Stories of water

It may not be needed but it still functions

For centuries we create, use and move on to the next thing; either we forget, or we learn to exist without it. Things that were once an integral part of our lives has now become a mere spectator.

We depend on structures built to aid and support in providing them to use over the centuries for some of our basic water needs. Through different landscapes, systems have been made to give us access to the resource that is a necessity and a medium. The systems have been designed for a specific function to serve those around or just passing by. Some held water for the thirsty camel that has been trotting for kilometres under the blazing sun or a system designed to drain into a parched parcel of land to ease the farmer’s woe or a place to perform rituals or cleanse before entering a religious site or a series of structures to reduce the handheld effort of grinding grains every couple of weeks.

Moving ahead with time, we moved on, innovated, and created efficient systems that saved us time and performed the task for us. Depending more on technology and lesser on ourselves. With this change, some of the buildings that once supported us are now fighting to support themselves. Although on a ticking timeline and neglected, they try to perform and aid the task they were once designed for. Throughout the country stand countless structures that still hold water with steps that long for footsteps or turbines that turn without the sound of two stones grinding against the other or the tether marks that remain on the stone near the well’s mouth. More than the buildings, the associations, feelings, and memories resonating from the structures reflect the present within the past.

The article is a part of an ongoing research on past, present and future stories of water vernacular of India.