People & Places

After coming to New Delhi, I had the chance to visit few places and people. It is always fascinating to know the life style of different people at different places. After my visit to Jaisalmer, for a very long time I wanted to write about the life style of desert.

Everyone knows that life in a desert is not easy due to high temperature, water scarcity and rough terrain. During my visit to Jaisalmer we had planned to stay 2days and 1 night in the sand dunes and the guides accompanied us. We had tow guides and one was married and the other was not. We asked the second guy why was he not married and was astonished by his answer. It seems in their caste he has to give 2lakhs as a dowry to marry a woman. Four years back he was taking care a herd of sheep in the desert, due to lack of pasture and rain all the sheep died of starvation and disease. Now he is paid Rs. 500/- every month as salary for being a guide. He is 24 and survived by his parents. The question out here is how many years is it going to take for him to collect 2lakhs and get married.

The other guy is married and survived by his wife and 5 kids (2 boys and 3 girls). The other information we got about marriage was, in their caste always the bride will be elder than the bridegroom. We asked what was the reason; he simply told it is for family planning. We are talking about an age difference of 10 to 14 yrs. And normally the marriages will happen when the bridegroom is at 12 or 13 and the bride is at 26 or 27. It also seems for a hospital they have to go minimum 50kms either on foot or camel driven cart.

Both these guys have studied up till10std, which is considered as the highest education in their village. Also the schools are during only August to March, because after March it is very hot and teachers do not turn up. For these 5months kids are all alone while their parents go in search of food and some firewood, which ends up they go begging for pens, chocolates and rupees from the tourist who rarely visit these places.

More to come...