Neighborhood swimming

It looks like an unassuming gate, doesn't it?

The last time I was here, it was quiet.  This time, I could hear the shouts and laughter from the street before we even stepped inside.

Gandhak ki baoli is the neighborhood swimming pool.  

How cool is that?  To swim in a stepwell?  Other than the one at Nizamuddin, I didn't know there were any still in use in Delhi.  Most don't have enough water and are full of trash (not that this water was clean).

There were even a few boys brave enough to use the old-style diving pillars.  Maybe I should say "reckless enough", because beneath that green, trashy water is a set of stone steps, strong enough to break bones.

Still in the 105 degrees it was out there, it's gotta be nice to know the stepwell makes a good place to swim.

Diving into wells

The local man who walked with us around the Ahbaneri step well as "guide" made the claim that once a year the well was opened for diving, and he pointed out the two diving platforms.

There was a local boy hanging around the Panna Mian step well and he, too, said that divers come at the end of monsoon season.

I wondered if it could really be true that people would come to jump from these heights into the green water below.
I wondered if the monsoon filled the well high enough for safe diving.
I wondered if this diving was a current event, or something that used to happen back when the baolis were active community hang outs.

Is it true?



I'm still not certain, but I did find a few photos elsewhere on the internet.
You can see that somebody was jumping back when the paint was fresh and the water was higher. (Check out this kid's diving pose.)
Whether it's a recognized event and they are allowed to do this, or whether they just jump in, I don't know.
I'll have to go back at the end of monsoon to see for myself if there are any divers.

Women's platform diving

Ten meters above the water, these women were doing handstands.
It was pretty amazing.

Even the "plain" dives, the ones where you just balance on your toes at the edge of the diving platform and drop off into spinning and twisting before hitting the water--that's pretty amazing, too.

Men's springboard diving

Diving is a cool sport.
This is the event in the games that I most wanted to see.
And I was not disappointed.
The Canadians and Australians pretty much ruled the board, but they did let the others have a turn.