A quientessential small town with big ambitions. No matter which street you took, the sonar quila, built on the Trikuta hill is a central point in Jaisalmer. The fort was built by Rajput ruler Rao Jaisal in 1156 using yellow sandstone.
Foreign nationals and Indian tourists alike thronged the place for the 3 day desert festival (Feb 23-25, 2013) in Jaisalmer. The schedule of the festival held promise of some fun events and a few that required a fair bit of coaxing of the conscience to sit through. The festival started with the shoba yatra from the fort gates, there were beautifully attired musicians playing on their trumpets and drums, ladies in their 'bridal' best costumes holding the sacred kalas on their heads, BSF jawans dressed to match the local royals on their equally colourfully dressed camels and all of them surrounded by enthusiastic tourists clicking away their cameras and posing for the memories of being there.
Foreign nationals and Indian tourists alike thronged the place for the 3 day desert festival (Feb 23-25, 2013) in Jaisalmer. The schedule of the festival held promise of some fun events and a few that required a fair bit of coaxing of the conscience to sit through. The festival started with the shoba yatra from the fort gates, there were beautifully attired musicians playing on their trumpets and drums, ladies in their 'bridal' best costumes holding the sacred kalas on their heads, BSF jawans dressed to match the local royals on their equally colourfully dressed camels and all of them surrounded by enthusiastic tourists clicking away their cameras and posing for the memories of being there.
The festivities resumed at the Shahid Poonam Singh stadium post the procession. Starting with a dance by the kalbeliyas (the nomadic snake charmer community) and a song of 'padaro maro desh'(welcome to my land) the competitions began. There was the best safa(turban) tying competition for the locals and foreigners. Tying the 9 yard cloth in 2 minutes time was definitely a challenge. There was the best moustache competition which entertained the crowd, followed by the Mr & Ms Desert. For the crowd it was just entertainment but there was pride associated to winning the competitions for the locals.
After lunch we went around the many 'havelis' passing through narrow streets where many houses front facade was decorated like the havelis. One of the havelis-Nathmal haveli built by a team of 2 brother builders, where the brothers built one side each and decorated it independent of the other sans any consultation, was supposed to be different and we all stood looking up at the building trying to find the differences, this reminded me of Voldy's people waiting outside the invisible to them, 12, Grimmauld place, London, waiting for Harry Potter to make an appearance.
Then we visited the Gadisar lake (renovated by Maharawal Gadsi in the 14th century) with huge cat fishes that the local boatman told us were the reason the lake was dirty and they were thinking of ways to get rid of them but as it is under protection by Maneka Gandhi and a ruling by court they are having a free rein. The boatman was such a know-it-all it was completely on deaf ears that I tried to reason with him. God save the cat fishes with people like them. The ducks and the pigeons though he liked and I can assume are going to be safe. This lake once upon some kings time was the only source of drinking water and ironically today is fed by the Indira Gandhi canal.
As the sun downed and the evening chill began to set in, an early dinner and we were back at the Shahid Poonam Singh stadium for the cultural activities. There was a crowd of almost 3,000 people part of the completely free fare of dance, music and shopping on the sidelines of the performances.
The evening like the next 2 evenings saw many teams of Rajasthani artists from various cities of Jodhpur, Badmer, Jaipur and more entertain the locals and the tourists. Many of the women dancers were men dressed up as women which was not too surprising given the mood the crowd got into as the evening progressed and given the fact that here it is believed that sona (gold) and lugayee(wife) are to be kept at home.
The next day was the BSF Tattoo show, where BSF jawans got the camels to do all kinds of stunts. What initially started off as the best dressed camel soon gave way to camels forming all kinds of formations to the tunes of a band playing on camel back.
Then the jawans showed off what all could be done on camel back, standing, hanging to the hump, bum on hump riding, newspaper reading, a jawan dressed as a lady carrying pots on 'her' head standing on the camel, there was even a clown riding on a camel who changed the tyre of his 'car'. The entire platoon of jawans made the camels to lie down to exercise on the 'horizontal' camels.
A camel named Shahrukh Khan was made to dance like a trotting horse and made to bow his head to the presiding deity of the chief guest. It was downright painful to watch this.
Then the much talked of Polo match took place between the BSF jawans and locals astride on their camels. Even the trained players had trouble maneuvering the huge animal and the long polo stick and making connection with the ball. The camels being pulled up short every now and then, must have been wondering what the stupid humans were upto. There was also a BSF band that played with everyday articles available in the border areas where they would play and sing to entertain themselves and keep spirits high. The band was very good, but left me wondering if this was the 'sound' created along the border, why didn't soldiers from across the border come over for the performance?
Making most of the time between the morning session and the evening session of cultural programmes, we went to the fort. A short uphill walk through 4 gateways and shops selling beautiful bed spreads of various colours and embroideries, brought us to the palace that is now converted to a museum exhibiting armoury, furniture etc and being a muti-storied structure accorded a beautiful view of the market below, the temples and other buildings housing the 5000 strong inhabitants of the fort as well as the fort walls and the view of Jaisalmer town below. The Jain temple located across the bend was quite and beautiful. There were many cannons all over the hill and each point affords a strategic view of the town below.
The next day, the place of action shifted to Sam sand dunes, 40 kms away in the heart of the desert. The camel race took place on a levelled ground spread over 1.5 km in length. The camels seated by the end of the field were visibly jumpy as they sensed the impending run-craze and the flogging. While people gathered around the race area, the riders having picked their racing order 'number', walked their camels to the start line a km away. There were 5 rounds where the top 3 in each went into the finals. The camels were repeatedly beaten by cane forcing the camels to run faster to outperform the others. It was sad to watch such majestic animals being forced to run for benefit and pride of the owner and entertainment of the crowd. What did the camel get in return? Jaggery, ghee, methi as the camel riders claimed, or probably not even that? The camel would have been happier roaming the desert and eating what nature offered him, which would be plenty more than what he would ever get under human 'protection'.
The camel race done, there were races for men and women as well which was followed by cultural programmes on the sand dunes across the road. It was a full moon night and the huge moon rose on the sand dunes coating everything a subtle white colour before the bright lights of the stage was put on which ruined the magic of the evening. The evening's performances were almost a repeat of the last 2 days dances and songs except for a musical event played by a huge group of musicians playing local instruments which produced some beautiful music. Frankly, the dances were not something I would go to watch in my own city, having watched it once was good enough but the crowd especially the inebirated crowd in the sam dunes couldn't get enough of it and they were pretty much the same people who booed and cut-short Zia Fariduddin Dagar, the 80 year old padma shri awardee singing songs in praise of Ganesh and Durga in Jaisalmer.
The 3 day desert festival ended at around 10PM with a lot of fire works. Wonder how many local animals and birds in this desert were disturbed and jolted by the light and sound. Again a matter of how indifferent humans are to creatures around them. Did the organisers stop to assess the implications of their action on creatures whose place and peace they chose to use? Did the organisers undertake a clean-up after the event? Did the organisers follow the guidelines of the Wildlife Act while having the camel race and parade around? I hope they have cause this event apart from showcasing the area's culture, provided tourism revenue and entertained thousands of people. But it is also a fact that of late in our attempt at fun we have lost our moorings and have come a long way from our ties to nature.
Making most of the time between the morning session and the evening session of cultural programmes, we went to the fort. A short uphill walk through 4 gateways and shops selling beautiful bed spreads of various colours and embroideries, brought us to the palace that is now converted to a museum exhibiting armoury, furniture etc and being a muti-storied structure accorded a beautiful view of the market below, the temples and other buildings housing the 5000 strong inhabitants of the fort as well as the fort walls and the view of Jaisalmer town below. The Jain temple located across the bend was quite and beautiful. There were many cannons all over the hill and each point affords a strategic view of the town below.
The next day, the place of action shifted to Sam sand dunes, 40 kms away in the heart of the desert. The camel race took place on a levelled ground spread over 1.5 km in length. The camels seated by the end of the field were visibly jumpy as they sensed the impending run-craze and the flogging. While people gathered around the race area, the riders having picked their racing order 'number', walked their camels to the start line a km away. There were 5 rounds where the top 3 in each went into the finals. The camels were repeatedly beaten by cane forcing the camels to run faster to outperform the others. It was sad to watch such majestic animals being forced to run for benefit and pride of the owner and entertainment of the crowd. What did the camel get in return? Jaggery, ghee, methi as the camel riders claimed, or probably not even that? The camel would have been happier roaming the desert and eating what nature offered him, which would be plenty more than what he would ever get under human 'protection'.
The camel race done, there were races for men and women as well which was followed by cultural programmes on the sand dunes across the road. It was a full moon night and the huge moon rose on the sand dunes coating everything a subtle white colour before the bright lights of the stage was put on which ruined the magic of the evening. The evening's performances were almost a repeat of the last 2 days dances and songs except for a musical event played by a huge group of musicians playing local instruments which produced some beautiful music. Frankly, the dances were not something I would go to watch in my own city, having watched it once was good enough but the crowd especially the inebirated crowd in the sam dunes couldn't get enough of it and they were pretty much the same people who booed and cut-short Zia Fariduddin Dagar, the 80 year old padma shri awardee singing songs in praise of Ganesh and Durga in Jaisalmer.
The 3 day desert festival ended at around 10PM with a lot of fire works. Wonder how many local animals and birds in this desert were disturbed and jolted by the light and sound. Again a matter of how indifferent humans are to creatures around them. Did the organisers stop to assess the implications of their action on creatures whose place and peace they chose to use? Did the organisers undertake a clean-up after the event? Did the organisers follow the guidelines of the Wildlife Act while having the camel race and parade around? I hope they have cause this event apart from showcasing the area's culture, provided tourism revenue and entertained thousands of people. But it is also a fact that of late in our attempt at fun we have lost our moorings and have come a long way from our ties to nature.
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