The Rajasthan Diaries - II

Marriages are always grand affairs. It a time which calls for celebration all around. All the marriages which I had attended till date were South Indian marriages where the rituals and the preparation for the marriage is done in a very private ceremony. I had only heard of North Indian marriages and seen the marriages in the movies, but had not actually participated in one. We all went for our classmate's marriage which was being held in Jaipur. The marriage was the main reason for the trip, though the later plan to look around in Rajasthan was an offshoot of this trip. We reached the place where the 'baaraat' was supposed to start.

Our classmate, Mahesh was already astride the mare which was to take him to the marriage hall. The weather was very chilly, and I had not worn very apt clothes for the weather. In fact, me and my colleague who had accompanied us for the trip, were the only ones in the entire crowd out there, who were wearing kurtas. Everyone had turned up in coats and blazers. Anyway, the baaraat made its way through small bylanes in Jaipur, with my classmates dancing away to the impromptu tunes being played by the band which led the way. After a long walk of about 2-3 km, we finally reached the marriage hall. The bride and bridegroom took their places on the podium, and exchanged garlands, which indicated the beginning of the marriage proceedings. As usual, we went for our dinner first (after all we were a hungry lot after walking all the way), and soon it was time to leave. We had to catch a train that very night to Jaisalmer. So, there we were, standing on the stage, and posing for a group photograph, with our dear friend Mahesh Swami, who was entering into the stage of a householder (Grihasthashrama in Sanskrit).

It was only later that our friend pointed out that we had left at the wrong time. The festivities only started after 12 pm. Anyways, we reached the station to find that the train had not yet arrived. If one takes a look at the map of Rajasthan, then it can be seen that Jaisalmer is one hell of a distance from Jaipur. The train which we were to take for Jaislamer, actually starts from Delhi, and goes all the way to Jaisalmer, which is just a few hundred kilometers from the Indo-Pak border. The train actually consists of two parts, which split up in Jodhpur. One half goes to Barmer, while the other continues to Jaisalmer.

When we got in, we saw of couple of dishevelled men sleeping in our alloted berths. We woke them up, and told them that the berths were ours. They promptly got up, and started collecting their luggage. Out of curiosity, we asked them, where they were coming from. One of them replied that they were from the Border Security Force(BSF), and were coming from Manipur. The realization hit me like a thunderbolt. Here were a couple of men, who were making a trip all across the breadth of the country, with only a warrant which allows them to travel by train, no reservations, no berths, no comforts etc. and here we were, complaining at the very first instance whenever something does not go our way. The guys just picked up their luggage, and searched the compartment for another empty berth to lie down for the night again. In my heart, I felt a tremendous respect for the men from the armed services, who work day and night to make our lives safe and secure. Anyways, with these thoughts , I just rolled up in a warm blanket, and as the saying goes, 'Hit the sack ... '

The fact that we were nearing a desert, was evident from the fact that in the morning, when we got up, there was a fine layer of dust on our blankets, hair, shirts etc. Someone had forgotten to shut the door in the night, and in the morning, we had all got powdered. The train had left Jodhpur, and as Avinash commented, there were only tourists or army men, who went beyond this place. Before I continue, let me introduce the protagonists in the plot, who would accompany us on this trip, there was my old buddy from IIT days Avinash, or Mota as he is lovingly called for obvious reasons. There was Vasu, our colleague from my company, he had come with us for the trip across Rajasthan. Yogesh and me go back a long way, we first met in the IIT Kanpur campus, when we came to give interviews over there, and ultimately became classmates in IIT Delhi. He has been a good companion in all our trips when we were in Delhi, and he agreed to come this time too. The last, but not the least, was Shivam ... another of my IIT buddies, who is currently a scientist with BARC (God save the country .. no offence meant to Shivam). Once the guys had got up, we started discussing about the options for breakfast, when we felt that the train was pulling up at a station. Once the train stopped, we felt that there was some battle going on somewhere, as an entire battalion of soldiers in complete battle gear started getting into the train. On looking out of the window(our windows were closed to keep the infernal sand out of our shirts and trousers), we noticed that the train had arrived at Pokhran. Pokhran has the dubious distinction of being a nuclear bomb test site, but the station looked pretty common place. We got down, after seeing that the engine had detached from the train, and was interestingly making a trip to the back end of the train. The tea and hot pakoras in Pokhran, were a life saver. The train started off again and reached the dusty station of Jaisalmer in th e afternoon, with the majestic Jaisalmer fort in the background ....