The Thar Desert Experience

It's hard to describe desert. It's an experience of vastness that's kind of overwhelming and awe inspiring at a beyond cognitive level. It's a feeling you can pick up in the pit of your stomach. It's nature at it's starkest.

You sit there a while and start to see the life and rhythm within it's starkness. The way the wind and sand create these sand dunes which are ever changing. It's hard to process the thought of mountain sized dunes shifting space within the hour.

I'll let the pictures speak the rest:

                                              

A family troupe....the men doing the morchang ( a small iron harp kind of instrument) and the dholak, and the little girl mehak, dancing to it...very rustic...and it's like they have rhythm in their blood, her movements were so graceful and deep

Dhruva and Diksha taking in the experience...after a while they walked off so far, they were like miniscule dots

Them in Silhouette

What's pictures of desert without camels in them...these were our camels. The ride is fun, but the time when the camel gets up and when it sits...crazy scary...you feel like you'll surely topple, and you don't even know which side you'll topple (It in fact reminded me of long long ago times when i'd play 'chal mere gode' with the kids on my knees, and while goda and haathi were fairly straightforward, for the camel I'd do all wonky movements with my legs...and it's only now I knew why.... they actually are like that :)

A classier picture of a camel

This was a little beetle walking across...just look at its footprints, or track marks or whatever else you can call it. That's how fine and soft the sand is.

Diksha getting a better picture of the beetle and it's track marks

Looks like some kind of keen assessment on, but not sure what...

This was Dhruva's photography acumen....one of my favorite pictures of the trip

Jaisalmer - And Onto The Thar Desert

The Jaisalmer Fort is unique,  in that it has an entire city within the fort premises.....it is in fact said to be one of the largest fully preserved fortified cities in the world.

;

This pic is courtesy Google:



Jaisalmer is not called the golden city for nothing. It's not just the fort, every single building there is this golden yellow. It's the local stone. No paint used at all.

Unfortunately, we couldn't spend as much time as we wanted to in Jaisalmer as we had to reach the desert before sunset. We did the Patwon ki Haveli, and some time within the fort, but really not enough. We thought we'd come back the next day, but that didn't happen

Setting off for the desert

It's so dry that natural grazing isn't possible, lorry's come and drop off feed for the cows in specific spaces like this

A donkey is such a rare sight now,  that I had to take a picture (a childhood attachment I guess:)

We drive about half hour and the landscape starts to change....dry and thorny trees only

It starts to get so dry that even the thorny trees get further apart...and you start to see sand, the soft desert sand, and my excitement was starting to build as I'd never seen desert before

And then even the occasional thorny trees disappear

And like an oasis, we reach 'Desert Spring', our desert abode

A cup of tea before heading into the desert. The camp itself is set up a little before the sand dunes due to the hostility of desert conditions.

Next was to camel ride to the sand dunes

Jodhpur - Some Family Time

Considering I'm doing the visit chronologically, (and we had a pretty tight itinerary) time with family, while much closer to the heart,  came in now.

Dhruva, Diksha, Rajeshwar, Harshitha and me (Ruchi and Shilpi, we missed you)

Toto, an as significant member of family

Su aunty, Bubu uncle, Diksha and Dhruva catching time over a cup of tea.

This was a moment I consciously captured; Bubu uncle had just imparted some wisdom of the years to Diksha. And he actually says in that raucous and affectionate voice of his....."you see, having seen so many years, while you youngsters might know your stuff, it is still my duty to tell you some things you need, to be able to live in this world". Thanks uncle, I so loved how you did it.

That evening Harshitha and Rajeshwar took us for a walk, and there was a lot of discussion on timing it to sunset......

Some tea after the walk. Tony, Rajeshwar, Diksha and Sunita

Harshitha and I caught some private cousin time there (Umaid Bhavan in the background)

And this was the spectacular sunset of the walk. A sunset flanked by Umaid Bhawan on the left and the Mehrangarh fort on the right (click on picture for better viewing :). One of those......simply takes your breath away sunsets. 

Rajeshwar and Harshitha....we had such a wonderful trip......thanks much for hosting us, the warmth, the love, the planning, the arrangements down to the last detail.......you made it just so comfortable......and for this amazing walk too. A trip that'll stay cherished forever.

As PS, I thought I'd add in posts on trip done so far: (especially so for Bubu uncle, whose indepth questions we might not have answered to his satisfaction :)

Jodhpur - Jaisalmer - Jaipur
Sufi Festival - Jodpur
Umaid Bhavan - Jodhpur
Kuldhara - The Haunted Village
Patwon Ki Haveli

Khichan - The Demoiselle Cranes

Back to the Rajasthan trip ( the shift to Hyd shifted me out of that space :)

This was a chance add on to our drive back from Jaisalmer to Jodhpur. When we left I called Harshitha to update her on when we'd reach and stuff. And she's like, ask the driver which route he's taking, and if he can drive you past Khichan.

And we did....and we were just so so glad we did 

Khichan is a little village between Jaisalmer and Jodhpur, which is known for the large number of demoiselle cranes that visit it every winter. The cranes are a migratory bird that come from Central Eurasia and Northeast China.

We were surprised to find that it was just a really small little lake.

Apparently the birds started visiting in the 1970's when a few hundred birds came by and a couple in the village started feeding them along with sparrows and pigeons. As the numbers grew other villagers joined in, and today even passing trucks donate sacks of grain to the village for the cranes.

The number of birds visiting is now in the thousands,and  thanks to the organized feeding by the villagers the number of birds visiting are said to be increasing each year. The consumption of grain is now estimated at 5000 kgs per day.

This little girl told us that there were four to five such taalaabs in the village which the birds frequent.

Dhruva did a short video clip in which you can also hear the chatter of the birds

If you ever go to Rajasthan, I'd strongly recommend you add Khichan into itinerary....it is such a beautiful connect into a raw and natural wonder of nature.

The Two Vocabularies

From Seth

The two vocabularies (because there are two audiences)

"Early adopters want to buy a different experience than people who identify as the mass market do.

Innovators want something fresh, exciting, new and interesting.

The mass market doesn't. They want something that works.

It's worth noting here that you're only an early adopter sometimes, when you want to be. And you're only in the mass market by choice as well. It's an attitude.

The people bringing new ideas to the public are early adopters themselves (because it's often more thrilling than working in a field that does what it did yesterday), and often default to using words that appeal to people like themselves, as opposed to the group in question.

More rarely, there are a few people with a mass market mindset that are charged with launching something for the early adopters, and they make the opposite mistake, dressing up their innovation as something that's supposed to feel safe.

When you bring a product or service or innovation to people who like to go first, consider words/images like: 

New 

Innovative 

Pioneer 

First 

Now 

Limited 

Breakthrough 

Controversial 

Technology 

Brave 

Few 

Hot 

Untested 

Slice/Dominate/Win 

Private 

Dangerous 

Change 

Secret 

On the other hand, people who aren't seeking disruption are more likely to respond to: 

Tested 

Established 

Proven 

Industry-leading 

Secure 

Widespread 

Accepted 

Easy 

Discounted 

Everyone 

Experienced 

Certified 

Highest-rated 

Efficient 

Simple 

Guaranteed 

Accredited 

Public 

Of course, it's important that these words be true, that your product, your service and its place in the world match the story you're telling about it.

Once you see this distinction, it seems so obvious, yet our desire to speak to everyone gets in the way of our words."

This I think this is true not just in the context of how you package or sell your product, but also in daily life. When communicating, especially in sensitive or difficult conversations, it helps to tune into the other's receptivity, and words...language is one way of tuning in.

The Drive Itself

4th March - The drive from Bangalore to Hyderabad

Considering it was just Diksha and me, we wanted to start early, but this was one time we couldn't. We had to do the house handover in the morning, and by the time we set off it was noon.

Diksha's last hug to Goldy and Skippy

This was senti (pun intended) bye to the garden ...I find the fragrance of ganeru intoxicating ( and I'd taken that plant as a little sapling when I'd moved from hyd, so more special significance)

And we were off

The road between Blore and Hyd is a dream stretch, beautiful, not crowded, mixed terrain, some ghats included.... very enjoyable indeed. When the packers in Hyd asked how the car had come, and I told them, they said in raw amazement "bachee ne saara 600 kms drive kiya? "

Such empty stretches, that it wasn't for a long while that I even realized that Diksha was doing between 130 and 140 kph

A pretty town on the way

A tough sight.....Diksha was at first like.."why would you want a picture of an overturned lorry ma, it's insensitive". And I was trying to tell her there's no good or bad to it, it's a happening......and then she's like.....ok " maybe it's a PS; Drive Safe"

I have to add...we did brilliant music all the way..... a whopping 83 songs . These particular CDs are now like our long drive anthem, and adds the right touch. This time even more literally....when we started it, it started with the line 'something's telling me.... I must go home' It was an uncanny moment.

On this really dry stretch, there was this lone shepherd....a really old man gesticulating with an empty water bottle, and Diksha actually pulled over ( at that speed it took her that distance to even pull over) and that's her, walked back to give him water (she gave off the bottle)

Our lunch halt. This Blue Moon guy had boards starting about forty kms before location and it sure built up the expectation. He delivered too. We had lovely tandoor roti, andaa burji, and dal fry, washed down with buttermilk. 

Sunset on the way ( as I was advised to cover as much distance as possible before dark, our coffee stop was post dusk)

Diksha and Bruce ( that's what the figo's called)...........thanks for that lovely drive 'back home'.