Karims

This story is an imaginary story about the famous restaurant called Karims which is situated in Delhi. This story is from the point of view of the founder of Karims. His name is Karim.

The story starts with me being the chef in the royal kitchen in the kingdom of Shah Jahan in 1050 it was 1640 according to the angrezi calendar. The Taj Mahal was being built. The king was still in sorrow even though it had been eight years since his beautiful wife had passed away. Such was the love of the king for Mumtaz Mahal.
In 1042, 1632 according to the Britishers when Shah Jahan’s wife passed away, he completely changed his kingdom, including all the ministers. He couldn’t find a suitable royal chef for eight years. That is when I was called to the kingdom of Shah Jahan. He told me to cook my favorite dish. I couldn’t choose one and so I made four items in the menu. I made four items also because I was not aware of the kings likes and dislikes. I liked one more than every other dish though. It was the Mutton Burra. It is a dry dish. After he ate the first bite, he didn’t say a word until the food was finished. He immediately appointed me the chef of the royal kitchen.
    Shah Jahan would be depressed all the time but as soon as the food was served, he would have his temporary good mood until the meal ended.
      My family was very happy as they saw me in services of the king. The daily routine was the same everyday for the next eighteen years when Aurangzeb the son of Shah Jahan overthrew his old father and became the king. He not only put his father in jail but he also killed his brothers. According to me, Aurangzeb was a very cruel person.
        Aurangzeb didn’t like the food made by me and so he sacked me and got a new royal chef. I knew that Shah Jahan didn’t like the food made by the new royal chef and so I used to smuggle food made by me to the jail for him. One day, we were caught and Aurangzeb banished me from the city.    
      The delicious food of India had not reached the mysterious place Aurangzeb had sent me to. I had to add my secret spices, which I carried in my pocket to make the food delicious. The people there were very good to me and I used to give them the food made by my secret ingredients. They loved it!!
      When two centuries later I decided to go back to India, the people there wanted me to stay because of two reasons. One was that they wanted the delicious food everyday. The second was more important, they didn’t want me to go because they had got the news that there was some terror problem in India. Some people had invaded the country. This made me more eager to go.
          I left for India in 1256 (1840). When I reached Dhaka, some people there stopped me. They put me in jail. No one talked to me for the next ten years when I was in jail. They gave me some bland food once a day in which I would put my secret ingredients to make it tasty. I tried to ask them several times why they put me in jail but I got no answer. When they released me in 1266, (1850), I went to Delhi from there. I walked to the Red Fort after reaching Delhi. When I saw it, I was shocked! There was blood all over. I went right inside the Red Fort. I met the king of India, Bahadur Shah Zafar and told him my story. After my story, he told me his.
      He said ‘the royal chef of Aurangzeb one day brought a huge army. They killed many people. Since then they are taking over the country. We have very little resistance power left now, they have even spread their bland food all around the country.’
       I was disappointed because I knew that Indians liked good spicy food. The Britishers can’t make that kind of food because they never discovered spices.
       At this moment I decided ton open a restaurant, which will preserve the food culture of India. I bought a cart and used to cook food on it and sell the food in front of the Jama Masjid. When there was rush for the food made by me, I asked Bahadur Shah Zafar for some land near Jama Masjid in 1273 (1856). He gave me all the papers for the land.
  One day I got the news that the Britishers had attacked the Red Fort and the king was taken to Burma where he would be hung. When I went to get my land, the people there said that I will not get my land, the Britishers have captured it. I fought for the land for 56 years when I got it back in 1331 (1913). This is when ‘Karims’ was officially opened.   
        At this time we started the tradition that is still being followed – we never threw away the food that had not been sold. It was the base for the next day’s food. We like to believe that what we serve in our restaurants today is the same food that we served out more than a century ago.
        Karims was a famous and successful restaurant. Freedom fighters like Chandrashekhar Azad, Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh and many others came to enjoy the good food of Karims.
     While my restaurant flourished, India struggled to get freedom with Mahatma Gandhi leading the struggle. Everything started to get in place for India. All the plans were well executed and finally India got freedom in 1366 (1947).
        Here I would like to say something about my spirit. It  kept changing with time. First it was to save the food from changing forever. Later it was to make the ‘Aam aadmi’ (normal person) eat the food cooked in the royal kitchen. Soon after independence, the restaurant became famous and it became the main source of income for me. All this was secondary. The primary reason for me was to see the happiness on the people’s faces after they ate the food. Till today this has been the primary reason for me to run the restaurant.
                After independence, I invited Maulana Azad and Jawahar Lal Nehru to Karims. The constitution was being made at that time. When the two of them came in they were worried and were talking about the constitution. As soon as the food was served, the coversation changed and they were talking happily about the food and saying that they would come to Karims once in every month from now. They were very impressed with the food.
 Today in 2012, thousands of people come to my restaurant everyday. I would be at one of the branches of Karims if you want to meet me. Today I feel great about my restaurant. It is a huge success. All the new goals I kept making, succeeded.
        

Trip to old Delhi

Our tour started from the Delhi Gate. This gate has its name because it faces Delhi. Similarly there is Ajmeri Gate, Turkman Gate and Kashmiri Gate. We walked to Ghala Masjid. Enroute we saw an old wall. It was a part of the wall of the Shahjahanabad city which was walled from all sides. Only a few remains are present today. Ghala Mosque was built by Zeenat Ul Misha, Aurangzeb's daughter in 1717 AD. After the revolt of 1857, the Britishers captured this mosque and converted it into a bakery. It even worked for five years. The Britishers captured more than 50 mosques after 1857.

The Kalan Masjid, built by Firoz Shah Tughluq's Minister

We continued walking after we saw the mosque. We crossed pataudi's house and haveli Azam khan to reach Kalan Masjid. Kalan Masjid was built by Firoz Shah Tughlaq's Minister. He built seven such mosques all around Delhi. After taking a walk around the mosque, we walked through 4 feet wide lanes to reach Raziya Sultan's tomb. Raziya Sultan was Iltutmish's daughter. After Iltutmish died, Raziya Sultan became the ruler. Her father had more faith in her than he did in his sons. Raziya Sultan became the first female ruler in Indian history. Her brother was jealous of her and after a reign of 4 years she was killed by her own brother who succeeded her.

The most popular mode of transport in the walled city

After that we took a Rickshaw to the Fatehpuri Masjid. It was built by Shah Jahan's wife, Fatihpuri Begum in 1650. We didn't go inside the mosque due to lack of time. We continued our Rickshaw ride and stopped at Arif Bhaiya's (our guide) friends house. He stayed in a colony called Farash Khana. This colony was given to 4 brothers who had come from Bukhara to build the floors (farsh) of Jama Masjid and Red Fort. Their families still stay there. Their family now has over 3000 people!

After talking to Arif Bhaiya's friend about Farash Khana, we walked to Mirza Ghalib's house. He was the best Urdu poet and one of the best Indian poets. His haveli was turned into a museum. We looked around and found many of his belongings and writings. We finally left his haveli and took a Rickshaw to Delhi Gate. We ate local food and butter milk. It was amazing! On that note, we ended this tour to old Delhi.

Passion

I love travelling. Meeting new people, listening to their stories. They have the most unexpectable stories. Travelling on the road is even more fun because I love cars a lot and I won't be able to meet anyone from 40000 feet above the ground! The villages near the highways are approachable. I can go to these villages and ask them what they think of the world outside their villages and their lifestyle. I want an SUV for travels like this as I can also go to the remotest areas that have no roads. The best stories will come from places like these. There may be some people who are having trouble staying alive. There may be some government schemes they do not know about. I can inform them about that. If the government is not helping them, I can go back to the city and contact NGOs who may be willing to help these people. I also like to click photos, I would be doing that in the villages to show the state of these people to the people who want to help. 

During my travels, I will also go off roading with my vehicle. Like driving it in the desert, slush and other places where a normal car would get stuck. Just the idea of this makes me feel very excited. Another job that I will do is work for an automobile magazine, driving and reviewing cars. I will get to drive such a variety of cars. I have always loved to photograph cars. I may also become a photographer in such a magazine. That is my passion, not something I will be forced to do for a living.

What I feel about this Trip

There are many things I like about this trip, the first is that I love travelling, especially road trips. But this is something beyond driving, meeting these women has been an amazing experience for me. When I really connect with these people I experience me in their place and I think that this is how india can change, not just by big politicians who are selfish. I have never met more selfless people before.

What I feel about each woman

Bimla Devi - She destroyed the most important problem in India, cast and gender discrimination. I feel she made a huge difference in her village even when she was not the sarpanch of her village which is a great feat because people do not listen to just any person and she made them listen to her...

Vijaylaxmi Sharma - She is the most brave woman I have met, she is not scared of so many threatenings. She just does her work without worrying about herself which is a very good value. Another that I really liked about Raju was her firmness when she said at the age of thirteen that she will not get married.

Norti Bai - I love her always young spirit, she learnt how to run a computer at the age of 60! She became the Sarpanch of her village at such an old age!

Sister Mariola - I love how she looks at everyone with a different or good eye. She even saw love in criminals. I love her love for everyone.

Kalbeliya Dancers - She is a part of a nomadic tribe which is on the move at all times. She has grown from the worst of times into visiting more than 50 times and going abroad 85 times. But this has not made her show off, her humility still exists.

Rakhi Paliwal - She is the role model for all women who think that men and women are equal. She does everything a man does and maybe even more than that.

Fehmida Malik - Being a psychologist, she was not a professional in what she did, but she still did it for the people.

Mittal Patel - Her subject was journalism for which she studied nomadic tribes, when she went and saw how these people live, she was very touched and she then took the decision to help them in any way. And she did. This shows a good heart and a strong decision making power.

What I feel about this Trip

There are many things I like about this trip, the first is that I love travelling, especially road trips. But this is something beyond driving, meeting these women has been an amazing experience for me. When I really connect with these people I experience me in their place and I think that this is how india can change, not just by big politicians who are selfish. I have never met more selfless people before.

What I feel about each woman

Bimla Devi - She destroyed the most important problem in India, cast and gender discrimination. I feel she made a huge difference in her village even when she was not the sarpanch of her village which is a great feat because people do not listen to just any person and she made them listen to her...

Vijaylaxmi Sharma - She is the most brave woman I have met, she is not scared of so many threatenings. She just does her work without worrying about herself which is a very good value. Another that I really liked about Raju was her firmness when she said at the age of thirteen that she will not get married.

Norti Bai - I love her always young spirit, she learnt how to run a computer at the age of 60! She became the Sarpanch of her village at such an old age!

Sister Mariola - I love how she looks at everyone with a different or good eye. She even saw love in criminals. I love her love for everyone.

Kalbeliya Dancers - She is a part of a nomadic tribe which is on the move at all times. She has grown from the worst of times into visiting more than 50 times and going abroad 85 times. But this has not made her show off, her humility still exists.

Rakhi Paliwal - She is the role model for all women who think that men and women are equal. She does everything a man does and maybe even more than that.

Fehmida Malik - Being a psychologist, she was not a professional in what she did, but she still did it for the people.

Mittal Patel - Her subject was journalism for which she studied nomadic tribes, when she went and saw how these people live, she was very touched and she then took the decision to help them in any way. And she did. This shows a good heart and a strong decision making power.

Mittal Patel

She has started an organization called VSSM (). She has been working on giving an identity to all nomadic tribes like the meer group where she has started a school. These people are present in India but do not have any identity because they did not have any permanent address. The physical state of the school is not too great as there are thatches in which studies go on. But they do learn. This school was started just about 2-3 months ago, there is a school that has been going on for 3 years. The aim of these schools is to try and build the mentality of the children to go to the mainstream school. There aim is to send these children itching the time span of 6 months and 1 year. The students in the meer group school seemed very motivated to learn, there was a lot of participation.
There are 40 nomadic tribes in Gujarat, 4 million people are part of these tribes. 28 of these tribes are notified criminal tribes by the Britishers which still stays in India. But the other 12 are denotified by India. VSSM has given identity to 60 thousand people out of the 4 million. They are given the identity by reference, mittal patel is the reference. She even had to make the conditions for the IDs for the government! They have worked in 9 districts out of the 28 in Gujarat. When asked by when will they be done with all 28, she answered first let us be perfect with these 9 at least.
There is political awareness in these tribes and so they all get together and demand several things from the government, it is not fulfilled by saying it once, not twice but several times and then the government does listen to them.

A tribal woman, Jyotsna, less than 30, with which Mittal Patel is working said "she gave my son education, gave us ration cards, voter ID card". She describes the problem of her house saying "when I put a utensil under water when the water falls from the ceiling, water starts falling from somewhere else! This tribe specialises in making bamboos and so he hits were mad of bamboo. And do her tribe is called Baspoda, Bas means Bamboo. "Mittal patel made my girl go to school. She is a great woman". She said "you people think what to cook, we have to think how to get water to cook!". When asked how the government has helped her, she says government only eats money, it does not give money. Mittal Patel has been working here since 3 years.

She used to be a normal journalist researching nomadic tribes. When she asked people where this tribe lived, no one answered. She searched the newspapers and it was written there these are criminals. She went to that place using the newspaper cutting. She was motivated to do this work only after she visited them and saw their state. When a child was crying when she visited that place, when she told her mother, why don't you feed her, the mother shouted back "we don't have food to eat since 3 days, how do you think I will feed her?!". That was the moment she decided to work for the nomads.

The biggest problem for this community is water, food and shelter. There is shelter but it can even get burnt in peak heat in a place like Ahmedabad. This is the physical problem, the social problem is that no one recognises or likes them. Politicians ask citizens what they would like to earn votes but no one asks these people because they don't have the right to vote.

Besides saying so many great things about Mittal, the tribals welcomed her very nicely...

Quote of the day - "There should be a heart in doing things, that is how you can achieve everything" - Mittal Patel

Fehmida Malik

Fehmida Malik is 40 years old, she is a qualified psychologist. She is unmarried because of the cause she is working on. She has 3 sisters and one brother, all of them are married. She was working working with mentally challenged children from the slums of Ahmedabad. In 2002 she took a break because she thought she is not learning anything and exactly a month later the Gujarat riots took place. Thousands of people from the slums were homeless. Vatva is one of the slum area in Ahmedabad. She went there to see what damage had been done. She went there for the first time. When she saw the state of the slums she felt some work needed to be done there. For 6 months after the riots, no one went out of their house there was so much terror. The children were told the stories. They were never so scared before. Fehmida said if you were not there you can't imagine what would have happened. She then started to raise funds so that the children can go to school.

She even opened bank accounts for the people. But there was one condition for that, a woman from the family will open a account and only after that will a man open an account. She gave instant loans to the people between 2000 and 4000 INR. She said at first, the men functioned from the ladies accounts but now men also have opened their own accounts and even come to deposit money in woman's bank accounts.

She got her inspiration from her father who never gave up on anything. Se said he met with an accident two years ago and had a complete memory loss, so much so that she had to even teach him how to peel a banana. But now he has fully recovered and she even went on Haj (pilgrimage) with him last year. This show his power.

She said 3 people supported her financially these are Sameer a friend from Delhi, Aman Trust which is based in Delhi, and Father Paul from a church nearby. When she was asked if her family helps her in this cause, she said yes they support me in any way possible.

Rakhi Paliwal

Rakhi Paliwal is 23 years old, she has been the Vice President of her Panchayat since 3 years. She manages the sanitation of her village by taking a round of her village on her bike at 4 AM to see that no one is going towards the farm with a mug in their hand. If they are she tries to stop them. She has been telling people that it is unhygienic to poop in the farm as many diseases spread. She has been putting up public toilets but no wants to go to the toilet, they say we don't want to go to a closed room. She tells those people to at least pour some mud on their poop as it stops it to spread diseases.

She has been into politics since she was in class 5 when she became the Vice President of her class. In class 9 she told her father I want to contest elections, he said you are too young right now. Se finally came of age and asked her father then. Her father said "no, you will not be able to concentrate as you have to get married." After that she held a meeting with her Panchayat members and told them " I will not get married until my term ends, please vote for your daughter". People did give her votes. She saw in college that a man was troubling a girl, she reported it and that person was sent to jail. Since then all men in her village have been away from women, especially Rakhi. She has been studying government schemes to help the villagers.

Her daily routine is, she wakes up at 4 and goes for a ride on her bike around the village to see to the sanitation. Then she comes back and leaves for her college which is 50 km away at 6 AM. She rides her bike till her college. She comes back from college at 2 PM and talks to people to see their problems. She then studies for her exams in law. She has exams right now and she said it is good that you came today because yesterday I had an exam.

Rakhi Paliwal is the first female Vice President of her panchayat. She is also the first female bike rider of her village. She is the first woman from her village to go to learn law and that too 50 km away!

When she was asked what gave you the motivation to become a politician, she said her father was also the Vice President of her panchayat but he was not eligible any more after he had two children. She said she was fulfilling her fathers dream. When she was asked what she wants to do ahead in her life, she said politics. She also added in India politics is not supposed to be a good word but I want to help people's problems that is why I want to get into politics, not to earn money.

Kalbeliya Dancers

Today we met Sua, she is a Kalbeliya dancer. She is 32 years old. She has 5 children, the eldest is 18 years old and the youngest is 4 years. Sua has gone outside India 85 times! Mostly she goes to France. She has also gone to several other countries, that is ho great a dancer she is.

Kalbeliya is a tribal group which is on the move at all times. They go around with many animals like donkeys, dogs, chickens etc. when the Kalbeliya people go to any village, they are soon kicked out. This is because their animals sometimes go to other peoples farms and eat all the fruits and eatable things. This is why Sua and her family moved to Jodhpur city in Rajasthan. Their family is one of the few who are not on the move at all times.

This tribal group concentrates only on one day. How they an survive for that day, they do not worry about the next day. Sua says "kal ka kal dekhenge" it means let today pass we will see how tomorrow goes later.

Till 30 years ago the earning for the Kalbeliyan group used to be daily wage labourer or similar works. As many people today know Kalbeliya dance is a great form of art. This tribal group did this dance only in their celebrations like a marriage. Sua said during any festival or celebration time, they would celebrate for the whole month. The mothers of these dancers teach them and that is how this ance is still present through so many generations. Sua also said that she creates new dance steps often but the Bollywood stars rob them from me, so I have to make new dance steps more often.

30 years ago Komal Kothari held a meeting of these great dancers and told them to spread this great art work, it would earn them a lot of fame. That is when Kalbeliya dancers performed on stage and were acknowledged.

The name Kalbeliya (meaning).

These people had a great relationship with sankes, they would first take out the poison of the snake and after that they would keep the snake with them for sometime, controlling it. They knew when the venom would be back in the snakes body and they would release it then, Sua also said they release it because they get old and it is not said to be good if the snake dies in your house. Ad you believe it or not, the dancers say they also learn their dance from the snake, you will see similarity in Kalbeliya dance steps and how the snake moves. If the snake has bit someone, the Kalbeliya people know how to cure them. So coming back to the name, Sua said snakes are black and the Hindi for black is kala so kal comes from that. Kal also means time and Beliya means friend or helper. So Kalbeliya is the helper of someone in their bad times.

Sister Mariola

Sister Mariola has been working with the jail inmates of Ajmer central jail since 1997. She is also a teacher in Sophia college in Ajmer which is right beside the central jail. She goes to the jail once a week. While our interview with her she got very emotional saying some of the prisoners have very good hearts. When asked what is the best thing of the job she replied "I love to help the wrongly convicted prisoners". She said she has been making handicrafts for them. A student of hers from the Sophia College has been providing all materials. She sells these handicrafts in the market. On the first occasion when she sold and came back to the jail with the money, the prisoners said please give this money to a poorer and more needy prisoner.
I wish there were more people like Sister Mariola who has a completely different thought even for prisoners.
Hope to see many such women.

Norti bai

Norti Bai, age is unknown as she has been saying she is 65 since ten years! She is the sarpanch of her panchayat harmada, harmada has two villages harmada and naya gaon. She learnt how to use a computer ten years ago. She did not know how to read and write in English but for the computer, she memorised all the letters and she uses Hindi font. She knows which letter is Hindi in the English letters on the computer. When asked what her favourite website is she said "I look at the different Panchayats that are progressing so that she can learn from them", when we asked her if she is on Facebook she said "no work comes first, I don't have the time to go to Facebook, and time is money".

She was talking to us very calmly, sometimes she would get excited and start talking loudly and happily, everybody loved it!

Her actual story started in 1981. She used to be a daily wage labourer. The daily wage for men was 7 rupees per day and for women was just 3rupees per day. She was very angry at this. She approached barefoot college on this matter and they filed a court case. They won it. But norti Bais agitation did not go. To try and make norti bai do something new, they told her to learn the computer. She said it was very very tough in the starting but she somehow managed it, "ro pit ke" as she said it. For the next 6 and a half years she was the manager or quadrant or of all computer related work in The barefoot college. She became very popular in her village and surroundings. She took permission from the barefoot college to ask if she could be a candidate in the elections. The tilonia based Organization said if you do not use government money for campaign and do not bribe to win you may contest the elections.

Vijaylaxmi Sharma

Vijaylaxmi Sharma, 24, B.Ed from village jhorinda bhojpura in Phagi district Rajasthan was born when her mother was only 14 years old. Kamla Sharma had all her 3children by the age of 19 which is when she had an operation after which she couldn't give birth. The other two children are vijay Sharma, 22 B.Ed and Mahesh Sharma, 20 pursuing polytechnic in civil. When Vijaylaxmi got to the age of 13 she saw her friend (same age) getting married. Her friend gave birth next year and died. Raju (vijaylaxmi's nickname) saw this coming her way as well. She used to listen to her parents talking to one of her uncles about marriage. She used to hide and listen to all this. One day she shouted out "I am not getting married at this age!" Her parents were shocked. They had never seen her daughter like this before. Her mother admits that she cursed her. But she saw the silent support of her fathers. One day she said to her father "please give me your support, I will not dishonour our family". He agreed, that is when her fit against child marriage started. Slowly she got the support of her whole family and now the family together has stopped 15 child marriages in their village and the surrounding villages. Her brother is a tarot card reader so he uses his social identity to convince the brides family. The mother talks to the mother of the bride. The father talks to the father and Vijaylaxmi herself goes straight to the bride.

When Raju started this cause, her mother got threatening phone calls saying tell your daughter to stop this or we won't leave her alone, at a few instances Raju would pick up the phone and tell them "come, what can you do to me?, come". Her mother used to be very scared but she also supported her daughter in this great cause.

Vijaylaxmi Sharma says what motivates me to do this is that she pictures herself in the brides position.

Red Rickshaw Revolution

The Red Rickshaw Revolution is a project in which Laura, Carina and Sunita are driving an auto from Delhi to Mumbai to raise funds and highlight great women. If you also want to donate you are most welcome. You just need to log onto redrickshaw.in

The following posts are all about this trip and about the women involved.

Udaipur to Delhi

Part III

Udaipur city overlooking one of its seven lakes.

...We left for Udaipur at around 2 o clock. After coming down from the hill, when we went on to the highway, I realised that this is the Ahmedabad-Indore highway which is one of the best in the country. We reached Udaipur and found our hotel before sunset. We went in our room and rested for some time and after that we went to Manish Uncle's (my fathers' friends) house. We went for dinner with them to a restaurant called Millets of Mewar. The restaurant is run by the students of Shikshantar. Shikshantar is a non-school school founded by Manish Uncle. The restaurant mostly had organic food. By the time we were out of there, it was very late and so we quickly dropped Manish Uncle and his wife and daughter to their house and went back to the hotel. We slept as soon as we reached.

Flames of the sun fly over the fort (background) to temple. 

Jan 5, 2013, 1735 hrs. Abner Manzar

               Next morning we went to Manish Uncle's house and asked him if he could send anyone with us to the Swaraj University which had the same philosophy as Shikshantar. He went into the Shikshantar building which was right in front of his house and sent a person. We travelled for 15 kilometers on the highway and then took a right. After about 2 kilometers we entered the campus of Swaraj University. One of the students there took us for a walk around the campus and as we started talking she said most of the students of Swaraj University have fought with their parents to come here. Their parents want them to go to a normal well structured college but these people want to realise their real aim in life. For this there is nothing better than the Swaraj University. The students of Swaraj University make food for each other and they also made food for us when we went there. After having our lunch we went back to Udaipur and to Shikshantar. We stayed in Shikshantar till 10 at night because there was a concert from 7. They served dinner to all the people who came. After the concert finished we went back to the hotel.

Sunset in Udaipur is so evocative, almost like a postcard.

Jan 4, 2013, 1750 hrs, Abner Manzar

                Next morning we left for Tilonia. We stopped at a village called Devdoongri where there was an organisation called MKSS. My father decided to help them by putting up a computer center there. From there we went to Bhim, it was about 10 kilometers from Devdoongri. Aruna Roy the co founder of Barefoot College was opening a School Of Democracy there. Any human would be allowed to go there and learn about their constitution and their rights. The buildings were being made so we couldn't see how it would function. After talking to the people there for some time we moved on and finally reached Tilonia at around 8 at night. We had dinner and then went to our room. 
               Next morning my father went to a village called Arain, 15 kilometers away from Tilonia but we decided to stay. Me and Abeni made a puppet each. It takes 4 days for it to dry. So we couldn't paint it. After making the puppet I wandered aroung the campus and met people whom I had met years ago. I got a homely feeling in Tilonia as if I am already at home. The people would talk so friendly I would have just kept talking to them for hours and hours. Soon my father came  back and we quickly had lunch and set off again. This time for home. There was a lot of traffic as we got closer to Delhi and we finally reached home at 1 am. 7th night or 8th morning.
                 I had dreamt of such a journey for more than a year now and as we reached our so called destination, I was dissapointed because for me all this while I was at my destination, journey.

Jaisalmer to Mount Abu

Part II

...As we were driving back from the sand dunes, I saw the meter of the fuel tank, it was almost at 'E', there was no petrol pump for the next 15 kilometers. Jasbir Uncle drove at the most economical speed, 60, there were cars passing us at 110-120, we felt like we were going in a road roller. But being a road roller helped as we reached Suryagarh before the tank was empty. We had dinner with my fathers' friend. After dinner I played billiards with another 15 year old boy. We kept playing till 1:30 AM! And as I expected, I woke up later than what we had planned. Finally we left Jaisalmer at about 10:15. We made our first stop 70 kilometers off the highway near Barmer. A village called Dhanau, Chohtan, District Barmer. Barefoot College has a center there also. I had gone to the Barefoot College in Tilonia many times before so this was not something great for me. What interested me was the fact that 33% of Dhanau's population were Pakistanis who migrated in the 1971 war of India and Pakistan. I even met one of them. He said his family is still in Pakistan, they are in touch through mobile phones. A relative of his had gone to Pakistan recently and given his mobile number to his family.

             We had lunch with them and set off again towards Mount Abu. Soon the sun set and we had to go up the mountains at night. We finally reached Mount Abu at 9 at night. We found a hotel and quickly went to our rooms. The weather was cold compared to Jaisalmer and Bikaner but it wasn't colder than Delhi. We had done more than 500 kilometers today. I needed something from the car at midnight and when I went to ask for the keys from Jasbir Uncle, he was like tere padosee ke paas hogi, (it must be with your neighbour), he was so tired he was talking to me in his dream!
              In the morning we both had surprising news for each other, I told him about the midnight episode and he told me that there was frost on the car at 7 in the morning! So maybe Mount Abu was colder than Delhi. We walked till the famous lake of Mount Abu but didn't feel like boating so we started walking towards a huge balloon we saw in the air. On the way, we saw horses with riders on them. They were asking everyone if they wanted to sit on it. They walked the horses when someone sat on the horses. When we reached the balloon place we realised that people go in that balloon and enjoy the view of Mount Abu. We did the same. The view was good but not as much fun as we had while going up and down. It was fun seeing everyone so scared! When we came back down, we drove till a widely known Jain Mandir which was a normal temple. So basically Mount Abu is just a tourist spot and has just tourist attractions. It does not live up to its name, but I figured that the people of Rajasthan might go there because of the colder weather than the hot Rajasthan.
            Udaipur, Bhim and Tilonia still to come.....   

Delhi To Jaisalmer

2,500 km, 8 days, 8 destinations, 3 posts

            On the morning of the 31^st of December we set off from Delhi at 6 in the morning. We stopped at a restaurant near Rewari which had a huge open area. It always used to be empty, at least the number of times I have gone there. We were curious to know the reason and we asked them why they have such a big place and still it is empty at all times. The person there said usually people come for lunch or dinner, many foreigners also come here. As I walked towards the open field I heard some shooting. Then I saw the mountain which was beside the field there was something written on it, it said ‘firing range’. I stayed in the field for some time enjoying the view of the mustard plants and the shots that were being fired. After eating breakfast we drove on, my father driving now. I kept thinking of stopping for lunch but then it would get late. We finally decided against stopping and reached Laxmi Niwas Palace, Bikaner at 4 pm. It is a heritage hotel which is taken on lease for 99 years by my fathers’ friend.

I took some photos of birds in the evening and at night we went to the main garden where the New Year celebration was happening. We ate dinner and went to sleep at around 12. I was very happy as 2013 came as there were many fatal road accidents occurring in 2012. In the morning we woke up a bit late and after eating breakfast we set off from Bikaner at around 12 noon, my father was driving again, 50 kilometers away from Bikaner he suddenly took a right turn off the highway where there was no road, just tracks of tractors on mud. We followed the tracks and they brought us to a mud house. We stopped there and started talking to an old woman who seemed to be the only person there but I was wrong, suddenly 7-8 children appeared from behind us shouting merrily, a man followed them and after that two women with one holding a small child in her arms. The middle aged man told us ‘we are all a joint family’ and pointed at two other mud houses not too far off, ‘these are also our houses’. The old woman was the mother of this man, he had three more brothers who also stayed in these mud houses. the nearest hospital from there was 50 kilometers away in Bikaner, the closest police station was 10 kilometers away. These people were very happy with their way of living. We said thank you to them and continued our journey.

            We planned to reach Jaisalmer before sunset. We were at Suryagarh hotel right before sunset. This hotel was made to look like a fort from the outside with luxurious rooms inside. This was also owned by the same friend of my fathers’. The entrance told me the grandiosity of this fort like hotel. I am always fascinated by old monuments and this looked just like that from the outside which made me feel good about this place. But as soon as we stepped in to the building it felt like I had suddenly reached 2050 AD after being in the 17th century a moment ago! This I thought was the best thing about this hotel, it gives you the humungous feeling the kings of the olden times had and it also gives you a feeling that you are in the future. As we got to our room I realised that the there was not just one similarity between the olden times and this hotel but there was another similarity, there was a great bath in our room! It soon got dark and I decided to go and explore this humungous hotel. The engineer of this hotel saw me taking photos and told me to come with him, he would show me even better views. He was right, he took me outside the building and a few meters away from it, then he told me took look back and the view was great! I saw the building with its lightings, for the next half an hour, he gave me a tour all around the hotel. I was tired by the end of the tour and went back to the room and called it a day.

Next morning I was woken up by my father just before sunrise. I took photos of the sunrise as it came up from behind a hill. Soon everyone was up and we went down for breakfast after getting ready. My father had planned the day for us. First we went to the main part of the city. We stopped at Kalakar (artisans) colony. My father knows a person who stays there, Ghazi Khan, a musician. We went to his house and started talking to him. He told us about his life as a musician. He gets to travel the world! He has gone to more than 100 countries but still stays in a small house given to many artisans by the government. He says, I want to stay here so that this place is exclusive to just artisans and was also dissapointed with the people who sold their house in this colony and started staying somewhere else. After thanking him for his time, we moved on to the Jaisalmer Fort. This fort houses 4000 families, 84 restaurants and 42 hotels! I had mixed feelings for this fact, one was a good feeling because it gives a home to many people who would have been on the road if this fort was not built but bad feelings about how people made it a market place through restaurants and hotels. There was garbage all around. We spoke to a woman who stays in the fort, she said our ancestors stayed here, the king of Jaisalmer made this fort so that it gives a place to stay for so many people. As we moved upwards we crossed narrow lanes and reached the top of the fort, the view was lovely. The whole Jaisalmer city was under our view. We soon came back down and were on our way to Suryagarh when Jasbir uncle told us that there are 84 villages in the surroundings that were emptied when the king came to one of the villages and said that I am going to marry this woman tomorrow. The 84 villages were emptied in one night! We asked someone where it was and went towards it. We reached soon enough and saw the ruins of the village. All we saw were a few stone structures all similar to each other. There were two rooms in each house. After about half an hour we head towards Suryagarh. We asked them where the sand dunes were. They booked camels for us and told us the way. It was about 30 kilometers from Jaisalmer city and 20 kilometers from Suryagarh. There was a lot of crowd there but we enjoyed our camel ride despite so much noise. After the camel ride we walked around the sand dunes and took photos of yet another sun set...

This is obviously not the end, wait for the next post which continues this adventurous journey...