The Mysterious Well

Nalgonda, Andra Pradesh, India                                               3rd April 2017

   After travelling a lot in the sun, visiting too many forts, I and my friends were heck tired. We were searching for something cold to drink, maybe some fruit juice- there was nothing. Then my Valerian friend who is fond of magic and tea pointed us to a tea shop, I agreed solely because of the scorching sun. The shop was ancient with wobbly wooden chairs and tables and a lot of bananas hanging in the front.

“Is there anything cold?” I asked

“Chelma Tanni eruk”- the man said - It meant water from a well nearby.

We were very sceptical to drink water – obviously, it was from a well, nearby, non-filtered.   

   My friend ordered a tea, I sat there watching people, over hearing some interactions, 'I do it' I know it's ugly but 'I do it'. We heard people talking about something magical with mysterious eyes and surprised faces. They talked about it for a long time that it grabbed our attention to it.  They were swearing upon this mysterious well where the water is everlasting, that it tasted like coconut, no matter rain or drought water level never changes, for some the water was addiction they cannot go a day without it and the well stood for centuries.

   And we heard even darker things that there are engravings at the foot of the well written by gods and that every new moon day a star will rise from the well and much more.

  Our science guy Dexy got creepy. For him and Aristotle, “the natural substance water per se tends to be tasteless”

 He asked one person – “Pure water is tasteless, is it not?

“Who said pure water is tasteless?” He replied “Our water tastes like coconut water and it is the purest”

“I am 55 years old, I remember my grandfather employing carriers to fetch water from Konda Chelma by paying ₹10 a month. That was in the 1960s,” – he added

Ok! ‘Konda’ meaning hillock ‘Chelma’ meaning ground water well. And this was the mysterious well we were talking about.

   No matter what, people in Nalgonda loved the taste of their water.

We knew this would be exciting, we knew this no magic. So we wanted to know the geology of the well and find a rational explanation for all of this.

The nearest thing to a geologist we had, was an archaeologist. His name was Nagaraju literally meaning “the prince of snake” or we call him Prince of villages.

   So I phoned him, he was excited about the same as he was writing a book about Ancient architectures. He started citing references about the well, I told him to call me back after some concrete backings and clarity.

My friend had his tea we were back on street gathering some field knowledge. If we find somebody interesting we just go talk to them. Some were hesitant to talk at first or talk at all, some were pretty cool.

People believe that the water has healing properties. According to Md. Shakeel, who sells this water in cans: “It prevents enda soda (sun stroke) and has other benefits.”

   We asked if they ever fell ill after drinking the unfiltered Chelma water, the locals say: “We would fall ill only if we stop drinking this water.”

Our Archeologist called me back, he explained me

  “Konda Chelma is a water well at the foot of the town’s two hills, Kaapurala Gutta and Latif Saheb Gutta.” (Difficult pronunciation just two hills though)

“It dated back to hundreds of years, and it is believed that the wells were constructed by ‘Kunduru Cholas’ during the 12th and 13th century”

Kunduru Cholas were governors of Mighty Chola Kingdom of South India.

“Much like Forests springs, which drips from a plant’s roots, the water in the hillock percolates through all the layers and gets collected in the well.” He added

“So it is safe to drink?” I asked

“Hello, Hello I lost him” bad luck no reception on the phone.

   We continued our venture towards the foot of the hills to find the well. We were very fortunate to meet a self-proclaimed water rights activist; nowadays it has become very common in a country like India, a water deficit country.

  The water rights activist said to us “These age old water sources offered some relief to the fluoride-affected districts. A recent ten parameter water quality test conducted showed it was safe.”

“Fluoride content in the well was 0.42 mg/L when BIS standard specified is 1mg/L or less that means it is absolutely safe for drinking”

He was worried about the situation of Water carriers in the village. He said “They used to sit for hours in queue to collect just a litre of water for the VIPs during summer and they had to carry it for long distances”

“All of us have some or the other kind of addictions like alcohol or coffee or tea. But these villagers have an addiction that is very unique and that too on water from a well.” He added

We were amazed by his knowledge about the well. We thanked him.

   I noticed one thing as we were moving closer to the well and myths around it was breaking down one by one.

   Finally, we reached the well. It was on a rectangular platform about 6 inches from the ground, and the opening of the well was made of brown stones in cuboid shape almost 3ft from the ground, 3ft wide and 3ft in length, and people drew water from both ends. Oh! It was ancient and ordinary.

   If you ask me is there anything new? Yes, there was this high mast light that looked new for drawing water at night.

I saw an old woman; she was very old, trying to fill her water pots. I enquired her about the well.

“Oh Boy! You came this far to talk about the well, dear” she said

“Yes, Nan! We heard it is wonder-well where water lasts forever, is it?” I asked

“That is bullshit! During the last drought I was here lad, water was so deep that our ropes could not reach them. All our family faced a tough time like everyone during the summer. Yay! It’s just a normal well like anywhere else” she said

We passively hated her for demystifying very last bit of it and she went home after giving us a hesitant smile.

   Time went by examining the picturesque scenes and people around. The night has started to fall, so we quickly packed our things, off we went to the closest railway station.

Lessons Learned:

   First things first, “In the sun go for water not to any fortress with scorching stones beneath your feet”

   Secondly, we got to know about the importance of a watershed to a community, though it was wrapped with mysticism. I personally thought it worked fine, people had that cultural devotion to it and it was the livelihood for many.

   Then, we learned about the history and specific geology of the place. We were able to understand the nature, behaviour and feelings of the people.

And truly it was an adventurous and knowledgeable journey. Whether it was Reality or mysticism it did kind of hit my nomad heart.

Signing off