9: Thar - the Sea of Sand

Our insatiable desire to explore the Great Indian Desert led us to the interiors where we spent a night by sand dunes. We camped on virgin sand dunes, beneath the clear, royal blue sky that was studded with diamond-like stars.

We rode on our respective camels, Raghav on Simon, and I on the gluttonous Dandar, who stopped by every bush to graze, for hours. Not minding the sun, we enjoyed riding on our camels and even learnt how to navigate them using the strings. A seldom painful, we did keep re-adjusting our positions but didn't halt for the want of exploring more of Thar. The scrubby terrain of the desert so reminded me of Clint Eastwood's 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'! We rode much farther than the touristy (and dirty) Sam sand dunes that flaunts a neat line of luxury Swiss tent, to reach these virgin dunes that were to be our base by the evening.

Leaving our bags and chappals, we goofed around the high and low landscape, eager to leave our footprints all across the sand, and watched the sun set behind the dunes! By then our spirits had also dulled along with the sunlight, and we decided to get some rest by sprawling out on the dunes.

Soon it was time for dinner, so we headed towards the hearth where our cook, who was accompanying us, had spread out a lavish dinner buffet and a local dessert. We were joined by Kate, Catherine and Ann, along with Mr Desert who had brought us a special Rajasthani dessert from Jaisalmer. As we ate to our heart’s content, by the bonfire, literally in the middle of no-where, Mr Desert collected the intruding beetles in a pot, feeding them some rice too, and entertained us with his stories about the desert.

A few minutes before midnight, we decided to hit our beds to wake-up in time for sunrise. So, we walked to the isolated sand dune where our beds were neatly laid, and were surprised to find one of the most fancy and clean linens! Huddled together in the quilt, we slept an unusually sound sleep in the serene sea of desert lit with moonlight – truly memorable experience!

The morning was very windy, and pleasant. We had toast and egg for breakfast, again cooked on the same hearth, on a neatly spread mattress aka dining table, while our camels drank plentiful of water. We sat there for a long time, by the calm, quiet sand dunes, in this sea of desert, admiring the no-man’s land, with no trace of anyone or anything!

By noon, the sun was shone bright and our camels longed to head back to their village, so we set out towards the city. After a long ride, we reached the rendezvous, and were greeted by our jeep driver. Hopping off our camels, we turned over our backs to cast a last glance at the splendid distant dunes, our abode for a handful of hours but memories of a lifetime.

About Mr Desert:

LN Bissa, aka Mr Desert, then a truck driver, won the title ‘Mr Desert’ for four consecutive times in 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1991, and received a paltry sum of Rs 500 as the prize money each time. The only criterion for selection was to look good in traditional Marwari costume. In 1991, he was entitled as ‘Mr Desert Emeritus’ and barred from participating in the pageant henceforth. (This was also followed by a rule that any winner wouldn’t be allowed to participate in the contest more than once.) Since then he has been on the selection panel of the pageant as a judge.

In 1991, Mr Desert’s friends recommended that being famous as he was, he should quit driving trucks and take to a more respectable occupation such as organizing safaris to Thar, a potential source of income in the touristy town of Jaisalmer.

For want of a name, since Thar Travels already existed, Mr Desert asked around for suggestions when he was told that there was another desert by the name of Sahara, which was bigger than his Thar. So, he rented a place near Jaisalmer fort to convert to a travel agency and named it ‘Sahara Travels’, as it exists even today.

As luck would have it, Mr Desert had no tourist or customer drop by for the initial two months, and he just sat at Sahara Travels fretting about how to feed his family. Like others, he tried visiting the railway station to catch the tourists as they get off the train, but couldn't be persistent enough as the other agents.

While he was contemplating to go back to driving trucks, suddenly around 10-12 guys from Mumbai dropped in and enquired if they could photograph him. He readily agreed, seeing no harm, and as luck would befall, the same group of guys came back after around two weeks with a contract to crown him as the ‘Marlboro Man’ of India. They even selected him as the face for their new cigarette ‘Jaisalmer’.

Soon he became a popular face in the country, with his pictures on hoardings and in magazines (or print ads), which also fetched him customers. In the meantime, he was covered by Lonely Plant, which also recommended his ‘off-the-beat’ safari, as opposed to the others offering a luxury Swiss tent around the crowded and filthy Sam sand dune. (That’s how we landed there!)

Today, Mr Desert has become a popular Jaisalmer icon in the Bollywood industry. He has gone on to do advertisement with Coke India Hritik Roshan and Tinu Anand, with Coke US which was featured during the World Cup 1996, with Asian Paints and one more with an international brand.

A simple, down-to-earth person, he continues to live a meager life even today, and operate from the same shop as back in 1991. I became the first Indian to join his fan-page on Facebook.

Thank you Mr Desert for the best night of my life!

- Namrta R (from my backpacking trip to Rajasthan)
Companions: Raghav and Lonely Planet

Also read about Pushkar, Ajmer, Ranthambore, Chittorgarh, Udaipur, Mount Abu, Jodhpur, and Jaisalmer.
(View all pictures on Facebook)