On the Way

(The "dune buggy", our jeep, Thar Desert 9:00AM)


I got the call on Sunday night that I had to be at a certain location in an hour. I'd been requested to go to the field.

As soon as I arrived we sped off into the night through a dust-storm in the jeep. The bumpy, dusty, windy, and exhilarating ride was punctuated by tinny Marwari traditional dance music playing from the primitive cassette player which had only one operation, power on/off controlled by a lightswitch which had been haphazardly screwed into the dashboard. Our field officer guide, Panaramji would look over at me every once in a while and smile. He spoke about as much English as I spoke Hindi, but I think we had an understanding. After asking our colleague if I should require bottled water or special food, and finding out that I didn't, he had a new found respect for me. And so, after about 4 hrs, a roadside dinner, and some more Marwari music, we reached our unlit destination. The seemingly abandoned Kalron field house was being beaten by sandy winds and was illuminated solely by the half moon and our headlights. Two figures were sleeping outside and upon a honk or two woke up. I stepped out of the car and immediately knew I was somewhere else, the ground was much softer and sandier than metropolitan Jodhpur. I wasn't in Kansas anymore.


(Panaramji, 6:00AM)


(Kitchen, Kalron Field Center)

The ghost town field center was where we slept for the night, woke up early, had some peppery (really good) chai and headed to the Baap field center.

This place was like one of those movie depictions of a Vietnam encampment. There was the cook, the kid (isn't there school in India right now?), the fun-loving officers who'd play cricket every evening, the eccentric imaculately dressed Boss (Guruji, as we were to refer to him), Bollywood music blaring, and a bunch of people passed out, talking on the phone, or chilling out in the small patch of grass the horticulturalist (he was really proud of this) had cultivated in the arid conditions. We threw our bags into a room and jumped back into the jeep (or dune buggy, which is how I'll refer to it from now on) and went off road, about 25km through the desert to visit some villages. This is where the real adventure began.