am sure, the millions of us.

Have you ever thought of what is it like to actually wave hands to the million eyes waiting to get a glimpse of you, million hands waiting to be helped by you, million hopes finding their hope in you. It is this  covetousness I am striving for, the sense of euphoria which is missing from the my career shaping place..and I am not complaining, I m expressing..yes I am expressing and not complaining..what else I can do?

Invitations for Guest Post!

This blog completed 8000 page views yesterday!

Completion of 8000 page views definitely calls for a celebration!

And I thought to celebrate in a different way. Rather than just me writing for the blog, why not invite others too!

After a few of my last articles, a few people dropped in a message about their life-incidents and stories that they had written or experienced - and they wanted them to be put up on my blog. 

So here's inviting everyone to email me on 

carpediemvivircadamomento@gmail.com.

A few things that I would like to discuss :

1) Your age - when you wrote this piece.

2) Your emotions that led you write this - happy, sad, elated, festive, in a relationship, after a breakup, problems of life at different ages, family issues, financial constraints, health issues etc

3) Your reason for writing this, basically if there is any message that you wish to convey to anyone.

4) Your introduction - 
(a) If you wish to get the post published in your name. 
(b) If you wish to make the post Anonymous , then a few more details that could form the background of your post.
(c) If you wish to keep a pen name for your posts even that would be wonderful!

5) Request - 
(a) I want this blog to focus on real life incidents/issues, or based on pure imagination, hence no political issues would be taken up.
(b) Language no bar - I am comfortable with Hindi, English and Gujarati, so articles in all the 3 languages would be accepted.

6) Disclaimer - 
(a) There would be no edits in the post that you send me, unless you require me to go through it. As a matter of fact, I am not a writing expert, its my passion and writing happened to me by chance, and yes meddling with someone's creativity is not something that I as an individual would prefer to do!
(b) I as the blog owner reserve the right to publish any article or take it down anytime, or even delete the comments on your post. Basically anything that demeans someone, would not be accepted.

If needed by you the required edits - purely related to grammar, would be done.

So what are you waiting for, grab those few moments from your daily life and start scribbling... Yes I am purposely mentioning it as scribbling.... because only after a lot of scribbles...you write something and then that something becomes a Masterpiece!

Wishing you tonnes of good luck and truckload of happy memories and an even beautiful imagination! Lets write !!

This post can be edited anytime 

Happiness is rediscovering yourself!

She has a busy routine. Getting up early, opening the locks, bringing the newspaper to the tea-table because her husband would be awake in sometime, preparing tiffin for both the children (nowadays they ask for 2 tiffins in the school!), dropping them to the bus-stop, coming back and preparing tea for her husband. Then started the arrangements for the day, breakfast and tiffin preparations for the husband, bath, puja, giving clothes for ironing to the laundry-wala, placing order over the phone with the sabziwala etc.

She tells herself everyday, that she is not bound to do all this, but she does it because she feels happy to do so! "I do it because its my family"
Once her husband and maids leave for the day..(Oh her work winds up pretty early everyday, lets say by 8:30 am) she sits back and realises, she did not read the newspaper today and then she felt an emptiness in her stomach which made her remember that she did not have her breakfast despite of preparing variety of things for everyone. "Oh its just like any other day, super hectic!" she said to herself. Its okay, she thinks and puts half paratha in her mouth and talks to herself "My happiness lies in doing things for my family,' doesn't matter if I get late for my breakfast today, I would try putting a schedule in place from tomorrow."
Diwali is soon to approach, and the preparations which usually start in all Indian households had started at her place too! Cleaning of the house and cleaning of every nook and corner of the house, collecting old stuff and segregating it and deciding what to give to whom, making place for new things - are on full swing. 

The maids are always happy with her, because Bhabhiji always gives them food on time and also helps them financially in case of emergencies. Her actual work starts when the maids are also gone, because then she can sit back and do things at her pace..

This time she had decided in advance that she will not purchase anything new this Diwali, thinking "I already have a few new saris, I  shall wear from them, why should I waste money on a new apparel?" There are other important expenditures like school fees, Diwali bonus and also gifts to be given to near and dear ones and of course new clothes for her little bundles of joy and also a small teeny weeny surpise gift for the love of her life!

But there was something amiss ... what was it? She had a happy family, a doting husband, happy and healthy children, her own house, healthy parents, caring in-laws..what was amiss then?

While cleaning her store-room she came across a box that her mother had handed over to her 2 years back. Since last 2 Diwali's she used to clean it and keep it again at the same place. 

She becomes very happy to see the box! "2 years and I did not get time to go through this!" She open's her pandora's box (For her it was her life, her biggest priceless treasure, as it was given by her mother!) and in there was her diary...an old diary. Oh how happy she was looking at that diary, that she started laughing aloud brimming with happiness!

She had completely forgotten that she used to write, and also get appreciated for that! There were poems, prose, just like that lines..some unfinished stories some unfinished poems... Oh how dear it was to her! She could barely take her eyes off it. So this was it! This was what she was missing.. in the chaos of daily life and family management, relative management, grocery list and all these things, she had forgot 1 person - Herself and also forgot what made her happy!

"How nice would it be to go back to writing" she was thinking in her mind- was going on in her mind and then the doorbell rang..

"Dustbin Madam"

She left the diary there and got up to handover the dustbin to the sweeper and also a box of old clothes of her children that she has collected over the year, to hand over to the sweeper for his children, she had also kept a box of new stationery items for his little ones.
Then the phone rang - "It was her sister-in-law! She had her surprise visit planned for this bhai-duj and they started discussing about the plans of shopping and roaming around in the short trip"
Then came the time to pickup the kids from the bus-stop, their lunch, their homework, their playtime, cooking the dinner, time of arrival of husband, winding up the kitchen, reading bed-time stories to her little ones and handing over the glass of water and medicine to her husband.. and then when everyone slept.. she headed back to the kitchen, for doing some pre-preparations for tomorrow's breakfast!

After finishing everything, she sat down with her glass of water on the sofa, very tired after a long long day, she felt like lying down then and there and sleeping away to glory. But she got reminded of something, she went to the store-room, switched on the light, and there lay her old tattered diary.

She picked it up, went to the writing table, took out a new pen that her parents had gifted her few years back and started scribbling..

That very moment she decided something.. She decided that she would give sometime to herself daily and go back to her lost love - 'writing'. She was smiling and couldn't stop it because this Diwali she had taken the best decision of her life! A decision to make herself, her soul happy!

So what are you going to discover this Diwali? 
Rediscover yourself! Happiness is your birthright...execute that!

Nice v/s Nasty

Came across this wonderful status message on Linkedin profile of a gentleman. And despite all of the important work that I was doing.. writing a blog article, thinking of a topic for an article for a newspaper in other state, listening to my favourite garba music, reading epapers, promoting my facebook pages etc.. I stopped.... I read the statement and re-read it many times.
I was stunned by the simplicity of the statement and bowled over by the profound meaning and relevance it holds!!

You don't need a reason to be nice, but You need a big excuse to be Nasty!

Sometimes simple things in life teach you a lot! A person needn't be a motivational speaker or trainer to motivate you with their words or statements or attitude towards life. At times your domestic help, a beggar on the road, a florist a passer-by anyone could motivate you and become your guide without them even being aware of it. 
As they say "Motivation is like bathing, it doesn't last long hence we recommend it daily".

No matter how many problems you have there is always a solution and no mater how bad a mood you are in - BE NICE! 
And I guess being nice to everyone eventually ends up in being Nice to yourself.. Or If we take it the reverse way, if we don't behave Nasty with anyone .. maybe we feel nice about it for our very own self.. our conscience!

I don't know how much this helped in making you feel good for the day.. for me - This statement is for sure going to be my status message for a long long time.

Přejeme Vám Radost

(Czech language)
which in English means - Wishing you a Happy You!

A visit to CSIR AMPRI Bhopal

Hailing from the family of Government officials in different departments , one thing is what you understand , government does work and the area of work is huge.. the normal public may not be able to vision the scale at which government organisations work!

This is also a reason I am always interested in places like Museums, Science Centres and many such government funded places.. Since past 8 years whenever I used to pass through the AMPRI (Advanced Material and Processes Research Institute) Main gate, I always used to wonder what work must be going on inside!

As luck would have had it, I came in contact with a gentleman Mr. Vijay Nathiley, working in AMPRI, courtesy my posts on social media, and he informed me about the CSIR Open day when the institute is open for the general public to come and visit the centre.

I reached the auditorium just when the meeting of the officials and the celebrations in the auditorium was about to end, which meant I was on time to start my visit to the machine areas. I also met quite a few dignitaries in the meantime, one name that I remember is Mr. Suyash Dwivedi who handles Wikipedia India.

Then my visit started, a few scientists also discussed about various technologies that CSIR is involved in a) Management of Solid waste b) Management of Ocean waste and the waste that is disposed in the oceans etc. What I could conclude is there is a lot of research work going on, related to lot many topics, maybe its the lack of funding thay the reaearch doesn't happen the way it happens in foreign countries. Secondly maybe the institutions and the government in particular, need a stronger marketing department to make people aware of the innovations and make them saleable! 

Attached are a few photographs of my visit... Couldn't take much pics because was busy trying to understand it.. especially since its not my field of work!

                                       Plant from which Sisal Fibre is derived. we often see this plant in jungles and places where there is abundance of greenery. I could never imagine this simple plant could prove to be so useful!

                Products made of Sisal Fibre

Products made from Sisal Fibre. This fibre is easily dyeable, is smooth and has a good tensile strength!

This table top looks similar to plywood but is actually made of FLY ASH+ fibres made of Banana and Jute. Fly ash is a huge industrial waste which if combined with some fibres to make such useful utility products ..is really good.. thanks to such researches, we are able to manage our industrial wastes effectively. There were products like Tiles made from Marble ash too.. but I forgot to take pics of the same.

This is Devansh (son of Mr. Vijay Nathiley Ji) who was with me during machine visits. It was real nice to be in the company of a child who aspires to be an Astronaut in future. Wishing all the very best to Devansh and I so wish, all schools to take their students to such places to make them aware of the possibilities of work in all areas even using waste and also help them find out if they themselves would be interested in such kind of researches! After all we do need effective and efficient waste management methods and we need them at cost effective rates too!

Lets empower educate and give varied opportunities to our gen next!

The wait at the traffic signal and the scornful looks

The wait at the traffic signal almost always seems eternal.. even its just for a few seconds! And I conveniently assume that this holds true for everyone..

And all this bad feeling comes for waiting just for a few seconds -  which we usually waste while scrolling through our smartphones, while chit chatting with friends, while roaming around, while surfing things on the internet on laptop or tablets, while sitting in front of the television and so on!

But why do we never feel happy that 'Okay, Today I waited at the signal, and boy..it was good for my life, I am ALIVE!'

Today I was waiting at a traffic signal, the red light had just started and it was showing 56 seconds when I stopped my vehicle.
A sedan on the left handside of my vehicle, kept honking the horn BADLY...infact very badly it was a constant honking without a break.. I looked through my windscreen to see if the signal indicated giving freeway to people on the left.. to my sheer disappointment , it did not show that!

Then I wondered if there was an ambulance behind the gentleman.. due to which he was getting so edgy.. again I was disappointed.

Still I thought, maybe the person has some real serious issue.. which is why he is honking the horn since past 30 seconds.. now the seconds count was 26.. I somehow managed to squeeze my vehicle slightly to the right and the Sedan Owner got a way.. 

Now comes the biggest disappointment - He instead of being thankful, was giving me this ultra indecent scornful look with his big eyes. Okay I am not a Women empowerment activist.. but basic courtesy is something that I feel if followed can make everyone look decent ..even if they basically aren't!

Anyways let me come to the point.. 
So the gentleman could conveniently move ahead of me 
1) Overtaking me from the LEFT handside
2) Crossing a Red light after honking a horn constantly for 30 seconds..
3) Not wearing a SEAT BELT
4) Giving a disrespectful look to a lady 

And the reason of the look was perhaps.. as what I could make out was

"Dumb female, she herself is waiting at the RED LIGHT, and expects important VIP people like us to wait !! And understands that I need to go, only after constant honking of the horn.. Illiterate female!"

Who should ideally be giving that look.. ME!
Yes I should have looked at him scornfully and perhaps used some ultra decent address too.. Right?
But then I thought..a person who gives a damn to his own life.. should not be looked at with hatred, but with PITY..!

If I see someone crossing the signal, not wearing a seat-belt or not wearing a helmet.. I never worry Why the Police isn't out there checking them and penalising them? 
Instead I feel pity for the parents or the family that is behind them.. probably the people who take traffic rules for granted take 3 other things also for granted 
1) Their own life 
2) Their family's life after they go
3) The life of other people NOT RELATED TO THEM, by driving recklessly.. If you don't care for yourself or your family..its completely fine... 
But please care for the Mankind.. and also the Womankind!!

So here's to the thorough Gentleman I gave a way today....
I pity you and your family. God bless you!

(If you are reading this post and if this is somehow related to how you behave on the roads, boss you are being pitied at!

CURAE!

Save the Rivers! Save water

Yesterday and day before yesterday my social media handles viz. Facebook Twitter and even Whatspp Display pictures; were inundated with photos of people posing for the "Rally of Rivers" campaign, with people posing with the banner and blue coloured T-shirt.

I myself am a big fan "Sadhguru" and the "Isha Foundation" though I have not yet joined any of the Yoga courses initiated by them, but I do intend to do it sometime in near future. 

What I really want to find out is, how many of these people are actually following the very basic steps needed for saving water and hence rivers? Its not just a foundation's responsibility or some minister or teacher or officer or some NGO's duty to keep reminding us , and keep doing efforts to save the environment! We are all grown up people, who can be and should be held accountable for our actions - for good or for bad!
I've enjoyed (spent would be the wrong choice of word) in Rajkot which is an important city of the Kathiawaad(Saurashtra, Gujarat) region, and if I remember it exactly, way back in the early 90's, come February and we used to start to 'Purchase' water. YES!! This is not an exaggeration, people hailing from Kathiawaad, Saurashtra will very easily be able to relate to this huge expenditure! Every 3rd day a small "chakdo" would have to be called. It had this small motor for which the electricity connection was provided from our place and that pump, helped carry water from the "chakdo" to the water tank fixed on the first floor of our house. 

(Image courtesy - alamy.com)

As it is my parents have been super miser when it comes to spending water (Trust me they are the same till date!) And since we were purchasing water, it was all the more a compulsory thing to 'save water'.  Papa and Mamma had allotted - Brush - 1 tumbler, Bath - half bucket, water for gardening (strictly 1 bucket and mug had to be used), headbath twice a week and so on. And one could not make changes to that! And yes, if we saved water even 1 tumbler of water, we got incentives! And that was - lot of good words and statement 'yeh aadat aage jaake bahut kaam aayegi tum logon ko'

So here are a few basic steps that I do, and I feel everyone can do are 

1) Always carry your own water bottle (filled with water). Researches are going on at a large scale to prove that bottled water may contain traces of carcinogens, and despite of knowing that fact, we cannot give carcinogens as a gift to our loved ones...can WE?
2) Never keep the tap running especially while brushing your teeth or taking a bath/ The age old technique of using a tumbler or a bucket to do normal chores of washing and cleaning always works wonders in reducing per person water consumption. 
3) For cleaning the cars - provide your domestic help with a bucket and water instead of pipe which gives constant running water. A running pipe wastes a lot of water. 
4) Keep a big vessel in kitchen to wash vegetables, fruits and for miscellaneous chores. If possible put Potassium Permanganate to it, to remove the chemicals and pesticides. 
5) The water left in the glasses by the guests needs to go to the pots in the garden. The water left out after pochha also used to go to the garden, since using phenyl was not a norm everyday, instead rock salt was used.
6) A 5 minute shower uses up a whopping 25 litres of water, so if you like taking showers, maybe you could reduce the time spent, and use a fancy bucket and a mug and maybe add bath salt too, so that it doesn't look drab or uncool!

Currently I stay in an area where there is plenty of water supply, and at times I do feel like splurging and that's when I use a running water pipe in my garden!

Its not that I don't have a good water supply, but its just that I want atleast 24x7x365 water supply for my son and his gen next! As the native american proverb says: 

Hasta Pronto !