By Manuwant Choudhary
Our guide at Jaisalmer Fort had warned us about guides at Sam sand dunes they could cheat you...and sure enough we were swarmed by them promising us to take us on a camel safari upto `Sunset Point'.
I had never done a camel ride before.
First you get onto the camel, once seated...the camel is told to rise...but this can be quite tricky...its almost like a roller coster..and if you don't hold on tight you could tumble on your face.....
But once its up..then its a very comfortable...I'd... lets say..journey to Afghanistan...and won't feel a thing...
But barely had we climbed a dune..the camel-walla...a boy named Ali stopped and said...`Here it is....?'
We looked around and asked, "Where? Er...emmm....what??"
Ali, "Saheb, this is it..Sunset Point !"
We argued without success that he had promised us a ride over the dunes...
So we had to look around and yes the sun was there alright but it was blistering hot...and even though it was evening...it was hardly the sunset we imagined...with some trick posturing with my cellphone camera I managed to get some pictures though...
In the distance we could hear some Gujaratis boisterously cheering some desert nautch girls and throwing Gujarati currency on them...
They must have definitely voted for Narendra Modi....
And there were beer bottles littered around the lovely dunes..left overs from midnight parties earlier....
Despite India's beauty...we do not get enough tourists because of the way we mob them and also because of our poor civic standards.
But then I noticed a Gujarati family seated on the dune..attempting to get the best of the sunset...
They were sober and looked educated but they too must have voted for Modi.
The women wanted to appreciate the sunset...but the man...seemed disappointed....I overheard him interrupt them..."What sunset? This is no sunset...they don't know what a sunset is....The sunset from Tiger Hill in Darjeeling is what a sunset is..."
I smiled quietly and thought he must be a lucky man..because in my 11 years at Darj I never got to see the sunset at Tiger Hill...
Actually, Tiger Hill is famous for its `Sunrise' !
And what efforts we made..getting up at 4 am...in all that chill...and roaring up the slopes on rusty Land Rovers..only to find ourselves in thick white...
And you can't blow away the clouds...
We would have coffee and return....
But yes both sunrises and sunsets in Darjeeling are memorable..nothing like it...
But we argued with Ali once more about Sunset Point...
What is a Sunset Point? There are no boards to suggest that this is Sunset Point...
The sun sets from every point in the world...
Like even the sunset on the Arabian sea at Bombay's Marine Drive is beautiful.
I have not been to Goa but Atal Behari Vajpayee would always choose Goa for his `Chintan' Baithaks..and his photos with the sunset looked lovely....
I won't blame the Gujaratis for the littered beer bottles because that could be the act of beer guzzling Punjabis....they are so boisterous on flights returning from Bangkok...if I was an airhostess I'd jump out...
But I suspect Gujaratis love only sunrise, not sunset....
(To be continued....next on the Mahabharata within the BJP)
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