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More thirsty than others

Having flown on more than 2,500 flights in India and overseas, there is one thing that has amazed me.

The first thing that Indians (irrespective of gender, age, regionality and presumable religiosity as well) ask for the flight steward is a glass of water followed by .... another glass of water.

I find it so different even in the meetings held across the globe, it is Indians who are more likely to go for water (still and unflavoured) than their western couterparts. Also interesting is the way Indians (including me) drink water - never sipping but kind of gulping. One could say that this could be because we live in warm weather but that is not so. This habit is equally prevalent in the hill states of India. Yes, they would drink more warm water and even tea than normal water but the amount of still unflavoured water consumption is many times over any French or German.

No wonder India's bottled water business is the largest in volume terms globally. I must hasten to add that this is mainly because of risks involved/perceived in drinking tap water rather than desire to have bottled water.

It is also a observation that water consumption around lunch/dinner time is much higher than any other part of the day.

Opportunities for flavoured water....


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