Thirst

The riveting story of a heroic girl living in Mumbai who decides she is going to fight water inequity even if it comes at a cost.

Twelve-year-old Minni lives in a poor neighborhood in Mumbai, India, without good access to water-it only runs a few hours a day at a communal tap. And lately the water shortages have gotten worse and fights are breaking out on the water line. Meanwhile, in the high-rise building where her mom works as a maid, water streams out of every tap and there's a rooftop swimming pool. This inequity becomes even more real to Minni on the night she and her brother accidentally witness members of the powerful "water mafia" draining water tanks to make money off this precious commodity. When Minni's mom falls ill, she temporarily takes over her job in the high-rise and experiences firsthand the disparities between the classes-the most grating being that she has no time to study for her finals because she is catering to the whims of a rich family, including their own twelve-year-old who is being pampered because of her upcoming tests. But what Minni doesn't expect to find there is the man she saw stealing water. When it turns out her mother works for the boss of the most influential water-stealing gang, Minni has a frightening choice to make: turn him in and endanger her family-or do nothing and hurt her community.

Story Locale: Mumbai, India