Abdassa, Kutch

Barefoot Geologists of Kutch Series

Indhoni. The Halo of the Kutch Women
and an Essential Fashion Accessory.

Thanks to the Barefoot geologists, the women in Abdassa Taluk do not have to travel miles for drinking water. Most wells are within 5 minutes from their homes. But they still have to be carried home.

And since this is Kutch, they do it in style. Here are their Indhoni.

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And here are the barefoot Geologists at a well they built.

Budiya, Abdasa Taluk, Kutch

Barefoot Geologists 4

Village 1: Budiya. The windswept village.


The Kutch coast is windy. The mostly fishing village of Budiya sits right on the coast. Whatever little rain falls here is evaporated by the harsh sun and whatever remains by the wind. The silver linings are the Pavan-chakkis or the Wind turbines that convert the wind to electricity.

The ceaseless wind also give the beautiful children of this village, this windswept hairstyle that I had blogged about earlier and the images are worth repeating.

All that the barefoot geologists had to do here was divert the rainwater to an appropriate spot with the right soil formation to sponge the water underground.

That was the easy part.

The tough part of the job is maintaining the well and that is managed by the locals themselves. The well is treated like a temple. Or since the village is a Mohammedan one, let's call it a mosque or a dargah. The approach and the surroundings are swept clean. No littering is allowed. Footwear is banned near the well and do and don't board that maintain cleanliness are everywhere. Violators are fined.

The same care goes to the channels that direct the water.

After living for ages without access to sweet fresh water, they know the true value of clean drinking water.

Abdasa Taluk, Kachch

Hair style of Kutch: Windswept.


The Kutch coast is windy. Right now, the monsoon winds sweep across the dry desert land. Without stopping. Taking away with it the rain clouds... scattering only a few drops that are not enough to quench the thirst of this parched earth. But it's good enough to generate power, many megawatts of it and to give the little girls this hairstyle.

And if you haven't noticed it. The Kutchis have the most wonderful smiles in the whole wide world.

Pingleswar, Abdassa Tq., Kutch

Monsoon 2011.

The monsoon hits the Kutch coast. There's no rain. The few drops that did fall, fell on me and the clouds just flew away. But there was electricity. And it probably lit up many homes.

This stretch of the Kutch coast, is Suzlon territory. Tall windmills line the coast, high above the salty sand and thorny shrubs. And yes, it is very windy at this time of the year. The monsoon here looks fiery but there's time before the clouds actually cause some rain.

This place also saw a Tsunami in 1945, the Great Earthquake of Kutch in 2001, and is close to the border where Pakistan started the war in 1965.

Luckily, this is a sparsely populated area, just a few kilometers south of the Sindh border.

And finally, this taluk is called Abdassa Taluk and you are not likely to find a town by that name on any map. That's because the taluk is named after a very interesting character from history. More about him, later.