please... I need some water... no ice

I love water... no, I mean I really really love water; more specifically, water at 25 degrees Celsius. I can spend hours in the pool and the ocean. I love to get wet in the rain. Last, but not least, I love drinking water. It is however, only after coming to the US that I have truly realised how much I love water.

I sit in an airline and among all those tempting choices of beverages, the one for me continues to be water... "no ice". What I get is a small plastic glass that holds about 50ml of water at close to freezing temperature. Had I not specified "no ice," I would be offered the same plastic glass but 70% filled with solid ice and only about 15ml water. The average human adult requires about 2 litres of water per day to avoid dehydration. An adult stays awake for about 14 hrs a day. This means that he/she needs to consume water at a rate of about 150ml per hour. If I travel for one hour, even if I had been drinking 150 ml every hour, I would need 3 servings of "water - no ice".

Now, I do not drink 150 ml every hour. I drink water in bursts - about 250-300ml in each burst. I am in the air, 30000 feet above sea level and I need my burst to quench my thirst!!! That's about 6 servings of "water-no ice" and all I get is one!!! Sure, I can ask for more, but each time I ask for more, I get about enough to quench a rat's thirst and after 20 minutes of waiting. I feel worse than Oliver Twist.

I go to a restaurant. I ask for water. The waiter brings a glass filled 80% with ice and a smattering of water that is trying to "fit in" uncomfortably among the cubes. I asked for water in its liquid form and not ice!!! Even if I am careful to say "no ice", the temperature of water in the glass would still be close to freezing... even if there were a blizzard outside. Come on! My body temeperature is 98.4 degrees F and you are giving me water at 32 degrees F - I don't want my internal organs frozen!

These days I say, "may I please have some warm water, I would prefer it if you microwaved it for some time".

Besides, buying bottled water is as expensive as buying Coke. Two-thirds of the planet is water , not Coke!!!

During my one month stay in Germany and France, I had a similar experience with water. First, H2O is out of fashion here, it is C2H5OH or some similar stuff. You ask for water and what you get, by default, is chilled aerated water - not water.

Somehow, back in India, when I wanted water I got water - in liquid form, usually free, and at 25 degrees Celsius not close to freeezing. Ironically, India is much warmer than the US or Europe. What I fail to understand is this obsession with ingesting cold water in cold countries - I would have guessed the opposite.

Water, water everywhere but always too cold to drink - that's my pain here in the US. This is perhaps culture shock but more than that, it's thermal shock.