The Water Diviner

by Aloke Mookerjee
Aloke has shared a number of stories here on Indian Chai Stories. You'll find a link to these at the end of the page.
'I have another 'tea tale' for you', writes Aloke. 'This time it is in Assam, when I took over Borjuli T E as Manager. I was there for eight years!The story I tell here is true in every detail.'

Back in 1976, two years into what would become a long tenure at Borjuli, I realized that an additional tea nursery was needed to accommodate a greater number of plants required to meet our planting targets of the coming years. Thus, along with my assistants, I went around the estate in search of a suitable site. Sooner than expected, we located a plot of level fallow ground, not far from the estate office and the garden assistant’s bungalow alongside the main tarmac road leading to Rangapara town. Its convenient location would allow for close supervision – a critical requirement for raising a nursery of healthy plants.

The North Bank area of Assam, where Borjuli is located, is a drought prone belt in this land of copious rains. The few showers that occurred after the monsoons had receded were too unpredictable to rely upon. Irrigation of the nursery and the ‘young tea’ was therefore essential, and already an established practice here. The need to locate a water source nearby therefore became a critical issue for the success of our nursery in the newly found site.

Apart from the Borjuli nadi flowing through the eastern edge of the estate, water for our irrigation systems was drawn mainly through bore wells from subterranean reservoirs. Local contractors were incapable of boring more than a depth of twenty feet or so. In any case, this was the deepest we could have gone what with the finances available in the estate budget. The cost of boring deeper wells, being considerably higher, would have needed the approval of the head-office which I knew, would not have passed. It therefore became imperative to discover a spot close enough to the nursery site where adequate water would be available in the shallow subterranean strata – a tricky proposition. We would need surely ‘Lady Luck’ for such an outcome!

My assistant, Subrata ‘Bacchu’ Bhattacharya (may his soul rest in peace) suggested ‘water-divining’ as a means to locate a water source here. Quickly adding credence to my doubtful response and before its outright dismissal, he reminded me of an incident when our erstwhile Visiting Agent, Bill Morrison (as a Manager) had accurately discovered a viable ground water reservoir through in his estate by ‘water divining’. It earned him a lofty reputation of being a ‘Water Diviner’ – a seemingly obscure gift that, I gathered was apparently inherent in only a few ‘select’ individuals. But with Bill retired and back in Scotland, no one else was known to possess this esoteric skill. I was now persuaded to try my hand at it.

Occasionally, people on the main road passing by stopped to watch me with curiosity. ‘Johnny Walker’ could not have been any prouder of my resolute strides as I repeatedly reminded myself to ‘Keep Walking’!

So, what did this ‘skill’ entail? Bill Morrison had evidently explained all in some detail to Bacchu some years back and he now educated me of the procedure. For a successful outcome, a ‘Y’ shaped branch, not too green and pliable nor too old and woody was needed first. I was to then hold on to the two arm ends of this branch at waist height and spread them out with the third arm pointing straight ahead and parallel to the ground. Holding the branch thus, I was to walk over any selected site and hopefully locate a pool of water hiding somewhere beneath my feet! If ‘Lady Luck’ decided to smile and I did stumble upon such a pool, the third arm of the ‘Y’, I learnt, would be pulled down by a kind of a magnetic force. The force of the pull would depend on the quantity of available ground water. Having heard all this and with nothing to lose but a bit a time and energy, I agreed to ‘give it a bash’. My ‘team’ rushed about and before I could change my mind, a perfectly suitable branch from a nearby Indigofera Teysmanii tree was found, cut to shape and handed over to me.

With head full of my newly acquired knowledge of dubious authenticity, I began my walk with the two branch ends of the ‘water divining device’ held firmly in the fists of my hands. I strode systematically in straight lines, along the entire length of the plot, starting from the north-east corner. Occasionally, people on the main road passing by stopped to watch me with curiosity. ‘Johnny Walker’ could not have been any prouder of my resolute strides as I repeatedly reminded myself to ‘Keep Walking’! Sadly though, my resolve seemed to have little effect. In time I had, almost entirely covered the plot, yet the branch in my hands remained a lifeless piece of wood. My hopes were rapidly waning and I was ready to give up this futile exercise.

With such gloomy thoughts flashing, I finally reached the last stretch in the south west corner. As I stepped on to this bit of the land, the branch in my hand suddenly seemed to wake up with a gentle tug! Did it really happen, I wondered, or was it just my wishful imagination? Not so, the branch had actually moved for at my very next step the tug got stronger in its downward pull and with my third step, I could barely hold back its force. The third end of the ‘Y’ had now dipped down to point vertically down at my feet and pulling with such force as to almost tear itself out of my clenched fists. Incredible as it may seem, even my strongest effort to bring the branch back to its original horizontal position failed. Excitement erupted all around and we quickly marked the spot on the ground, where the branch was pointing.

Sobered soon after the initial euphoria, doubts of my newly discovered ‘power’ were beginning to creep in. I needed to make sure this curious experience really carried substance. I got both Bacchu as well as my ‘Jamadar Babu’* to try their hands at it. Strangely enough, however much they tried, there was no downward pull of the branch in their hands at the marked spot. And yet with the branch back in my hands, the strong magnetic pull would unfailingly return.

On the basis of this rather mystifying experience, we felt justified to complete our venture. Boring at the marked spot began the next day and pipes inserted into what did indeed turn out to be a new underground reservoir that gushed out water continuously for all the years I was in Borjuli. I had discovered our water source! And with it, earned my ‘Brownie points’ to become the second confirmed ‘Water Diviner’ in Empire Plantations living to tell the tale!

I never needed to test my perplexing prowess again. Do I still possess this ‘gift’? Who knows? But more importantly, after forty plus years, I wonder if my wonderful and very successful nursery, where it all began, still exists!

*Jamadar Babu - the garden clerk

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My name is Gowri Mohanakrishnan and I'm a tea planter's wife. I started this blog because one of the things that I wouldn't want us to lose in a fast changing world is the tea story - a story always told with great seriousness, no matter how funny - always true (always), maybe a tall tale, long, or short, impossible, scary, funny or exciting but never dull.
You will find yourself transported to another world! Happy reading!
Cheers to the spirit of Indian Tea! 

Meet the writer: Aloke Mookerjee

Here's what Aloke has to say about himself : 'Long retired from tea, but still active in business. Even after all these years, tea remains to live strongly in my thoughts; they were the best years of my life. Other interests? Always loved Jazz music - still do and have written about this incredible genre. Love vintage airplanes (thus my love for Dakotas!) and cars, and intend to make this my next focus.'  Here is the link to all posts by Aloke - Stories by Aloke Mookerjee

Aloke has recently published a book, The Jazz Bug, which is available on Amazon. Read about it here: https://notionpress.com/read/the-jazz-bug?fbclid=IwAR2HjxSU2rY6sq5cX_lzBxJY5oat1i_Z22qKdRRP1Tm77Dqp48B2CAlnGvY