Winter in Rajasthan

Long shadows of kikar trees on the gold-white sand,
Chill wind blowing
A young boy with a stick over his shoulder walking behind his goats.
The shimmering red-glow of a fort in the looming horizon
Bathing in sunset light – Winter in Rajasthan

Soon it will be colder, the roads are not lighted and the modern traveller hurries towards his destination as did the ancient travellers of the Spice Route.

A land of kings, of regal queens – there are stories in the blowing sand. Tales of love and bravery and death. There is music in the desert winds, folk memories of an ancient people.

Memories of pain, of death and massacre, of the razing of Chittor and the foreign invaders who braved through the Hindukush and Khyber to reach the golden lands.
The Bhils the Scythians the Afghans and the Turks – they came, looted and destroyed and then stayed on.

“Here came the Aryas, Dravids and Chins;
Sakya Hun hordes; Pathan-Mughal
All merged in one whole”
-Rabindranath Tagore Bharat-tirth

Swallowed in the desert sands, emerging unexpectedly in faces and words of the people.