CHERRAPUNJEE (MEGHALAYA): On the way to Cherrapunjee, at a tiny town called Mawmihthied, girls line up near a water tap with a long queue of empty buckets. As one nears what was once ranked the world's wettest place, there are more such groups waiting to fill up for the day.

Laribinglin, 26, one of those hanging around the tap -- they are called 'platform' here -- says scrounging for water has become part of daily schedule. "Sometimes we get proper drinking water once in three days," she complains. "The source is one and half hours away. It is not possible to walk there every day."

Those of us who have some hope of remaining alive for the next 20 years will be very worried about the doomsday predictions for the environment. Looks like the world won't just be a hothouse, but a very bleak house