I am a very peaceful sleeper on train journeys. No tossing and turning. No jolting out of sleep at random intervals. No upheavals in the stomach caused by the constant moving. Nothing. I sleep a deep, dreamless sleep through the night.
That night though, I woke up. I could taste grainy particles in my mouth. Thus, I woke up. To check what was going on. As I sat up, I banged my head first of course. Then I noticed that not just my mouth was filled with sand, but in fact, I was in fact sleeping on a bed of sand. Not figuratively.
With much effort and the consequential pushing around of grains of sand, I climbed down to check on my friend.
He was stretched out on his berth. Window open, as always. Smiling. This time, I knew why.
We had spent over a week in the state and had had varied experiences. We had been to forts, palaces and a village. Found step-wells, heard folk songs and seen puppet shows. We had experienced the heat and dryness and everything typical of Rajasthan. But he was always a tad disappointed as it did not ‘really feel like the desert’
And tonight, as he smiled, I knew exactly what he thought.
“Finally it is here. The desert.”
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