By Manuwant Choudhary
They say you should not build castles on shifting sands...as we drove towards the Pakistani border...the metalled roads disappeared....
The landscape more rugged and bare...
The cellphone signals gone....
Just the hum from the car airconditioner...and the silences..disturbed only by the jolts of a rough ride...
You have to be careful not to drive into the sand as we discovered....our Toyota Innova did get stuck in the sands...just like the Pakistani tanks did in 1971 !
When you look out you see isolated hamlets with almost no one in sight...perhaps goats and just a woman.
We are told the total population in these villages are just 10 or 20 !
It was like leaving everything behind.
The chaos of all that is modern-day India.
The big cities with their zillions of shanties, the millions of autos trying to take off on jammed Indian streets..the loudspeakers....the festivals..the gods and goddesses..the noisy TV debates...the big egos....the corrupt politicians...far from the maddening crowds...
The road is straight, no curves or bends...but you do realise how most people flock towards money and jobs...and live in menial conditions in cities...while large swathes of India remain uninhabitated.
You also think about why at least a few people still choose to live here...their only home.
The hamlets too disappear until we come across this on the desert...just two low huts....I felt like meeting the folks who lived in them...
In these parts...governments and their divisive politics cease to exist...they are on their own..every day a fresh battle to survive against the odds of nature.
At an abandoned health centre..a camel finds some fodder....
Then there is no road.
So we get onto Maruti Gypsies which are four-wheel drive and only their petrol engines take us to areas not on India's tourist map.
These are restricted areas...
But its something money cannot buy.
A 360 degree view of the desert...the Pakistani border just across...
In the silences you can feel the ages....the invaders..the mongols...attacking India...repeatedly....
Time stands still.
Here you would fight even a mighty enemy with everything you've got...your life.
No time for debates and talks..or convincing the other.
Or like what a Sufi saint said..."You can get enlightenment in two ways..one is by seeing the world..the other is by seeing within..."
All is quiet on the western front.
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