Tag Archive for: india

Best of 2009: Bottled Water for Pervs

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Our favorite global water brand discovered in 2009! I dare you to refresh yourself with this bottle!

We’re taking it easy the last week of the year with reposts of some of our 2009 faves! In case you missed it: the bottle that proved “the best” is always a fleeting label.

—REPOSTED, Original Link Here—
The amazing Yellow Surprise motivated me to begin this blog and I believed that it (along with ASS) would reign supreme in funny-water brand-land forever. Never say never. Yellow Surprise and ASS, meet the challenger, Golden Stream.

Eternal thanks to bikespod on Flickr for sharing this memory of his trip to Varkala, a coastal town on the Southern tip of India.

What Modern Water Engineers Can Learn from Ancient Infrastructure

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From TED: The ancient ingenuity of water harvesting: With wisdom and wit, Anupam Mishra talks about the amazing feats of engineering built centuries ago by the people of India’s Golden Desert to harvest water. These structures are still used today — and are often superior to modern water megaprojects. You’re likely familiar with TED (the organization has logged 50 million views since they began posting video two years ago) and TED Talks have become a powerful cultural force. TED presents short lectures from some of the best thinkers in the world from a broad range of disciplines with the mission of “spreading ideas” via “riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world.” TED began in 1984 as a conference to bring together people from the increasingly melding worlds of Technology, Entertainment, and Design. Since then its scope has widened to embrace prominent thought leaders from around the globe. See Anupam Mishra’s bio here or access an interactive transcript of this video.

The Absurdity of Umbrellas

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A 2008 finalist in Vimeo’s Intelligent Use of Water Contest, Rainwater Harvesting is a beautiful clip from India’s Centre for Science and Environment that suddenly makes umbrellas seem ridiculous (at least in the manner we currently use them.)

Browse some of the other videos in the collection–a fine activity for your next slow, introspective rainy day.

Rainwater Harvesting from Intelligent Use of Water Contest on Vimeo.

It’s Shit You Drink: Back-Alley Indian Water Bottlers

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We’re generally trusting souls over here in our U.S. ivory tower but elsewhere in the world, trust not when it comes to  your drinking water supply.

In the memorably titled story “It’s Shit You Drink in Bottled Water,” The Times of India Amedabad reports on widespread scamming there in the packaged water business with nauseating details that have us squirming here in suburbia. (This is nothing new in India.)

Laws governing packaged water from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) are stringent and include requirements that every bottle cap be wrapped with a coloured plastic seal with batch number and date of manufacture. But law does not equal compliance and dozens of back-alley bottlers fake the ISI marks and seals on dirty bottles filled under filthy conditions.

(Hmmm. That Plywood Water seems a little less amusing.)

If that seems bad, you could have a look at something badder, like this photo by Engineers without Borders from Uganda, contrasting bottled water against a sample of the local drinking supply.

Before we get carried away bellyaching about the evils of bottled water, it’s helpful to have a look at this bagged drinking water from Ghana. I suppose this is slightly more enviro-friendly than bottles! But I highly doubt that those in Uganda lucky enough to have access to it are congratulating themselves on how green they are.

We Ivory Tower dwellers have much to be grateful for as we “celebrate” Drinking Water Week. Maybe now would be a good time for us count our blessings and cut a check to our favorite water charity.)


The Perversion of Bottled Water

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The amazing Yellow Surprise motivated me to begin this blog and I believed that it (along with ASS) would reign supreme in funny-water brand-land forever. Never say never. Yellow Surprise and ASS, meet the challenger, Golden Stream.

Eternal thanks to bikespod on Flickr for sharing this memory of his trip to Varkala, a coastal town on the Southern tip of India.

I Wooden Drink This

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We don’t need to tell you, again, to read labels, do we? Daniel did, and discovered that his water was bottled by an Indian plywood company. (Photo from his Picasa album India May 2008.) Some might like the subtle oak-y aroma!

But it’s certified, right?! JAS-ANZ is the government-appointed accreditation body for Australia and New Zealand. A search at their website produces zero results for this company.

Bad Bottle #17: Somewhere faraway there breathes the soul of a copywriter

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I don’t know where the site www.finewaters.com originates, but the enthusiastic writer/s certainly speak English as a second language. And how charming it is, their passion and enthusiam breaking the language barrier to reveal the essence of the sensual, passionate lifestyle-sell.

For Just Born Spring Drops (irresistable branding in name alone!), from the Chennai region of India, the product description reads:

Just Born Spring Drops is a great gift by Mother Nature. Crisp and clear it emerges at an altitude of 6,500 Sqft. cloud kissing peak of the Nilgiris Mountain.

The spring flows from the catchments area through the mountain layers naturally filtered and emerges in an unspoiled ecological protected environment, pure and intact where it is bottled at source at 10 C that maintains its purity and freshness.

To no one’s surprise, the company “have identified the benefit of this unique singular tasting crisp and clear water more suitable for babies and children. Ideal for the preparation of babies formula, cereals, juices, foods and soups.”

Bad Bottle #11: A Transparent Marketing Ploy

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When faced with a myriad of choices in bottled water, heaven knows we want the one that’s safe. Seen in India by Flickr-er Chinita Jill, who reports that SAFE is the brand that sustained them during a desert safari in Jaisalmer.