Playing Magi on Christmas

Margaret, Elliot, and I spent Christmas like the three wise men: riding dromedaries (one-humped camels) across the desert. We joined Victor and Charles from France and Jessica from Germany via the U.S. on an overnight camel safari starting at about 6:45 a.m. on December 25. We slept on the sand dunes under the stars, but (Pam, don’t be too jealous) the nearly-full moon blocked out the stars for most of the night. Fortunately, I woke up for about a minute after the moon had set, though I was too tired to really spend any time enjoying the stars. We had enough clothes and blankets that pretty much only my nose was cold.

Sunrise on the sand dunes!

After we got picked up in the Jeep from the camels, our driver stopped by his family home to show us around. He showed us this room with this display shelf that was clearly handmade (but looked pretty nice), and was telling us all about it. The plaster was made with cow shit (his word) and there was wood underneath. At this point, he broke off some of the plaster to show us the wood, while we’re all trying to stop him from breaking the frame. He said, “No, it’s okay” with the attitude of ‘a woman will fix it,’ which is really just my reading into his nonchalance knowing that most probably a woman will be the one who has to fix it. He then took us to the roof of the house to see the rest of the village and the calf they had tied up in the side yard. When we went down to the side yard, I asked if I could go up closer to the calf, so he went to try to capture this terrified young calf who was already tied up by his/her leg. I tried to get him to stop – I know full well that calves tend to be scared but curious, so if you just approach cautiously with your hand out, you might get to pet the calf. When I tried to say, “No, it’s okay, you don’t have to do that,” he wouldn’t stop, so I had to pet the calf so that he would let him/her go. But then he went around to this little room and pulled out a baby goat. I got to hold the kid, but I accidentally put her back before Charles got a chance to hold her, not realizing anyone else wanted to. So I went into the room and got the other goat, which was slightly bigger, out for him to hold. Then we briefly had both of them out at the same time. I was right in my element! Now I want a goat (Dad, it would reduce your lawn-mowing requirements)!

Prior to our camel safari in Jaisalmer, we stopped in Jodhpur. Our train was running about four hours late, so we spent a lot of time at the train station. We both, however, got a lot of reading done: I would really recommend My Spiritual Autobiography by the Dalai Lama. In Jodhpur, we stayed in this guest house that had a rooftop restaurant. The food was awesome (dal fry, mix veg curry, parantha, omelets, nutella banana crepes, and muesli with homemade curd), and the view was even better. We were just outside of the fort (this one is the fort featured in the latest Batman movie), which was wonderfully visible from the rooftop. We even got to hike to the fort over the rocky hills that surrounded it – twice. It was wonderful to walk around outside of the city, where there weren’t constant honks from the TookTook (autorickshaw) drivers or motorbikes passing. The concept of noise pollution is thoroughly acceptable in India, and it is quite stressful actually. It is wonderful to escape into nature, and fortunately our destinations had enough of that. Also fortunately, I will only be staying in Dehli for a few days, so I can quickly escape the noise and air pollution. As Elliot said last night, those who don’t think there should be regulations on pollution should spend some time in Delhi to see what the outcome of lack of regulation is.

Hiking back from the fort.

As I write, we are aboard a 14-hour overnight train back to Delhi. We have beds, and unlike the overnight bus, we are very confident about the cleanliness of the beds on the train. Elliot, because he joined us on the trip at the last minute, had to get a ticket in sleeper class, which has more beds, no bedding, and is not air-conditioned, but he seemed comfortable with the cleanliness of his compartment.

This trip to Delhi will be as short as our previous stop – just a couple of days – then we’ll head on to Dehradun and the farm for New Year’s. I’ll stay as Margaret returns to Delhi to work on her research with her advisor then head out for her field work. I’ll dig in to the farm work and studying some of the other stuff that Navdanya has done. While in Delhi, we will be staying with Elliot and his roommate Brian. His other two roommates will be out of town. They even have a washing machine, so we can very easily do our laundry!