the deserts are just another kind of landscape. i went there first in 2008, and its something i didn’t get over!

it not something i imagined. the sky is a pristine blue and the ground is lightish, arid brown. and the two don’t meet in a hazy blur as when you search for the horizon on the sea. but in one clear, distinct line, and at that point, it just stops being the ground and is the sky.

i went from the humid, sea-side mumbai to the dry, arid, brown desserts of rajasthan. sparsely shrubs were all that one saw. where did you hide? where did you cover? the intense heat?

the famous sam sand dunes were packed and as a group we took a call to be a little further away, on some smaller and less famous and thus almost empty dunes! on a budget trip, so we had decided to sleep in double sleeping bags with no tent. our take – no roof meant a good amount of saving + importantly a clear sky to look at, with nothing in the way and all through the night.

it was a sky full of stars. there were a million. i couldn’t count! i couldn’t even see the deep dark parts of the sky, everything seemed lit up! in fact at one point, i wanted to take a piece of cloth and just clean up the sky! it was completely speckled.

the sleeping bags were FREEZING when i got in. but slowly my body warmed it up… and it got snug. it was a tight tight fit, only unlike an actual sleeping bag which is stitched from sides, this was just tucked in really really really tight. it got colder as the night progressed, and i kept shuffling even more. in the morning when i woke up, there was a heap of sand inside my bag.

i had kicked the sleeping bag open and got in the sand… ooppss! so definitely not a good idea for kickers like me…

in the morning, post a chai and some snacks, we got on our camels and rode off in the land…