26/ 100 Baoli Dog
Stepping in the Stepwell
Very close to our beautiful haveli in Jodhpur was a magnificent and ancient stepwell – Toorji Ka Jhalra Bavdi. For those who aren’t familiar with them, a stepwell (also called a kund, vav, baoli, bavdi and bawdi, and probably some other things too) is an ancient man-made water store.
The clever design, with its wonderful patterns of geometrically organised steps leading down to the water from each of the four sides, enable a person to safely navigate the very steep walls to reach the water, whatever the level is. I have visited quite a few and they are all beautiful and worth looking at if you are ever near one.
On a hot Indian summer’s day they are a great place to sit and cool off as the shady interior hides the worst of the sun’s rays. Some of them are also used for ritual bathing and ceremonies too. We visited one in Varanasi that is supposed to make it more likely that you’ll have a baby so we stood well back from that one.
We had been wandering around Jodhpur most of the morning and Fiona wanted to make a sketch of the stepwell and rest her feet. I was more than happy to sit with her (after photographing a few dogs of course) and do a spot of people-watching. Whilst Fiona and her sketchbook instantly became a huge attraction I was drawn to the action on the other side of the stepwell.
As this was a weekend there was a pre-wedding video and photoshoot taking place. In fact, there were several but one seemed to be causing the content creators more trouble than the others. The lovely couple, who might not have even met before this day, had to walk up and down and up and down and up and down the zig-zag steps over and over again until the director (yes, there really was one) was satisfied that they had just the right amount of love and tenderness in their eyes.
They take this kind of thing very seriously in India and we saw similar scenarios play out everywhere we went. I photograph this kind of thing for a living and I could see that their enjoyment of the whole scenario was wearing very thin. After literally 45 minutes of repeating the same movements their smiles were fading and cuddles were distinctly lacklustre. Perhaps their unified hatred of the whole shebang actually brought them closer together?
There is a very nice book called ‘The Vanishing Stepwells of India’ that is well worth a read if you’d like to know more about these architectural marvels.
