October 15th, 2009
Loving Rajasthan
Rajasthan is spectacular! It’s straight out of a National Geographic magazine. The landscape and scenery varied from place to place, but at the same time remained constant throughout all of Rajasthan. It mostly a hot and desert kind of region with hardly any roads. Only a small minority of India’s population actually owns a car, so the existing roads are long, very narrow dirt and sometimes concrete roads linking one town to the next.
The tan, parched topography has splashes of bright colors. It reminded me of little speck of life in this barren land. The most colorful aspect are the women wearing their saris, even while working in the fields, these colorful females only add to the beauty of this place. The fields can stretch for miles on end, lining both sides of the so called highway. People, all of a sudden would appear in the middle of nowhere, walking to some destination, carrying huge bundles on their heads; bundles of hay, sticks, ceramic water jugs and all very heavy loads. I passed some children in blue uniforms walking barefoot to school. I passed an occasional truck broken down on the side of the road, and I had to stop several times to let Shepard’s clear their flock of sheep from the roadway.
I’ve never been so enthralled. To get to experience this part of India has been a life long dream of mine. By the time I reached one of the Rajasthan luxury hotels, I had played a constant game of chicken with other cars, scooters, buses, trucks, bicycles, rickshaws, dogs, pedestrians, goats, donkeys, camels and naturally the occasional cow. There really aren’t any road rules here. Except the one about driving on the left side of the road, but, then that’s only if one feels like it. But, I wouldn’t have it any other way. This is India after all.
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