hmm.. at last 'Rajasthan!'

 

March has been a merry go round for me. I wonder how I get an MBA degree (leave alone placement) after this semester because little time am I spending to understand these courses. Anyway, 21 lakh conferred APOGEE 2k9 provided us with another awaiting break. Btw, is it better or just bigger? Somebody tell me.

 “...this life is often overrated but it gets better as we go...”  I duly agree with this line of a track of ‘3 doors down’.

Bikaner- Jaisalmer- Jodhpur was the route of our trip. 2 taveras, 13 of us! Now, I’ve got a lengthy reply to every friend/cousin who frequently pester me about ‘Rajasthani’ stuff like camels, desert, cuisine, art, artifacts, outfits blah...blah...Dare you ask me now: P

MapmyIndia.com helped us frame our trip and of course budget. Bikaner, the other B of our SBBJ, founded by Bika Rao (strange name, isn’t?) seemed to be a rapidly developing city of Rajasthan. As expected, all the streets are flooded with sweets shops and sandstone buildings. Junagarh fort was our first stop followed by Laxminath temple (devudu karuninchaledu; closed) and some 500 yr old Jain temple. The fort was a feast to our eyes with its Rajput, muslim, and hindu architectures. Artillery collection was amazing, better than Nizam’s really! Our drivers who were as knowledgeable about the place as us, played ‘Tavera game’ around the city junction, had fun though. Suddenly everybody could find two avid cameramen in our crew: Pavan and Gali. Thnx guys for all those memorabilia.

 

Rat Temple!! - :D yes, u read it right.. Rats reign roosts in this temple worshipping Goddess ‘Karuni’. Thousands of mice, big and small run everywhere freely and fearlessly. Look at those pictures if u don’t believe. Rat-dung is cleaned off frequently, so no worries! This is the most exciting part of my tour is ‘the pradakshina’ around the temple where rats were running and squealing. I was really afraid of them and later I thought they should have been more scared though J We are lucky to sight The white rat and I am eagerly waiting for some auspicious events to unfold that should theoretically follow it J

Off we were to Jaisalmer, the heart of Thar desert and the Golden City founded by Jaisal Rawal. Seriosly, people have no other living but tourism as can be observed. True! As our guide was saying, local people should be thankful to Indira Gandhi for developing the town into a tourist spot during her visit to Pokhran in early 70’s. Guide spoke in broken English but fluently and artistically. Jaisalmer fort, built of sandstone interlocking where carvings were made of single monolithic stone. That’s truly amazing man, no water-no adhesives...As a Civil Er., I am shocked by our ancestral craftsmanship. Where the hell are we in honing our skills? We just pass our time in engineering. Ok, ok. That’s a controversial topic. Let’s leave it.

Patwon-ki-Haveli- I imagined a HAVELI of the Hindi films and latest roadies episode (where Devarshi was ousted: P). But it’s contrastingly magnificent and colorful. Yeah, I am disappointed! I am not good at describing things but certainly, nobody would shy away from living in this haveli. I loved it!

 

Next stop- a wonderful local Dhaba where food was delicious and cheap much to the amusement of our financial controller Mr. Kunda. After serious and lengthy discussions about whether to leave for the India-Pakistan border or not, we ended up heading to my wishlist#1 The Thar desert. All along the journey, the roads were fabulous. As I learnt in my Transportation Engineering, Rajasthan roads due to their higher temperature variance, require both bitumen and acumen (in the form of engineers) of high quality. That’s exactly what we witnessed out there. Well, the road to thar seems like Dravid’s innings with no vigour but long and steady. We cruised past 40-50 kms at a speed of 120km/hr. All along, we could see the water pipes laid parallel to the road and cell phone towers (remember the maruti service station ad in early 2000’s?)

Camping tents are bright and just similar to any filmy setup. The fact that we were amidst the longest desert in India thrilled us and drove us to take some weird snaps. Katchak!! We heard a call that Camels were waiting for us. oh my, here is a chance to show all those camel enthusiasts at home to drive a point. Every two of us except Shetty (fair enough!) were to ride a camel. That 2-3 Km ride was awe-inspiring. But as Pandari rightly said ‘Movement was exerting so much pressure on the abdomen that the riders may get 6 pack abs by the time camel-ride is over’ good exercise not for the ‘pillion riders’ though who complained that something(s) got ruptured in the process :P

(Sorry To be continued...too sleepy now) 

P.S. : Other12 guys, plz leave ur comments to make this post better and share ur experiences