Dear Readers,
Another terribly hot day in Bikaner. While the entire sub-continent is gifted with bountiful monsoonal showers, the hot desert of north-western Rajasthan is boiling under an intense Sun. Today after winding up work at the University, I stopped at a point on my way back to home. It is located within the University campus but is located at the farther end and is in the middle of expansive sand dunes. I share a picture of this place. It was excruciatingly hot there. As I stooped down to strike a pose, I felt the same sensation which one feels when he overlooks a tandoor.
In the evening, I had to visit Surnana House to mourn the loss of Thakur Laxman Singh Rathore, the earstwhile Thakur of Surnana and my very dear friend Praduman Singh Baroo's grandfather(nanosa). The most beautiful thing about Bikaner is that here you can feel the past around you. On this occasion, the picturesque Surnana House made me feel that I am back to the 1910's. The house is still preserved in its former glory. It is a huge mansion built in a proportionally huge compound located right behind the Junagarh fort. A spacious verandah greeted me as I walked my up to the baithak. To the left was the jenana dyodhi marked by its smaller entrance.
The baithak was a scene from the past except for the split AC. Its walls were covered in a soothing white-wash. White mattresses covered with white bed-sheets adorned the floor. All along the three sides of the room, white masanads made reclining comfortable. The arched bays with their typical view of the verandah outside sent one's imagination soaring up in the sky visualising long forgotten etiquette and gestures of medieval gentry.
Like I said earlier, Bikaner's speciality lies in the fact that it gives you an opportunity to look at it with a prism of the past. I wonder how long will it take for the waves of modernity to erase and reform every grain of this sandy stretch. Untill then, scores of people like me will relish the treat to their 'sense of history' within the forts, palaces, museums and bazars of this other-wordly town.
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