852 samples of water from 72 countries! Say hello to Aqua Queen, Rahela Khorakiwala

Inspired by her teacher who was collecting water from River Jordan, the place where Jesus was baptised, Rahela Khorakiwala also collected some water in a cola bottle during a study trip to Israel.“When we went to the Dead Sea next, I collected some water from there as well,” she tells us. Almost 18 years later, Rahela has an entire cabinet dedicated to her water collection from around the world, including countries like Afghanistan, Antartica, China, Cambodia, Cuba, Finland, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Pakistan, Peru, Saudi Arabia and Slovenia. While most people plan their holidays to scenic locations, Rahela picks destinations that she doesn't have a sample of water from.

Water Collection Kit
When Rahela travels, the first thing she tosses into her suitcase is her travel kit containing 30 containers, a fishing spool, a map, pen, scissors, sticky tape and labels. 

Trips, Adventures and Discoveries

This globe cabinet, designed for the collection by her architect sister, has been replaced by a much bigger one

She always asks locals for directions to the nearest natural water body, whether it is on the map or not. “Ponds, rivers, lakes, the ocean...anything will do as long as it is a natural water source,” Rahela informs. At first, not all locals believe she collects water. Once she shows them pictures of her collection on her phone, they're always eager to help.

Recalling one of her risky adventures to collect water, she shares her experience at Hoover Dam, “It's pretty huge with a staircase descending to the dam. I requested the security officer permission to go down and begged him to call his manager, but it didn't help. So I went back and used a fishing-rod apparatus that my sister had given me to collect water. She was guiding me from the opposite end, as the ledge was too wide to see where the bottle was going. As I was pulling it back up, the bottle got stuck on the ledge and the water spilled. We spent one and a half hour trying to retrieve it. The security officer saw me and realising I was serious, he helped me reel it up”.

A Museum in the Making
Back home, she maintains an Excel spreadsheet with all the data. While earlier she stored the water in any bottle she could find—shampoo bottles from hotels, plastic cola bottles—she has now bought 1,000 bottles in bulk. She labels them with the name of the water body, the area, city, state, country, date, how it was collected and by whom. Yes, she's even got friends and relatives posting water to her from different parts of the globe; she has received more than 100 samples in a year, including one from a pond in the South Pole with the exact date, latitude and longitude when it was collected.

Sample with description sent by a friend’s 85-year-old father

In the past Rahela stored her bottles in a wooden globe designed by her architect sister, but now her parents have made an entire cabinet dedicated to her collection. What started as a not-so-serious collection in the beginning, is now her life, claims the 30 year old, who is pursuing a PhD in Law and Governance from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. She even planned her honeymoon to a destination from where she did not have a water sample. 

Every Bottle has a Story

“I have divided my 'India' collection according to the states,” shares Rahela, who has three shelves dedicated to her country. Her prized collection is water from Maharashtra's Lonar Crater Lake. “It seems no one knows where the water is coming from. It's similar in composition to the Dead Sea, but the sulphur content is extremely high, which gives it its green colour. Once I collected it in my bottle,  it started oxidising and turned from green to red, then to brown and now it's grey”.

She has tons of stories and shares a few with us, “The 14-km wide Mekong River in Laos has more than 4,000 big and small islands. Its source is in the Himalayas and it passes through Tibet, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and flows in to the South China Sea. It has 14 tributaries and is one of the longest rivers in the world”. Rahela has learnt a lot from her water collection and she hopes she can share her knowledge with others too. “Mosquito Bay in Puerto Rico is also alled the bioluminescent bay as it is full of single-celled bioluminescent dinoflagellates. These half-plant, half-animal organisms emit a flash of bluish light when agitated at night. Therefore, when you go kayaking in the bay at night, the entire water glows around you”.

When rafting in Rishikesh, you’ll find a point, where you can’t hear the gushing Ganga. “Legend has it that to avoid angering short-tempered Laxman, while he was sitting in penance at this spot, the river flowed past silently. A friend, who sent me water from here shared this story and a few years ago when I went rafting at Rishikesh, I shared the story with my raft-mates”.

She’s already donated 50 samples to the Marine Museum, but her collection is still growing.