Water: The Elixir of Life

-C. V. Raman

Summary:

Man has been searching imaginary elixir in life, amrita, for ages. It was thought to make their life immortal with a drop of it. But it lies near our hands which is the commonest of all liquids i.e. water.  One day the writer stood in between the Libyan Desert and the Valley of Nile River. Towards Libyan side there was a vast sea of sand without a speck of greenness till it is visible. Towards Nile Valley he could see the most fertile and densely populated areas with life and vegetation. He questioned himself how there was such difference. The water of Nile makes the valley so graceful which has been flowing from a couple of thousand miles away. Geologists proved that the valley is made with the finest silt carried by the flood of the river from Abyssinia and Central Africa. The mud was laid down by the river from ages through which Nile flows into the sea. Egypt was made by the river which is possible only with the life-giving water.

This substance is the most potent and wonderful substance on the face of our earth. However we have taken it for granted ignoring the most important value or we have taken it for granted. It also helped to shape the course of the history. Thus it has played a leading role in the drama of our life in this planet.

It is the most valuable substance that adds much more to the beauty of the countryside. Either it may be a little stream or a little pond in which cattle may drink water at evening time, it seems nice. The rainfed tanks of South India are also seem well when they are full. But they haven’t been maintained. Such water is silt-laden so that we can’t see the bottom of it rather we can get the reflection of sunrays. These tanks help in farming in South Indian states. Much of the rice is produced in Mysore by such water. In some large tanks we can see beautiful scene of the sun rise and set. We can compare water in the land with our eyes. It reflects the mood of the hour, if it is daytime, it is bright and gay; dark and gloomy at night time or the sky is full of cloud.

One of the good qualities of water is that it can carry silt or finely divided soil from thousands of mile away. The color of water matches with the color of the land or soil it has been carrying. It is also reflected in those rainfed reserved tanks. The color of the water varies according to the nature of the mud or land of such area. Rapidly flowing water can carry large and heavy particles. The finest particle is of greater density and carried from a long distance. These are extremely small particles that can be transported in a huge amount. When silt-laden water mixes with the sea there is rapid precipitation. We can easily observe if we go through the river to the sea. Red, brown, yellow and green water is seen blue when it reaches to the deep sea. A great tract of land is formed with the same time of silt which is known as alluvial soil. Such land is usually very fertile.

The flow of water determines the geological process of the crust of the earth. The same water can play the destructive role on agriculture washing away the soil. If it remains unchecked it will put us in disastrous problem. The problem of soil erosion is a serious problem in the world particularly in India. The conditions and measures have been analyzed and set by a closest study. The soil erosion has been happening whereas some old incidents are unnoticed. These days agriculture seems impossible with the formation of gullies and ravines. The burst of excessively heavy rain is one of the causes of soil erosion. Other factors are: slope of the land, destruction of vegetation, existence of ruts, no check bars against the flow of water. As a result, a large quantity of water is washed away irreparably.

In many parts of India, soil erosion is a continuous menace for successful agriculture. It needs urgent attention and preventive action. Some suggested measures are: terracing the land, building bunds, border farming, and planting vegetation. The first and foremost aim of those activities is to resist the flow of water so that the destruction of soil can be stopped on time.

Water is a basis of our life. All the animals and plants contain either more or less amount of water in their body. Fluid plays a vital role in every kind of physiological activity. Thus water is most important in human life. On the other hand, plants also need it though it varies with the species. We need to conserve and utilize water properly for human welfare. The sources of water are artesian, rainfall and snowfall. Most of the Indian agriculture depends on seasonal rainfall; if irregular, it will create great problem. The problem of soil erosion and irregular rainfall are closely connected. In the same way, the techniques of preventing soil erosion would serve double purpose: that helps in conservation of land from destruction and keeping water in it.

Where there is seasonal rainfall only, a huge quantity of water would run off the ground. We need to collect and utilize such water well. Much of the water would go down into streams and rivers to find way to the sea. A large quantity of precious fluid is lost from country sides. The exploitation and waste of water must be considered and dealt on time. Vast areas of land can be turned into fertile land if we have courageous and better planning.

There is a problem in afforestation for the conservation of water. India needs systematic planting of suitable trees according to the need of the locality. They can even tame modern civilized forest in contrast to wild and untamed forest. It also contributes to the wealth of the nation directly or indirectly. It would help in different ways like checking soil erosion, conserving rainfall, supply of cheap fuel, and conservation of farmyard manure.  

The measures applied to conserve and control the water help to promote the value of country life. We can run cheapest water transport inside the country by boats and barges through canals and rivers. We listened more about road and rail transportation unlike waterways. It also helps to generate hydroelectricity power. Hydroelectricity would enable the rural people from various sides. We can also pull the underground water to fulfill our daily needs for drinking and irrigating.

In a sense, water is the commonest liquids. In another sense, it is the uncommon liquids with unique qualities of maintaining animal and plant life. It needs highest scientific interest and continuous research regarding its properties.

A.    Read the given text carefully and answer the following questions briefly.

1.      Why is water considered the true elixir of life?

Water makes our life possible so it is the true elixir of life.

2.      C. V. Raman says that water in a landscape may be compared to the eyes in a human face. Why?

Water puts value for the landscape like eyes in human body; it is also an important part of nature.

3.      How does soil erosion occur and what are the chief factors that cause it?

Soil erosion occurs due to heavy rain. Some chief factors are barren land, no terracing, no contour and so on.

4.      What are the usual measures used to check soil erosion?

They are: growing trees, making terrace, contour, bunds and so on.

5.      What is the measure suggested by C. V. Raman to control the movement of water in order to harness it for useful purposes?

We can conserve water applying different measures of anti-soil erosion methods so that we can fulfil double purpose like conservation of water and soil erosion.

6.      Why is the study of the nature and properties of water of the highest scientific interest?

The water is the most commonest and the most uncommonest substance of the nature. It is the true elixir of like so we need to conduct more research to solve the mystery of it.

B.     Choose from a, b and c the correct endings to the following sentences:

1.      The commonest substance which we call water is the most potent and most wonderful thing on the face of the earth.

2.      When silt-laden water mixes with the salt water of the sea there is rapid precipitation of the suspended matter leading to fertile soil in such areas.

3.      India, being a country which has only seasonal rainfall has the problem of an immense quantity of rain water running off the ground.

4.      The most advantageous result of having availability of electric power is that it helps underground water to be tapped to a greater extent than at present.

C.    Mark the right meanings or symptoms of the words in the sets given below:

1.      Stagnate = vegetate

2.      Vacillation = indecisiveness

3.      Enervation = exhaustion

4.      Negate = deny

5.      Abnegate =  sacrifice

6.      Easily tricked = gullible

7.      Inexperienced = naive

8.      Noble = morally good

9.      Frank = ingenuous

10.  Ennui = boredom

D.    Write the parts of speech and stress to the following words.

Draught = /’dra:ft/ noun                           Potent = /ˈpəʊt(ə)nt/ adjective

Apparent = /əˈpar(ə)nt/     adjective          import = /ɪmˈpɔːt/ verb

Appreciable = /əˈpriːʃəb(ə)l/ adjective       harnessing = ˈhɑːnəsng/ adjective

                                                                                          -By Prem Prasad Sigdel

Save Your Liver

-Richard Selzer

Summary:

Liver is the largest glad of our body which weighs three to four pounds. It is divided into two great parts: right and left, and two small parts: the caudate and the quadrate. It helps in increasing metabolism and digestive function in our body. The tissues of liver suck nourishments from blood vessels and transfer it to our whole body. Liver has various functions in our body; however the main function is to produce a pint of bile a day. Without liver we can’t digest any fat neither can we digest a single raisin per day. This organ is granted to men to digest fatty substances. If not digested, we would become irritated and our day becomes bad. The main agent of such damage is alcohol so we need to stay away from this substance.

Man had started taking alcohol from Neolithic Age or earlier for romance. They had taken it accidently or by some curious fellow as fermented honey or mead at first as written in Beowulf. The euphoria of alcohol has been becoming popular among humans though it has been constantly prohibited. It has been thought that alcohol has ensured one of the parts of happy nature to humans. Alcohol has been continuing from its first presence on the planet.

Our body is perfectly suited for taking and utilizing alcohol. It seems that we are like alcohol lamps but we want to devour alcohol too much. It is absorbed not only from the intestine rather from stomach directly. It has been taken as inhalant by the lungs and rectum as well. Once you have taken it into your body it is the duty of liver to digest. The strongest liver can produce only one or two pint of bile in a day which can digest only a less amount of alcohol. Remaining alcohol would directly go to the bloodstream; then it goes to brain which gives happiness to human id. It seems like wearing a hat of your wife and roaming to neighbors’ houses of being joker. If you don’t take it in a high amount, it won’t give happiness to you. Moderate drinking wouldn’t affect anymore; or after sometimes the brain would come to the original or normal state soon. Moreover, if there is hangover, the drinker will feel guilty.

A French physician, Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec, described about the disease named cirrhosis of the liver at the turn of the 19^th century. The same gentle man had invented stethoscope while listening the bosoms of his patients by his naked ear. He had taken this idea from street urchins who played with rolled-up paper. The entire medical personnel have given credit to him for creating interpersonal distance. He had also found the autopsy of livers that were yellow, knobby and hard. He had named it as cirrhosis taking help of Greek word kirrhos that means tawny. Our liver becomes yellow due to fat; it becomes hard due to scar; and it becomes knobby due to the mound produces by scars. We have faced it in our daily life that cirrhosis would cause by drinking alcohol.

Alcohol is metabolized into the liver by alcohol dehydrogenase which transformed it into energy. However people would ignore the fact that alcohol is poisonous to the liver when it is loaded with fat. If more alcohol is consumed and more fat is deposited, it will turn yellowish in color. If you take more booze (wine), liver will be loaded with fat and it comes out from our belly. We can even feel it by our finger protruding on the right side of the abdomen.

It can’t be understood fully till today how the inflammation and scarring would cause cirrhosis. It may cause from other factors rather than drinking. It is susceptibility. One of the Jews claimed that they wouldn’t get cirrhosis as they don’t consume more alcohol due to family ties and high motivation to survive. But Jews are the most emancipated drinkers these days like the Irish and French. Still Jews don’t get cirrhosis more though they drink alcohol. We can see this evidence in Israel.

Another measure of susceptibility is those who don’t have hair on the chest. It would be in males; but female don’t have hair on their chest. The women would be away from such disease because they don’t have hair on their chest. The writer jokingly wrote that hairless chest men and underwear manufacturers are the attackers of cirrhosis. In the past, It was also thought that cirrhotic men lost their chest hair; but it was wrong.

Some would argue that climate affected it. The people who live close to the equator would have chance to get cirrhosis rather than those who live away from equator. The quantity which makes Norwegian little bit toxic would make the Indian madder.

The writer didn’t see difference between the imbibers of alcohol and alcoholics. They both develop fatty livers which is the precursor of cirrhosis. Only one martini can increase the level of stain in our liver. It increases one half per cent of the weight of the organ above normal three percent. Drunkards have got 25% more chance of dying by cirrhosis in comparison to others. Some unalcoholists have also got such diseases as well as some modest drinkers. There is no such measurement of the purity of spirits consumed by any person. All sorts of drinking like beer, whisky, and wine equally affect the person. No one would or could claim that only a single item drinker doesn’t get it. The writer felt pity on them as they have shown innocent nature regarding drinking. The effect of alcohol can have lessened along with the time of drinking. On the other hand, cirrhosis is the disease of forties or fifties. However, some of the younger people are also affected by it. One of his patients was an eighteen years old girl who returned to her room with a continuous supply of Thunderbird wine.

Nutrition is also one of the factors of causing cirrhosis. Mostly drinkers don’t take protein because they can’t digest it. We should think either the drinkers wouldn’t eat protein or they can’t afford it. Mostly sick liver can’t handle protein.

Nitrogenous material of protein would pass directly to the brain from cirrhotic liver when it couldn’t digest protein. If cirrhotic can stop eating protein, s/he could improve brain well. The case of Sir Andrew Aguecheek of Twelfth Night was full of angriness due to the indigestion problem of protein.

A study report of Chicago’s inhabitants observed that they had taken alcohol in various forms. Among 3900 cases, only ten percent would die from cirrhosis. It means the alcoholics have got ten percent more possibility of getting cirrhosis in comparison to others.

There is a need to find out which are in 10% among the affected persons so that others can enjoy. Winston Churchill was one of the examples who consumed a fifth of whisky per day but he lived 90 years. If anyone is transcendented or felt guilty of drinking, s/he can regain the original condition of its color and size. He is in doubt whether the spree drinkers would follow it and get rid of cirrhosis. Leaving drinking would be like sin to those who have been drinking since long.

Construction of the liver is like hexagonal tiles stick to the bathroom of first-class hotels. The blocks are called as hepatocytes or cellular units of the liver. We can see singular uniformity through microscope. They seem like the antlers of a buck which make lovely structure like the maze of hallways and rectangular room. Two types of blood vessels work with the liver: one brings food and toxins from the intestine. Next delivers oxygen from the heart and the lungs. There is a system of canaliculi that puts shame to the Greece and Rome. These canals carry the bile to one of larger caliber. Ultimately they carry such bile to two large tubes emerging from the undersurface of the liver. These two houses carry out all the functions of the liver. Our meal is picked over, sorted out and stored for future use in the cubicles. Starch is changed into glycogen and released for energy when it is needed. Protein is broken down into building blocks of amino acids. They would repair the dying old tissue of human body. They also release vitamin and antibodies into the bloodstream. Liver is the other name of busyness in our body. It helps to select the harmful toxic components like DDT and alcohol and keeps in a secret closet or return back to the intestine for excretion. It has also recycled the old blood cells and makes our body fresh and active.

There is limit of the liver. It will dysfunction along with the lunch that we have taken carelessly. Unhygienic meal items like excessive fat would damage the liver. The dysfunction would increase inflammation; it implodes and kills the cells. Then scar would occur; that twists and disturbs the function of the liver. The blocks couldn’t function well and avalanche would occur in it that disturbs absorption and secretion. Gradually it would occur throughout the liver and liver turns into useless mass of our body.

Then the bile is obstructed and it will go to the bloodstream. It causes jaundice to a person. Faces turns into toothpaste white and urine dark as wine. Our belly is full of water from weeping liver like the royal servant who is capriciously victimized. The entire body feels uncomfortable. Our palms turn red; blood vessels leap and crawl from our skin and neck. Male’s breasts enlarge and testicles turn soft and functionless.

The writer suggested us to be happy to be away from cirrhosis. He gives an example of Prometheus.  He was chained to a rock and his liver was pecked by a vulture at day time and he would be recovered at night time. He was a classical example of the regeneration of liver tissue. Humans also can regenerate their damaged liver as well. It required avoiding alcohol from their daily meal. The cured liver will regain the tissue damaged already. It will recreate in a fast speed like the development of the ray of starfish from the stump of the old. New channels would be formed; old ones would be repaired; walls and roof would be maintained. The new house would be constructed soon keeping away the terribleness of the affection.

The writer has given suggestions to feel good being unaffected from cirrhosis. Sixty percent of cirrhotic who stop drinking would be recovered within five years. It is unlike brain damage which can’t be cured at any cost. However we can easily cure the liver problem staying away from alcohol.

A.    Read the given text and answer the following questions briefly:

1.      What is one of the important functions of the liver?

The most important function of the liver is to produce a pint of bile per day.

2.      How did man’s romance with alcohol begin?

It was begun with romance or accidental tasting.

3.      What are the after-effects of consuming alcohol?

The after-effect is damaging our liver seriously.

4.      What is the most common cause of cirrhosis and what does a cirrhotic liver look like?

It is drinking or alcohol. The cirrhotic liver looks like pale, swelling and heavy.

5.      What are the links between the state of the liver and the kind of nutrition that one has?

State of liver and nutrition is directly connected but over consuming of the alcohol damages it.

B.     Choose a, b, c and d the correct endings to the following sentences:

1.      The liver can oxidize only a very small quantity of alcohol at a time. The remainder is exhaled.

2.      The intake of alcohol causes the liver to become loaded with fat.

3.      Alcohol is not absorbed from the digestive system but taken into the blood directly.

4.      Jews don’t get cirrhosis easily because of their strong family ties. 

C.    Give the noun forms of the following adjectives:

Scrupulous = scrupulousness                                affectionate = affectionateness

Apologetic = aplogeticism                                    complacent = complacence

Introductory = introduction                                  permanent = permanence

Dirty = dirt                                                            sympathetic = sympathy

Flexible = flexibleness                                         solitary = solitarian

Playful = playfulness                                            doubtful = doubt

Equal = equality                                                    fluent = fluentness

Intense = intenseness                                            Enjoyable = enjoyableness                 

Hostile = hostility                                                 Accidental = accident                        

Elegant = elegance                                                Humble = humbleness                                                                                           -By Prem Prasad Sigdel