Mamoon came back from school one day and
said she wanted to see a well … hein … where did this come from … her request
stumped me … I searched around in my mind map ... to see if I could locate a
well somewhere near where we live … couldn’t remember … we thought we’d ask
Lakshmiamma … she is Mamoon’s caretaker and a sort of living directory of names
and places … she said something and then we began to plan our Shimoga trip and
I told Mamoon that there are lots of wells near our house in Shimoga and we’d see
one there … the house that we lived in in Mangalore (Chilimbi) had a huge deep
well behind it … and we used to draw water from it during ‘low pressure’ crises
… and I vaguely remember a well that was there in the ‘compound’ in Pandeshwar
(Late Sri Venkappanna’s Compound) where I lived my very very early life … there
were a number of houses with wells in Shimoga too … Manja’s house had one, I
think … I never thought a day would come when I’d have to scramble around
looking for a well … well!
So, in Shimoga, after the initial couple
of days of general lazing around, I remembered the promise I made Mamoon … I
asked my mother if there are any wells around … she said her friend’s house had
one … I went there, the well was there, but it was not a ‘well’ well … know
what I mean … it looked like a sort of underground water tank with a motor,
pipes, andall … it didn’t have the ‘well’y paraphernalia … the ‘moss covered’
round wall, the pulley, iron beam, ropes, metal pot … the sort of things that
make a well ‘well’ … I was not enthused … I wanted to show Mamoon a well that
looks like a well …
A day after this, Mamoon and I went on a
recce mission after dinner … we walked along the lanes around our house looking
for houses with wells … the wonderful part was we saw so many different types
of houses … what we call now as “individual houses” … some houses came and
hugged the road, almost … some stood back, allowing space for some plants and
trees, space for people to sit around, children to run around … we started
looking around for those ‘laid back’ houses and soon enough we espied a
well in one … and then in another … and two more … among them, three were ‘modern’
sort of wells … only one fit ‘my’ bill of a well … and Mamoon was thrilled …
but we didn’t want to disturb anyone at
night, so we decided to come back in the morning and see the well
properly in daylight …
When Mamoon and I went there in the
morning, a lady was washing utensils near the well … I said that my daughter
wanted to see a well and could we open the gate and come in … she welcomed us
effusively … she was smiling and had an amused look on her face all through … she
wanted to speak with Mamoon, but Mamoon turned all shy andall … but Mamoon
gladly posed for a photo with the well …
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