Delhiwale: Summer’s underground clubs

Boys jump into a baoli in Delhi, recalling summers past. Baolis, ancient stepwells, offer cool refuge in the city's scorching heat.

He raises his arms, lowers his head, stands motionless, seeming to take a deep breath, and—oh look—he is jumping down from his high perch! Splash. He plunges into the water. Another boy dives in, followed by another, and another, and another.

Celebrating the monuments to water. (HT Photo)

This is a baoli scene somewhere in Delhi. It is not from this year, for the stepwell stays locked these days.

The scene nevertheless recalls the Delhi of summers past. In the old days, long before the era of coolers and ACs, heat-stricken Delhiwale presumably headed to baolis in search of cool breeze. As the temperature rose and the water level progressively sank, the sweating citizens would clamber down the steps, seeking bearable refuges, plunging deeper into the shaded well. (In the monsoon, the same stone steps would sink under the rising water.)

A shrine to water, occasionally embellished with sculptured columns and lattice walls, baolis exist after the manner of a confidential space. They discreetly unite light to shade, earth to water. An elaborate baoli may consist of a stairway punctuated with landings of pavilions and chambers, the stone steps culminating at the bottom of the well.

To reach out to these wells will be simultaneously an excuse to offer homage to Delhi’s hidden beauty, for these monuments are denied the privilege of easy viewing, being exiled under the ground. Meanwhile, try to identify the baoli in which the boys in the photos above are jumping into. Hint: it is Delhi’s only surviving stepwell with an active underground spring.