Some day while fretting about endless traffic jams in and around Connaught Place, take a deep breath, park your vehicle at the nearest place and walk down to Ugrasen ki Baoli. Located less than a kilometre away from the maddening traffic of CP, this step well is a splendid treasure house of calm and reflection. As you descend each step, birds fly across. The air is moist. And sunshine filters through the side. Bats love the place too; some urchins frequent it. Most Delhiites stay painfully ignorant of its existence; heritage for them is all about the Red Fort and Qutub Minar. Baolis could as well belong to another age, time and place.
Yet, contrary to the common perception, Delhi is rich with baolis. Just a few kilometres from Ugrasen ki Baoli is another stepwell in Nizamuddin. Again, thousands frequent the sufi’s dargah, few very go down to the baoli. The stepwell, for many, stays door ast – remember what Nizamuddin Auliya told Ghyasuddin Tughlaq when the latter was approaching Delhi in a fit of rage?
Talking of medieval baolis, reminds one of Mehrauli, that wonderful storehouse of early medieval architecture. Also, once the Capital city of a Mughal king called Shah Alam. Pity, Shah’s alam (universe) extended merely half a dozen kilometres in and around Mehrauli. But today in that little place lie two breath-taking baolis. One is fittingly called Rajaon ki Baoli; the other is the more therapeutic Gandak ki Baoli. Their names are a giveaway. The architecture is more utilitarian, the stuff much more durable. And with the little tales associated with them, these baolis tell us about the days gone by: times when our kings and princes stored water, preserved it for the common man, and the rich happily them out for the less privileges.
Today, they remind us that the State was concerned about the aam aadmi too. Today, it is the aam aadmi who seems to have forgotten these humble stopovers in the mad rush of the city.
