As a child in Kurdistan, I rationed every drop and imagined the rest of the world was blue. The place I envied most was Salt Lake City — a city so sure of its water it wrote it into its name. Then I flew there, the first flight of my life, and landed in a desert beside a lake retreating from its own shore. I had crossed the world to reach the wetter place, and the wetter place was drying too. There is no "there." There is one thirst, wearing different faces.

Dr. Jyotsnarani Jena shares her journey from a childhood riverbank in rural India to a career at the intersection of water management, innovation, and community wisdom. Her story reveals how the rivers that once held her with gentleness now struggle under pollution and neglect, and why restoring water requires science, community, and storytelling working together.