Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Mission Rajasthan 2006 - Day 04

Jaisalmer to Sam
Kilometers = 65

Our day started with a minor hitch with the hotel guys but those people are quite humble to be argued with, especially when Bikiran appears on the conflict scene – the conflict automatically tends to get solved without any negotiations. We had our breakfast peacefully and heartily. After all, it was our first day when we didn’t have to rush at 6 in the morning. It was already 10 when we started touring the Jaisalmer town – first the Fort. Again, it was huge with its grand sandstone façade as well as structure. And as I had explained earlier to my team; it turned out to be that Jaisalmer was known as the Golden city because the sandstone appeared to be Golden-Green when the day’s first sunrays strike this wonderful stone. We hired a Guide this time and enjoyed his stories. In fact, this was the fort about which I remember the most. 4 Gates – majestic Gates, the most enjoyable one and the last one was “Hawa Prole” meaning the Air gate served as a Wind Tunnel to whoever wanted to take rest after a long journey before meeting the King. A steep ascent was here too but the most interesting part was the Main Chowk – out of which 4 different Streets swirled away in the shape of a Swastika. There on one hand was the King’s Palace and the Queens’ Palace on the other. It was said that the Queens used the gateway of the King’s Palace only 2 times in her life – Wedding or Sati; all the other times, she used to use the Queens’ Palace’ door. Quite a few Mehandi marks – known as Sati hands, were still seen around the King’s Palace’ Gate, now known as Sati Gate. Further, on the way we saw so many houses and were told that the entire official priests’ and ministers’ families still have their houses within the Fort premises only. Many of them have opened businesses and hotels within the fort and run solely on their discretion. Any lease or purchase of any property inside the fort doesn’t come under the jurisdiction of IPC or the Govt. of Rajasthan or India. When we proceeded towards the Temple, which is built inside the Fort, the Guide told us weird stories about the Bridge connecting the temple to a part of the Palace – which my inner self seemed insisted to believe, since they all made sense. Afterwards, it was time to go to the Gadisar Lake, situated in the middle of Jaisalmer. By now, I had got confused why this is called a desert when there is a huge Lake at every few kilometers :) There our team mates bought hats made of Camel-skin and after having lunch, we headed off to Sam. By now, Farhan had come up with a theory to explain Hari’s perennial hunger-strike – “Anorexia”. From the back seat, he had been explaining his new-found theory since – I don’t know how much time – since I was busy taking a quick power-nap. Sam – our dream destination of the trip. Oh My God, there were huge expanse of barren lands with no signs of life, shade, water and happiness. As soon as we reached our booked resort, we were taken into some Muddy Huts and we were taken off to the Camels waiting outside. And then followed the Trail, to be followed through the next 6 km of the desert; which the others followed; but me and Bikiran riding the running camel on the dunes of the clean and untouched sand broke the status quo which was maintained by several tourists there – both Indian and non-Indian. And when we finally reached the Sunset Point, our dreams came true when we walked barefooted on the hot sand which was cold just half a foot beneath. I tried to write my name on the sand but this was not the Beach sand and due to the Avalanche Effect, it got ruined almost immediately. Time for some Photo-Shoot! Oh Yes, we had a gala time – racing over the dunes is quite difficult, still we did it. Catching the red sun in the camera for the second time, all our regrets for missing it in Mount Abu were gone. C’mon, almost everybody sees it from Mount but how many of them catch it from such a fantastic place. I took a break and lied on the sand, taking minutes off for introspection – inadvertently covering all my clothes and hair and face with sand. So much so that even after blowing it all away, still it was there on me 2 days later. When we reached back to our huts, it was almost 7 and the local folk artists were warming up for their performance ahead. 1 hour of music and dance gave us the real feel of the desert followed by the real Rajasthani cuisine for the second day in a row – Besan Gatta, Bajre ki Roti, Kadhi (quite spicy), Dal Baati Churma – God! That churma was awesome, still makes me roll my tongue over :P And then, it was time for my Guitar to get strummed. Next 3 hours were full of music and the latter one hour filled with darkness. There was nothing except 10 human beings, sound of guitar, star-studded moonless night and quietly flowing cold breeze. Slowly and stealthily, most of us resorted to the cozy beds to have a chit chat with the frogs and black beetle bugs but some remained outside and then suddenly, all beds were full when I and Farhan moved alone in the dark night looking for a safe place to stay. Oscillating between open tents and lockable huts, I finally decided we would stay in the hut, thinking of the huge cash I was handling. I just hoped I do not become a Spiderman or a Beetle-man by the morning :)