Padharo maro des !!!
Pics from a recent trip to Jaisalmer and Jodhpur in Rajasthan. I dont take credit for any of these pics .... just digitally modified some of the many pics people took.


....on the dunes near the border..


.... pakistani tank near ranaut (closest place to the border open for civilians)... Longewala - does it ring a bell !!


..... village where the movie border was shot.



..... the kids were really smart.... one of the very good schools(village arjuna, jaisalmer) ... It was a task to pick a few to talk to among the over responsive lot.



.... the people at whose place we had lunch at (village Arjuna) ..... had Dal Baati for the first time and awesome chhaas unlike ever before .... didnt realise i was putting on weight so fast .... didnt look in the mirror for a week nearly .... phew !!




......Desert in Bloom..... it just rained a lot this year as you can see ..... a nearby district also experienced floods.



...... The golden city of Jaisalmer as seen from the city fort.



....... toy time !!



.... rhymes well .... cyber : chai bar !!



... the Jodhpur Fort

.... chatar palace .... all thanks to rathi ... had an awesome time in jodhpur !!

.... the colorful people .... may be they wear such colors so that they can be spotted even from a far off distance in the sand easily .... both the colors are pretty contrasting .... this is no theory ...just came as a thought :P ...



.... the mighty Indira Gandhi Canal ...... though it did good to a great extent .... discovered some new facets..... for example it meant imposed agriculture for people who have been practising animal husbandry since ages.



....... innocence ... the girls were curiously looking in to the camera and us .... though just nomads ... these people treated us like kings ..... had the best chhaas and raw milk there ... there is something about indians :D.



...... the tribals.



..... this was the best part .... simply loved it :)



..... suzlon windmills ... just appreciate the sizes !!! ... and cenotaphs of the old maharajas.

..... a Paliwal house. As the locals say paliwals were wealthy brahmins who had benefited a lot from the silk route trade. They had around 80 to 100 villages with a population of around 300 to 400 people per village. A king once proposed to marry a paliwal girl but the proposal was put down by the villagers because of the caste barriers... the furious king gave a deadline of one night for the family to vacate his kingdom failing to which he would forcefully marry their daughter. Not just the single village but the entire community from different villages vacated the kingdom in just a night taking with them whatever they could and abandoning their immovable property. Till date there are incidents when people find jewels hidden in the walls of those houses that once belonged to this community and are now inhabited by the new immigrants.

..... a paliwal villlage around 400 to 500 years old