Rajasthan

I love to travel. Recently, I went to one of the most beautiful places in India- Rajasthan. My dream to see the sun setting among the sand dunes in Jaisalmer finally came true. People travel for two reasons- to gather information or to gather experiences. My purpose of travelling is to find those nitty-gritty details that make the place a thriving city. My personal experiences are what makes a trip worthwhile for me.

In my trip to Rajasthan the most remarkable experience for me was the walk in the Jaisalmer City. The Jaisalmer fort city is the only fort city in the world where people are actually living even today. The main fort has been renovated into a museum, but outside that there are those tiny gullies that snake their way into people's home cum shops. Time seems to stand still as we explore the city on foot. It seems that we have travelled through time, as we stand watching the people who live there, walk about in their daily routine ignoring our presence. We were clearly the outsiders who were the denim clad, goggles wearing, camera clicking tourists, who did not belong there. As we walk in the tiny by lanes of the 3km spread city, we see the beautiful yellow limestones carved into intricate designs everywhere. It seems that the stone was no challenge to them, it has been carved with the detail and finery and ease of cutting wood. Every woman is dressed in the most colourful attires imaginable. Fiery red combined with bottle green, magenta pink with electric blue, hues of yellow with every shade imaginable of orange and maroon are displayed in the background of the pale golden yellow limestone city walls. The city streets thrive with rhythm of life as women continue their daily chores and children continue being children as they run around everywhere. Spotting a camel resting around the corner is just another common site in the city.

The city thrives mainly on tourism. Perhaps that could be one reason for it to struggle to remain as it was in order to attract the tourists to the mysterious orient, the colourful India. The roads are flooded with foreigners from all over the world eager to be enchanted by the colourful and incredible India, where people still travel on elephants and camels. Where cows are animals of worship not meat with high protein value. Where the cow dung from the same cows on the streets beside a sweet shop selling freshly fried samosas is not considered unhygienic but simply ignored as a common phenomenon. Where women are dressed in bright, colourful skirts and wear silver jewellery all the time. In such a scenario, when the awestruck 'firangs' spot Indians like us who dress pretty much like themselves and have the same Canon camera and can speak English with same fluency, it leaves them totally confused and shocked. It is a cultural shock for them to see people of the same nation with such diversity co-exist in the same timeline.

For girls, the things to shop for there would be the beautiful anklets available at the fort entrance. The heaviest pair that I bought was for rs.100 only. The lighter ones made of beads are priced around rs.40 or less. But the bottom line is, it all depends on your bargaining skills. Another thing you could try out is the spicy, tangy, delicious mirchi vada. Mirchi vada is a hollow green chilly covered with spicy potato paste, dipped in besan and deep fried. The best ones are found in Jodhpur, but the ones we had in Jaisalmer were not bad either.

Another breath taking experience that was my dream since a very long time was to see the setting sun in the sand dunes. Jaisalmer sand dunes are a spectacular sight in the setting sun. Each ray of light plays with the shadows cast on the sand dunes. With the sun touching the horizon the sand dunes seem to follow the sun. The sun goes down into the horizon like an orange ball of fire merging into the yellow sand. This mesmerizing play of colours brings alive the whole desert with light and waves of sand. What followed for us after the sunset was rolling in the cooling sand and taking pictures of every second of the sunset.

Rajasthan is a photographer's delight. It is a paradise to be explored with a camera and a fine lens. The lens of the camera or the lens of the eye, the hues, colours and dimensions of this place is a treat to relish and preserve forever.

Just About Anything and Everything

There is so much to say, where to start. I have lived a quarter of my life with an unconventional name, let's start from there. My name is a mixture of many aspirations. The meaning of my name is 'description' or to 'describe'. The Sanskrit word for which is 'varnan'. But my Bong family aspired to add a touch of ethnic authenticity and hence emerged the distorted version 'barnana' or as pronounced 'bornona'. It took me a good 7 yrs. of my life to get the pronunciation correct, so I do not blame anyone I meet who is left tongue twisted with it. My uncle aspired me to become a unique blend of description of the world but apparently forgot that it's easier to call someone with a sweet and simple name rather than a heavy, tongue twisting name. His logic was that if I have a name with 'B' I will be called among the first in the interviews and class attendances.

Another friend of mine recently observed that one's name has a huge effect on one's life and profession. Kanika observed "your name has the letter 'varn' in it and you are into linguistics that is the study of language". She believes that every person's name has an influence on his/her future, career and life. Like in my instance my name has 'varn' in it, which in Sanskrit means 'alphabet' and I have done my Phd. in Linguistics. Her name has 'kanak' in it and she is a jewellery designer. My little cousin 'Kushagro' is 10yrs. old and like his name is very sharp and intelligent, still have to wait to know how he turns out. Or my younger uncle 'Debashis' who is actually a blessing for his family as the Doctor who attempts to cure everyone. Though I won't push it too further to generalize this, as there are people with names like 'Mayawati' who have anything but empathy and humility, instead flaunt garlands of 1000rs. notes around their necks.

But in my case Kanika was bang on correct. I have done my Phd. in Linguistics, by choice or by chance not sure. I went to Korea as an exchange student and 'happened' to find a teaching job there on a student's visa and decided to make the most of it by joining the doctoral degree course. So I was teaching as I was working. Why linguistics? In my masters we were the first batch of students in Delhi Univ. with the new experimenting course work. In the new regime we were introduced to the study of linguistics and our batch collectively was hugely influenced by this one linguistics prof. who left a remarkable impression on our then impressionable minds. Thus I was hooked on to his classes and later on decided to pursue this one subject as I was freshly out of my master's course at that time. And the rest as they say is history. After graduating as the youngest Ph.d student in my university, I decided to return to India. I had couple of job offers there, but I preferred to test the waters here. I know that is ironic as people usually do the reverse.

So, what's in store for me? We will gradually find out as the story continues with its usual dose of hiccups and twists and turns. Stay put.