A recluse in Jaisalmer - Day 2 (Kuldhara, Khaba and Sam Sand Dunes)

I left Badal house after a heavy breakfast of paratha, pickle and curd and headed towards the bus stop to catch the 11 o'clock local bus to Jaisalmer. On the way to the bus stop, I caught a glimpse of village life in Khuri. It was a Sunday, but a few children were playing in the school ground, which also had to serve as their playground on the weekends. They waved at me as I passed by them. There are two schools in Khaba, a primary school and a senior secondary school. Kesar Singh told me, on our way back to Badal House from the desert, that the senior secondary school had been built by Jaswant Singh, a BJP leader and former Finance Minister, former Defense Minister and former Minister of External Affairs. He is a native of Khuri village, I was told. He also told me about the scarcity of teachers in these schools, only two teachers in primary school. I was wondering whether the politician deserved a word of praise for his initiatives or to be condemned for his negligence on this.

I boarded the Jaisalmer-bound bus from Khuri at the scheduled time. It took us about 1 hour and a half, and this time I could enjoy the beauty of the landscape which was entirely dotted by windmills. These windmills are one of the latest developments in the area that provided electricity to the villages. Now, after I reached Jaisalmer's Gadisar Chowk, I had to walk to Hotel Jaisal Palace near the Fort. Its a decent, fairly priced hotel very near to the Fort entrance, with clean rooms and bathrooms, very good staff and roof-top restaurant with a view of the Fort. I got a room for Rs600/- only, had a bath and left for a stroll. I was also looking for a taxi that could take me to a tour of Kuldhara, Khaba and Sam. I had a healthy breakfast of fruit salad and banana milk-shake at The Trio (I was told this was the best restaurant in the city) and coming back to the hotel, I booked a taxi (Tata Indica) for Rs1200/- (while a couple of others were asking for anything between Rs1600-Rs1800). Malik, the 22-year old taxi driver, picked me up from Hanuman Circle at 2:00pm and we headed for Kuldhara.

Kuldhara, now a famous tourist spot and a shooting site for a couple of Indian movies, is actually one of those villages that have been deserted for more than 150 years now. These villages belonged to Paliwal Brahmins. I had already come through a couple of stories about these villages on Internet. One anecdote goes like this: the inhabitants of these villages were treated with cruelty and were heavily taxed by the ruler of the area. Moreover, the village chief's daughter who was believed to be very beautiful caught the eye of the ruler. To escape the dishonour, the Paliwals vacated the villages overnight and migrated to some place which is not known yet. Since then, these villages are cursed and deserted. The landscape now serves a beautiful place for photography.

Kudhara ruins

Kudhara ruins

Kuldhara is a place where one would want to be alone, to feel the inherent melancholy of the place, to hear the silent cries of the ruins. It was my bad luck that just before we arrived, a school bus full of kids had reached there for a Sunday picnic...wow!! But I got a couple of pics of the kids as a workaround, nonetheless :)

I also got to know about a couple of Bollywood movies that were shot here - Kachhe Dhaage was one of them. Saif's upcoming movie 'Agent Vinod' has also been shot here recently, as I read on the Internet. Having nothing much to do, nothing much different to click in Kuldhara, we left for Khaba - another deserted village with similar stories. It is actually same as Kuldhara as far as ruins are concerned, but in addition, there is a small Fortress on a hillock overlooking the village. This fortress has been revamped and it now houses a small museum with ancient artifacts from the village ruins on display.

Khaba Fort

We parked the taxi near the fort and I went off to stroll around the ruins and click some pictures.

Khaba Ruins

The fort offers a breathtaking view of the vast expanse of the village and the surrounding areas.

Museum in Khaba Fort

There were a couple of kids inside the fort that, apparently, tried to fool the lone tourists around. One of them approached me and said "Hello", I replied in "Hello" and the next thing he said was "10 rupees"...!! I asked him "Why brother?" in Hindi, which surprised him (I don't know why, I don't even look like a foreigner). Then another guy came and asked me if I'd bought the tickets to the fort. There was no ticket, I knew...so I simply ignored him, clicked some pics around while Malik (my taxi-driver) kept himself busy reading about the artifacts, the fort and the village. When we climbed down the Fort, Malik said: "This was better than Kuldhara, I liked it". I felt in him a desire to learn about things, to read...may be he can learn more and become a full-time tour guide for this place, I thought.

We still had a lot of time till sunset, so we drove towards Sam. The sand dunes in Sam are more widely spread, just adjacent to the road and almost at level with the ground, unlike Khuri which is  at some height. We parked the car in the parking and Malik decided to stay in the car only while I indulged myself in the golden delight of the sand. He had already warned me about the local camel-men and safari operators as in how they fool people around. I anyways had no plans to ride a camel (I had done it in Khuri) or a jeep for a safari. I just came to Sam so that I could see how it is different from Khuri. Escaping the hordes of local tourists, ever-convincing camel-men and all those mini tent-cities that have been put up there by myriad of resorts and hotels, I let myself get lost between the dunes.

Sam Sand Dunes

Sam Sand Dunes

Few tents by some resort @Sam

Its very hard to find a sand dune in Sam that is not littered and not marked by footprints. Its also very hard to find a perfect point where you can take a beautiful desert shot from.

I had walked for about 2 kms into the desert, and I could see other groups of sand dunes at a distance where I very much wanted to go. But that was not possible without a jeep or a camel. And staying at Sam just for the sunset had no point, so I walked back to the car parking, pounded the sand out of my shoes and headed back to Jaisalmer.

I liked being alone and experiencing the wilderness till now, but being a city-dweller I now wanted to just relax and chill out at my hotel room and sleep the day's fatigue off. I thanked Malik, bidding him goodbye and slipped into a local sweet shop that he had recommended for Pyaaz Kachori and Jalebi. But again, my luck had me savoring Daal Kachori, Mirchi Vada and Imarti instead. Imarti took a lead, being cooked in "desi-ghee" and very rich in taste. Back at the hotel, I rested for a while, had dinner on the rooftop restaurant of the hotel, watched TV and slept.

For the next day, I had plans to get up late in the morning, visit the city, a few "havelis" and the cenotaphs at "Bada Bagh". My departure was scheduled at 5:15pm, so that was the day when I had to cover the rest of the things.

A recluse in Jaisalmer - Day 1 (Khuri Sand Dunes)

I'm not a recluse per se, but I couldn't find any suitable title other than this...reason - this was a solo trip of mine to Jaisalmer. Being not a backpacker's trip in true sense (as it was planned more than a month in advance), it had a certain degree of freedom of choice. I had a few places in my "To-Visit" list, but I wasn't sure if I could cover all of those in the time I had given myself. So, a bit of planning with a bit of flexibility to allow changes on-the-fly was essential. I had a long weekend (a Monday being an optional holiday in my office), so that had to be it. I booked my departure train tickets for Friday evening and return train tickets for Monday evening.

As a habit, I always acquaint myself to the place before my trip. I was told by the blogs over the web about two deserts - Sam and Khuri. Sam is more popular (being bigger than Khuri), thus more touristy, more crowded and more littered. I wanted to be all alone in a desert, so I opted Khuri. I also came to know about Badal House in Khuri village where I could stay and get my desert safari arranged from. And then there was a bit of information on two deserted villages - Khaba and Kuldhara, which I was dying to visit after reading anecdotes about those and seeing the pictures on the web.

I boarded Delhi-Jaisalmer Express from Old Delhi Railway Station that leaves Delhi at 5:30pm and reaches Jaisalmer at 11:00am next morning, halting at about 36 stations in between. The train is in pretty good condition and you get clean sheets, pillows and blankets in AC 3-tier coach. After reaching Jaisalmer at 11:30am, I called up Badal Singh and he told me to either wait for the local Khuri-bound bus, scheduled to arrive at Gadisar Chowk (a 10-minutes walk from the station) between 1:00pm and 1:30pm, or hire a taxi to Khuri. Bus fare was Rs.20 and taxi would charge somewhere around Rs.500-600, so it was quite clear that I was to wait for the bus. There is no sign-board on the bus to Khuri that says, well, "Khuri"...as these are privately-owned buses, so I had to ask somebody in every single bus. The bus came at 1:30pm, crowded but not fully packed. I boarded the bus while a group of Korean tourists who were also going to Khuri preferred traveling on the roof, so they climbed up. After an hour and a half, I got off the bus at Khuri bus-stop, where Badal Singh was already waiting for me. I don't know how but he recognized me instantly, and so did I because I had seen his photographs on the web.

Badal house is a very simple, modest setup of a couple of mud-huts with roofs made of straws and hand-woven beds made from used "saree" or ropes. There is a small but very clean toilet-cum-bathroom where I freshened-up. By the time I changed into fresh clothes, my meal was ready...yummilicious "bajre-ki-roti" a.k.a. "baajri", "urad-ki-daal", "kadi", "ker-ka-achaar", rice and curd. I was all set to dig my teeth into "baajri" first, and then savour kadi-chawal, but finishing even one "baajri" was a heavy task that took eternity, and all my desires to relish other things on the table just got washed away. There was an English woman who has been coming to stay at Badal House for more than 20 years now and she has become a part of their family. We chatted for some time while they cleaned-up some green-leafy vegetable for dinner. Badal had already arranged for a camel (Babloo) and the camel-man Kesar Singh waited for me outside.

Khuri Sand Dunes as seen from a distance

I initially planned to stay in the desert for sunset and come back, but then I was told by the English woman that going to the desert and coming back after sunset (not spending the night there out in the open) was not even half the fun. That charged me up and there I was riding the camel, talking with Kesar Singh as we walked towards Khuri Sand Dunes, just about 2 kms from Badal House. There were already a couple of tourists at the dunes preparing to shoot the sunset, so we by-passed them and reached the far end of the desert, from where I could see not a single soul other than Babloo and Kesar Singh.

Form here I could see the beautiful dunes on one side and a vast expanse of barren land with sparse vegetation on the other. This land is a part of Desert National Park. I could spot a couple of brown deer and a fox at a distance.

We camped near a bush (where Kesar Singh has been camping), that was just a bush with no tents around and the bush was only meant to shield us and the fire from the blowing winds. Babloo rested nearby munching on his fodder and Kesar Singh went off to fetch some firewood...we had to stay there for night and cook our food..."this is going to be some fun" - I told myself and carried on with my camera to click some sunset pictures. I strolled around, wherever I wanted, clicked a lot of pictures, stood there in silence gazing at the huge orange-going-red fireball of sun setting behind the horizons. Cool breeze was making it all the more surreal...and it makes a haunting sound while passing through a dense bush, a different sound. I came back and chatted with Kesar Singh as he prepared food for us - Bajre ki Roti, Daal, Rice, Aloo ki Sabzi and chhachh which he brought from his home.

I asked him if he knew some folk-songs and he offered me a folk-tale instead, and a long one on that. I couldn't understand much, apart from the names of the characters and the concluding line that talked about some place where they still had footprints of a camel's three legs engraved on a stone. We then had food in stark darkness (the bonfire light was not just enough, was ever diminishing). Kesar prepared our beddings - simple cotton-filled mattresses and thick razaai (cotton-filled quilts). We slept under the star-studded sky, and it was actually chilling outside, but the razaai did its job pretty well (I actually had two of them :P).

We woke up well before sunrise the next morning. I again set-off for sunrise pics while Kesar Singh prepared tea, without milk and really sweet. After that we headed back to the village, but this time we walked through the desert instead of bypassing it, and it came to be far more mesmerizing than it appeared the day before. I had the actual "desert" feeling only when I was standing amidst the dunes, with other dunes surrounding. Golden sand with no footprints and beautiful ripples appeared to be God's most meticulous art-work that should leave mortals like me dumbfounded.



And then I got my dream-shot:



It was a lovely morning, and my experience of last night made it all the more memorable. I came back to Badal House, freshened-up and had my breakfast of paratha with curd and pickles. I had plans for the day, I had to visit Khaba, Kuldhara and Sam also (if time permitted). I needed a cab for the day and Badal tried calling some of his friends to arrange a cab, but all were pre-occupied in some or the other wedding function. So I was left with a local bus to Jaisalmer as the only option, and from Jaisalmer I could hire a taxi for other visits.

Aaahhh...after a long time

I watched "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara" yesterday with a friend...!! The plan was to watch the movie first, then do some shopping if time permits and if it doesn't, immediately rush to IHC and get the tickets for the play "Adhe Adhure" next weekend. The movie got over by 4:00 pm, we left by 5:00 and I took metro from Noida to CP. But oopsss...I had no cash I noticed...!! I thought of getting down at CP metro station and find an ATM, so...I did that. But then, I had only ICICI bank's ATM card, that too not activated...!! So, I had to find one ICICI bank's ATM to activate that.


I tried calling IHC help desk to find if I could pay by credit card...but they didn't pick up my call :(


After 10-15 mintues walk I was done, I found the ATM...withdrew some money and got back to the metro station...but aarrgghhhh...I had never seen such a long queue at any metro station, and time was running out...!!


I came out, found an auto-rickshaw to IHC...and here came my favorite part - traveling this part of Delhi by auto...on a Saturday evening. I am usually a very lazy person to lift my ass up from a couch on a weekend and go out for something. But if I manage to do that, I enjoy traveling in Delhi…specially the area around CP and Mandi House. It quenches my thirst of wandering like loners (I only sometimes behave so, otherwise I’m a company-seeker fellow). The auto-rickshaw started from CP and as we left for IHC, we crossed the India Gate hexagon. To me, its charm has not faded, it never will. It gives me a sense of coziness, for reasons unknown. Pulling at IHC, I smelled the familiar air of the surroundings. On reaching the reception counter of IHC, I was told that the tickets sale was closed till next morning. Then I started making innocent faces, pleading them with childish cajole. After 2-3 minutes, during which I told them about the hardships I went through while coming there (which I actually enjoyed), I got two balcony tickets. I thanked them, thanked them again, walked to Jor Bagh station and came back home.

Ok, so this play called Adhe Adhure is written by Mohan Rakesh. I first read this play when I was in college. The girl whom I liked very much and secretly loved too gave this to me. The play is a very mature, thoughtful and provoking piece in itself, but I think the fact that I was in love with the girl who gave it to me played a major role in making me love this play. The female protagonist is going to be played by Lillete Dubey and male protagonist by Mohan Agashe. This star cast is one more reason why I just cannot miss this event at any cost.

People have their own “turn-on” things and they are driven differently by different stimulations. For me, its theatre and “soul music” (read Sufi) concerts. I have may a times taken a detour from my usual way back home to go to places where I can get passes and tickets for such events. Last time it was in March or April for Jahan-e-Khusrau festival in Delhi, the passes for which I had to collect from Khan Market. I was just not feeling any driving force for anything for the past couple of months. Theater festivals came and passed by, but I couldn’t attend any, I had no company for any of those events. But it was after a long time that I made extra efforts to get my tickets and I’m not going to miss it this time around. I will be watching this play with my Mom, who kind of introduced me to Mohan Rakesh (she’s also a theater buff like me, she’s been an active part of her college theater).

FB World

I always knew the tremendous power of Facebook in connecting people around the world. I've realized it a lot of times...but this time it was my blog that revealed it to me. I had created my blog in 2008, and in a span of three years, its statistics were as below:

Page Hits: 283

Audience:

From India - 20

From US - 3

From Netherlands - 1

Yesterday, I shared my blog's link on my FB profile. I created my AdSense account too. Now, when I see my blog's statistics, I see:

Page Hits: 315

Audience:

From India - 38

From US - 11

From Italy - 2

From Netherlands - 1

Thanks to Facebook and my FB friends :)

"Blah" and more "Blahs"...

I had been suffering from Writer's Block! The words wouldn’t come. It’s been long, really long, since I last blogged. And even now, I am blank on what I should write about. I don’t feel armed enough to just let my fingers loose on the keyboard without much knowledge of the outcome. There is nobody to blame, but my own lethargic self. I know that’s just wordplay. But hey, isn’t that what I have always planned to do?

I’ve been thinking about my love for language since morning today. I have developed this interest of learning the etymology of certain words I come across. This all started when I was preparing for my GRE exam, thanks to Norman Lewis! His book – Word Power Made Easy, truly makes people fall in love with a “language”, any language for that matter. So it just occurred to me today while I was looking for a time-killer activity in office, and I looked for the etymology of the word “rice” over the web. I already had a little idea that the word has its root in “Tamil” language, in fact “Sanskrit”. The Wikipedia page I came across listed many more words that originate from Indian languages, mostly from Sanskrit – the most decorated and structured language (and hence its name)!

And as it must have been experienced by many, in fact all of us Wiki-users, I jumped through pages to land-up savouring “Pulav” (or pilaf, plaf, pulao etc. etc.). The word is for a rice dish, which we all know. What fascinated me was the fact that almost all major languages in the World (among many other not-so-known languages the names of which I can’t even pronounce) share this word for that dish. It is even more shared than the words “father” and “mother”.

I have always wondered how it all might have started, the variations in different languages. Why would a certain group of Neolithic homo-sapiens (or their ancestors) have to choose or develop a language different from what other group was speaking. Where did it all bifurcate. May be it was because of geographical boundaries that various communities developed their styles of verbal communication independently. But given that, how come they ultimately land up sharing some words for common references. Would they not have already developed a word for, say “father” or mother”, in their own distinguished language before they started interacting with other communities? I so want a time-machine to go back to see it all happening.

The history of languages has got to be as biased as any other history, with no concrete and neutral source of definite knowledge. People have been involved in long term debates on whether Tamil is the most primitive Indic language, or Kannada or Bangla. Whatever...!! I just relish the beauty of languages and look out for every possible chance to learn a new word in some language.

Life (and livelihood)...In A Metro

I don't know how to put it, but lets face a question: How many of us (I mean the "corporate" people) would consider Rs 5/- an earning? If I get a 5 rupees coin lying on the road, I may not make the efforts to bend down and pick it up, or even if I do, I would certainly not consider it as a "gain" or something...!! Similarly, if I loose 5 rupees, I would not mind it, or probably would not even notice.

I had to get my watch repaired a few days back, so I got to a local shop...small, but large just enough to house 5-6 old wall clocks (very old, kind of antiques, with pendulum), a showcase exhibiting a few old watches (supposedly new, to be sold), a desk with a few tools to repair watches and a stool. I showed him my watch, he drew his stool, lit his lamp and put his eye-piece on. It toook him just 3-4 minutes to handle me the stuff in working condition. And all he charged was Rs 5/-. I paid him the amount and headed back to home. On the way back, this thought kept on striking me that he charged only 5 rupees and how many customers he was entertaining on an average, daily. That 5 rupees coin was his "earning".

Just a small (actually negligible) amount for some people, and its the livelihood for some others.
I am not able to put my thought furthur, so I am dropping my pen here. But I really hope that the reader understands and ponders on the feeling the way I do.

Khajuraho - More Than Just Temples

They were the descendents of Moon God. Going by what mythology has to say, Moon (Chandra Dev in Hindu mythology) once saw beautiful Hemavati bathing in a lotus pond and made love with her. Hemavati then gave birth to a son – Chandravarman, who later established a mighty kingdom known as The Chandelas. Atoning for the sins committed by his mother, Chandravarman commissioned and completed 85 temples devoted to various deities in the foothills of Vindhya mountain range in middle India. This place is now known as Khajuraho. In terms of tourism, Khajuraho is perhaps one of the most under-rated places in India. Last weekend of January this year, we planned a 3 days trip to Khajuraho and Panna National Park, which ultimately got cut short to 2 days, courtesy Indian Railways and Delhi’s foggy winters.

We reached Khajuraho in the evening, so the first thing was to search for a decent hotel and then roam around the places, check out the market and take rest. Next morning we left to Raneh Falls – mini canyons made by the river Karnavati, also known as Ken. The best time to visit the falls is when there not much water in it, because that is when you get to see the beauty of rocks and the way the river has carved these hard rocks in thousands of years. Such a vast, plain and rocky terrain was most unexpected amidst the forest. A few kilometers of trekking in Jungle led us to Ken Ghariyal Park, the part of river Ken where it comes out of the canyons and relaxes after a painful task of shaping rocks. Though we could not see any alligators while boating in the river there, it was really a soulful experience with no one around. Some small and big rocks emerging out of the surface, casting reflections in still water, created a picturesque view. We could also spot monkeys, spotted deer, 6-horned deer, nilgai (blue bull) and vultures in the jungle while trekking back. We came back to Khajuraho in the afternoon, had our lunch and started the temple tour. Western Group of Temples is the main temple complex having the famous Kandariya Mahadev temple and a few others. All the sandstone temples are almost similar in terms of architecture, design and beauty, heavily carved with the figures of either deities or of apsaras. By and large the carvings in the temples represent pleasures – worldly and spiritual, a few having the most famous erotic sculptures attributed to Kamasutra, an ancient Indian text of love and passion. After visiting Western, Eastern and Southern groups, we came back to Western group for a 1-hour ‘Light and Sound Show’ and got ourselves enlightened with the knowledge of Khajuraho’s glorious history and its temples’ philosophy.

The next day we planned for Pandava falls and Ken River Lodge’s Tree Top café. About 40 kilometers from Khajuraho, Pandava falls provide an ideal picnic spot for families. The area comes under the Panna National Park and it’s a seasonal fall, so it was merely a stream of water coming out from a hole made in the rocks. The water falls in a bowl shaped pond surrounded by lush green hillocks and beautiful rocks. Supposedly there are some caves that are assumed to be Pandavas abode for some time during their 13 years exile. After spending some time there, we headed to a local temple ‘Swargeshwar Mandir’ that holds much religious importance among the local people. The only way to the temple is through the dense forest, where no one assures your safety from tiger or bear from the jungle out there. We were scared. Not only a good kilometer walk through the jungle, we had to climb a small mountain, having about 365 steps to the top, before we could reach the ‘Shivling’ placed strategically under a rock such that the vegetation there continuously oozed out water on it. The view of the village, the jungle and the fields from the top was breathtaking. And the best thing of this whole trip was that except us, there was no one around, no bipods I mean.

That was the end of our trip. Boarding the train to back to Delhi, I was wondering where else in India could one find a place that is so rich in aesthetics, history and geographical variations. In more than 1000 years of its history, a great assortment of mountains and canyons, greens and rocks, riches and rags, love and hatred, the city of Khajuraho has seen the pinnacle of prosperity and art, and I think this variety is the beauty of the place.