Stepwell’s home in India is Silvepura, a semi-rural village 25km north of Bangalore in Karnataka. This region on the Deccan is 950 meters above sea level, making it cooler than other parts of South India. The area around

Bengaluru is famous for its vegetable gardens and red fertile soil. It is a landscape that depends on tanks and lakes, which once irrigated plots for food crops but are now rapidly shrinking as their clay beds are mined for bricks. The terrain includes ragi fields, fruit orchards, and fields of marigolds grown for Bengaluru’s flower market.

Silvepura, like many other villages here, has undergone rapid changes due to Bangalore’s expansion. These changes reflect broader rural and semi-urban transformations in India and provide an interesting case study of India’s shift from a traditional village-based agricultural economy to one based on new technology and urban industry.