On a Dark Desert Highway
And the Abode of Death
We were on a dark desert highway… but no Hotel California in sight. In fact this was the Thar Desert — ‘the abode of death’- in Rajasthan, India, not a million miles from the Pakistan border.
It was part of our sojourn through India. I’d taken a year off from work to travel round Asia, spending a few months in India. This wasn’t our first visit to the subcontinent. But it was our first opportunity to spend more than the few weeks as allowed by annual leave.
We had just finished spending a few lazy weeks in Pushkar. Living in a spartan but beautiful guesthouse, overlooking the holy lake. Every evening the drums would start from every corner of the lake vicinity, to beat down the sunset and herald the coming dark. Some evenings we watched and listened from our balcony. But our usual routine was to meander to the sunset cafe and watch the drummers, dancers, jugglers and fire-eaters all assembled on the ghats to the holy lake. The celebrations were a puja to the gods. We stayed until the sky’s crimson hues faded to dark and the lanterns were lit, becoming the only source of light.
We were reluctant to leave, but also excited about a return visit to Jaisalmer. Our last visit had seemed many years ago. On that first occasion we’d travelled west from Delhi, taking a train from Jaipur for the…
