300 years and all is well

Once upon a time ....

My vacation job during the final years of college landed me in a building right next to Churchgate station. That did not help me because I lived where the nearest station, as it might still make rail sense to some of you, was part of the central network while Churchgate was the western suburban terminus.

Even after I joined the ranks of the commuting millions, I would often ignore the shorter route and walk straight to Flora Fountain from VT and then turn right towards Churchgate. That’s when I would pass the well.

“Strange location for a well,” was what I probably thought when I saw it the first time, nearly half a century ago. Later, I would gather that it was sacred to the Parsis, who worshipped fire in the few temples I would occasionally pass by.

Little did I know then that I would go on to learn a lot more about Parsis after I got married to one.

And just a couple of days ago, I finished reading Waternamah,  a commemorative volume to celebrate “300 years of Mumbai’s Bhikha Behram Well”. Yes, that very well.

My faith or the lack of it did not come in the way when I read the book. But it definitely “watered my faith”.

“Faith. Without it we are deadwood; even the atheist reposes faith in what he considers its opposite. Faith is at the heart of our human-ness and our humane-ness.

“Then there’s Water. Without it too we are dead. Human, animals, plants all need this life force. As does planet Earth itself.

“Faith and water. This duo is the mystic wellspring of our revered Bhikha Behram no Kuvo.”

Bhikha Behram sank this well in 1725, obeying a persistent dream and despite the scorn of all. After all, who sinks a well right next to the Arabian Sea, as it was then? Surely, he would get useless brackish water?

No! “Lo and behold, almost immediately, they hit upon an underground freshwater spring.”

Six months later, the well would save the life of Mumbai. A terrible epidemic had forced the closure of all other wells that were contaminated. This was the only well that safely quenched the thirst of half of Mumbai’s population, including animals.

Chance or faith?

As the Bible says: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen.”

One of the contributors to the book writes: “This have I learnt in all my years as a neurosurgeon: only love—the tenacity of it, the belief in it and the infinite shapes it can take—makes life more stubborn than death.”

It has taken stubborn love and faith for the well to survive so far.

In 1994, a toilet block came up within a few yards of the life-giving well. After a long-winded court battle, the threat to the sanctity of the well was demolished.

In 2004, “miscreants destroyed all the beautiful leaded stained-glass panels that adorned the pavilion around the Well.” Those were restored.
 
More recently it was learnt the Mumbai Metro Line 3 would pass near the well. In 2017, the metro authorities assured that all precautions and mitigation measures would be taken during tunnelling. “The tunnelling has been completed and no adverse effect noticed.”

Unsullied, “it has continued to slake the spiritual thirst of the community—as well as the biological thirst of everyone, irrespective of caste, colour or creed.”

If we must have wars, let those be only to quell those who are hellbent on sullying the peaceful water we need for our very life.

Then, very like this well, we shall all live ...

...happily ever after.

​Thank you for this book, Bachi Karkaria!

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All quotes from the book.