JAISALMER: SAND BEETLES, STARGAZING AND SUNRISE

We decided to venture inside and order cups of tea. The cafe was quite unusually decorated - a somewhat homely feeling coming from the sitting area furnished with mattresses and cushions and the quotes as well as song lyrics written on the walls giving it a much hippie look.

The owner himself came up to serve us the hot drinks and started a conversation. Upon knowing of our travel plans and intentions for a night stay in the desert, he quickly got to business. He showed us a catalog of photos where he organizes such tours and makes arrangements for a small group of people to stay the night at the desert. He put added emphasis on having a small group mostly consisting of western travelers.

His proposal was different from what the other similar agents were offering in a way that instead of accommodation in a desert tent (Swiss tent, they called it) with a proper bed, he provides the thrill of spending a night in the middle of the desert!

The whole idea of experiencing a night on the sand dunes with only the night sky as our roof and stars as lamps fascinated us tremendously and without further delay, we agreed with him to join his group for the night.

WELCOME TO THE GREAT INDIAN DESERT

Late in the afternoon, as my friend Abhi and I hopped into a car for our journey to the desert, we met our group. We were accompanied by two young French girls and two shy Chinese girls. It was easy to engage in conversation with Marie and Romie, the French ones, as they were a friendly bunch.

The afternoon heat was making the journey a little tough as we were cramped at the backside of the car with our luggage and were sweating profusely. Any comfort we were receiving was from the local Rajasthani music that was coming out from the car radio, soothing our ears. The feeling of driving down winding roads with occasional slopes and sandy plains on both sides, heading towards the great Thar Desert, was encouraging and it uplifted our spirits.

After the car journey and a short ride on camel-back, we finally reached the dunes somewhere in the Thar Desert. The camel ride, though short, was a great ordeal for our not so accustomed hips. My camel, to both my surprise and joy, was named Al Pacino. It was given by some previous traveler and the name stuck. We got down on the sand and tried to relax our bodies too tired from the scorching heat before.

It was just the time of dusk, with the sun hanging low in the sky, preparing for its final descent across the horizon. We just wanted to stare endlessly at the extremely beautiful desert skyline; the sunset delicately painting it like a skilled artist.

All I could think of was all the desert sunsets that I've watched in Western Cowboy movies and how I always wanted to witness one with my own eyes!

We were served tea and some snacks to gain some energy back after the journey. The sand beetles were everywhere around us. We had to pick them up one after another by hands and throw them away from our sitting area; certainly, their territory, that we have successfully invaded and seized as ours.

We sat down facing the west and treated both our stomach and our eyes. The faint last rays of sunlight bouncing off the steel glasses and onto our rough, tired faces painted a pretty picture as we welcomed the darker side of a day.

THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS

As the darkness slowly engulfed the whole area around us, I was in for a surprise. It hit me when I first looked up to the sky. I had never seen a sky full of so many stars, not even when I camped on top of mountains. And it was not only small spots of white, there were just so many colors in the sky...red, blue, orange, white...it was like a festival of lights!

Let me tell you here, coincidentally, it was the day when the whole of India celebrates Diwali, the festival of lights! There was no moon in the sky; only satellites, stars and perhaps constellations. Though we were hoping to see some firecrackers in the sky from the celebration by local people, the sight that we beheld was spectacular on its own accord.

The night flowed by with talking, drinking beer and having another delicious dinner cooked up by our local guides and companions. For most of the time, I could not help but stare at the strikingly gorgeous night sky.

It was what I call a perfect moment with yourself and nature, when you find the rootedness with the wild, the most ancient and the most sacred connection of all.

We went to sleep on just a mattress spread over the sand and a blanket to shield ourselves from the cold wind in the night. It was hard to close our eyes in fear of depriving ourselves from the stunning and magnificent view.

I kept thinking; how beautiful it is to even exist in this wonderful world!

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH

And now, seated on a beat-up mattress kept on a ridge of sand, I was observing another remarkable beauty of the desert.

The sky slowly started to show different shades, changing them within minutes and with such continuity that you can't take your eyes off it. It was fluid in nature, and its touch spread across the whole landscape in front of us gracefully. I lost myself in a trance.

The sand around us also joined in this masterful demonstration of colors, slowly appearing brighter and brighter, from dark yellow to yellowish brown and then to sun-kissed golden. All the colors, however few, were springing to life, as if someone just put on a filter of color pop from somewhere.

When the sun finally appeared fully, it was like the arrival of a mythical goddess illuminated by a halo behind her head. The sky was on fire, glowing so fiercely, maybe to celebrate the good or maybe to destroy the evil. I realized that while we missed the show of firecrackers last night, we were the spectators of the brightest Diya (lamp) that the sky had lit up for us.

We never missed Diwali; we just witnessed a grander one.

STOP. FEEL. LIVE.

I thought about the whole experience when I got back into Jaisalmer town in the afternoon that day. I thought about how two different contrasting experiences can evoke the same feelings within you; such is the power of nature. I could somehow resonate with the thoughts of Lord Byron: "I love not man the less, but Nature more."

You know what made our time in the desert amazing; the whole unknown and unplanned nature of it. We had no itinerary planned for the days and we had no idea what will happen to us in the desert in the night. We just trusted our adventurous spirits and plunged into the wild. Talking about it, I would like to share a quote here I always keep close to my heart. It's from the movie Into the Wild:

"The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day, to have a new and different sun."

What do you write about when you are describing a desert? There are no colourful flowers, no singing of birds, and no snow-capped beauty; it's a desert after all. It's plain and harsh, blunt and brown. But innate to all wild and natural things residing on this earth it has got a beauty of its own; the simple reason being it is natural.

You can enjoy the endless sand dunes, upon which the wind creates its own carvings, never retaining its shape, born as a new one every morning. You can gaze at the night sky all you want, but can never come out of the bewilderment that falls upon you. You can choose to hate the sand, the wind or you can simply let go of yourself into the wild.