BAIM.. THE MOTHER OF LIFE..

BAIM.. THE MOTHER OF LIFE..

By Pascoal DE Chicalim.

BAIM (well) is God's water holes on earth for the living beings. When God created the earth he made everything available for us humans. Only a little hard work was necessary to get the gifts from God, he hid the water in the ground to preserve it, we only had to dig for it and the precious water would rush out. So humans build a structure called WELL or BAIM in Konkani to quench our thirst and use the water for our daily life. MAIM TUJEA FATLEAN ASA BAIM I used to tease our grandmother👵 she would look at me with a sly grin and say XAMAICHI FOKANAM KORTAI BABA, I would go and hug my grandma and say NA GHE MAI BEXTE MHUNTLAM. lovingly she would put 25 paise in my hand and say CHOL BABA MHAKA BAINCHER THAUN DON KOLXE UDOK HADD, AIZ MHAKA NAUNK ZAI. Having received the prized coins I would then rush with the Kolxe and Razu (choir string) to bring the freshwater from the well which was located below the hill. It was a difficult task to walk among the Rocky path to reach the well but it was well worth it after receiving the coins.

 

Since there was no water connections through taps at that time We had to go to the wells to collect water for daily use. We didn't have a well of our own since we stayed on top of the hill, our neighbour had a deep well but it was a tiring task to draw water from the well and the neighbours did not like us coming to their house to take water due to previous enmity of ancestors. We had to go down the hill to fetch water and wash our clothes. My mom used to go to the well every day in the morning to bring water first and then to wash the clothes of the entire family, it was a tedious task but my mom enjoyed it with the other neighbours. Every evening she would take me and my sisters to the well to fetch water, while I would take my bath near the well itself and enjoy the freshwater they would take the water home. The water of the wells were very fresh and cold and was used even to wash our cycles and pet dogs too.

 

There were many wells in my village but down the hill so for the feast of SANJOAO it was a great day to jump in all the wells of villagers be it Hindu or Christians, nobody stopped us from jumping in the wells. Today there are not many wells to jump in and some people who are selfish don't give for the sanjoao revellers to jump in their wells. There were no electric motors to draw water from the wells so people used to draw water from the well manually by a rope tied to the kolso or xhindi made of copper we used to say, it was dropped in the well and the removed water was transferred to other big kolxe. Some houses had the wells dug close to their houses so they used to draw the water from their window by tieing a gaddi to the roof and lowering a rope through it in the well, this was an easy task but not all wells had it. In monsoons the height of the water used to reach to the brim, we could even touch the water. Every time we felt thirsty after playing we used to rush to the wells and quench our thirsts by asking water with the women drawing the water.

 

Friends today you can't find many wells as they have been buried naturally due to neglect, some were purposely buried because the source of water had stopped because they were not cleaned which was required every five years for the smooth flow of water. Many wells are in ruins and the water is unusable. When the government started providing water through pipes the wells and the water from it were neglected so wells started drying up. Today many houses do have wells but they don't draw the water manually but pump it through motors in their houses and use it only during the summer season if taps run dry. Friends our groundwater is getting scarce as such today digging of wells is not possible as the water level is deep but my humble requests to Goenkars is to please restore the old wells, let's make them useful because you never know when the piped water will run dry. VIVA.