Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Moonrise on desert

It was a chilling day of January in Bikaner city and I was busy shooting the camel fair organized by the Rajasthan Tourism Development Authority. As most of the events were happening inside a stadium, I was not feeling very energetic to shoot the crowd. By end of day one, I came to know the second half of next day would be interesting as it’ll showcase their camel race and other folk stuff in a desert village called ‘Ladera’. Accordingly I booked a vehicle which will take us to that village & will take us back in the evening.

The journey to the village was interesting. After we crossed the main road & entered the mud road, the surroundings changed dramatically. A complete feel of a village where women are in brilliant colored saris, and moustaches of men kept on growing multiple folds with their age, the turbans, everything were giving a sense as if I’m back in the era of Maharajas!

The car parking lot was little far and we had to walk a kilometer or so to reach the place where the actual fair was taking place. Paratroopers from Indian Air Force were showing their stunts and there were few cultural programs. The best part of the afternoon was the camel race where the local camel jockeys took part with their best breeds. I really couldn’t imagine that the lazy animal can really run that fast. Perhaps the laziness is the guise of the camels.

After the race, it was some common shots of sunset with the camels here & there. I was little tired after shooting continuously for few hours on the desert. Just to take some rest, I sat on the sand with some snacks & tea and was enjoying the twilight on the desert. After sometime, when it was almost dark, the moon started rising. I suddenly remembered that it’s a full moon night and the desert was almost deserted by that time. There were few local people burning fire on the mid of the desert to keep them warm. It was a heavenly beauty to see the moon rising on the desert and those villagers warming themselves on the sand. Though this is one my best shots, but yet the camera of my mind took much better image than the handheld one!

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