In 2017 I embarked on a journey to turn a piece of land in the hills into a paradise I could live on. The land called Turiya Farms was barren when I first started working on it. We had to cover many basics starting with locating and securing a water source.

To start with, we had a water diviner determine the location of our water source using some combination of mystic ancient arts and science. We then hired a machine to dig out the pit there, that sure enough was connected to an underground spring, an idea place to place a water source for our land.

It soon became clear that our pit had to be fortified to protect it from collapsing or eroding in the heavy rains and other forces of nature. I was adamant that we don't use cement as a good number of local farmers have, simply because it isn't a local material. Kodaikanal is boulder territory and it makes sense to use the materials we have onsite to the best of our ability. To do this, we hired a local mason who was excellent at cutting our boulders by hand, and making them all fit together.

The sides are fortified with rock walls, with the rocks simply stacked on top of each other. Each rock is cut from a larger rock with a chisel in such a way that the pieces interlock with each other like a jigsaw puzzle. Smaller rocks and pebbles then plug in the gaps. Plumb lines are used to ensure the walls are straight. The well is built up in layers, starting from the bottom. The mason even included stepping stones to descend into the well if needed. Slowly, all the sides are fortified.