The Village of Pinan & Siliserh Lake

Yesterday I went to the village of Pinan, near Alwar with John, Jason, Georgie, Som, and Joe. We were visiting Jumma, a member of the band Dharohar who is now very dear friends with Jason.

Some background: Jason is a beat-boxer from the UK working with the Jaipur Virasat Foundation to raise local and international awareness of traditional Rajasthani musicians. (I am currently working for JVF to redesign their website). For the past few years Jason and another UK artist, Bex Mather, have been traveling back and forth from the UK to Jaipur to perform with Dharohar at festivals across India. They are planning on a summer tour of Europe.

Djouma lives in the village of Pinan, near Alwar. Since most of this blog's readership is from the United States or the UK, a map might be useful:

On the way, we stopped at a Baoli (the name of which now escapes me, as do the names of so many people and places I encounter here). Baoli are commonly called 'step-wells'. They are highly-wrought pits with ascending and descending sets of stairs. Baoli were fashioned to trap the inundation of water that came with the monsoon season, and to save it for drinking and irrigation in the dry months. It's quite an extraordinary experience seeing one; imagine a mayan step-pyramid inverted into the earth:

As with most important landmarks in India, there was also a place for devotion and prayer.







I'm going to save the photos and my experience in Pinan for tomorrow. Stay tuned!