Today I leave the luxury and heat of Ranthambore and travel to the village of Deogarh. My Google Maps says this is a 6 1/2 hour drive, but thankfully turns out to be 5 1/2 hours of travel to the west. We left at 8 and got there about 1:30.
This was a drive along country roads with a lot of livestock that was walking along the side, and offer, right down the middle of the road. My favorite was a girl who had three goats and she was leading them with a leash. You could see women in different types of saris - those more traditional and others that had more of a separate skirt vs. 1 piece of silk. They all looked very beautiful. Another interesting thing is the engine of my favorite Indian vehicle - the wheat carrier that looks very round and squeezie - is often a home made engine, not a tractor or engine you’d see in a “normal” car. OK, the below picture has an example with a normal engine, but I’ll try to find one with the home made engine. Only the wealthy would have something like the below, or a tractor.
I asked Manoj (my driver) if the women passengers on the motorcycles (there were a lot of them) were all family, or if they would hire the motorcycle to take them somewhere. He said they were all family and there was no such hiring facility. That said, he said that Uber in Delhi did offer a motorcycle option which includes helmets for the passengers.
We got to Deogarh which is a very small village and eventually found the “hotel” Dev Shree. Dev Shree is really more of a guest house and I was the only guest. It was built about 6 years ago in a cross style of Tea Garden and more traditional Indian house. No one was there to greet me, but eventually the owner came and the 5 dogs they care for. I’m not really a dog person, but was happy in that the dogs all had some sort of disability, so it was very nice they were cared for. Bhavna and Shatrunjai are the owners.
So it was very weird that I was the only customer and I really didn’t know what to expect. I felt extremely awkward and watched every step. No gym, but they do have a very nice pool. Dev Shree is located next to a lake, but it is so dry here the lake is almost totally gone.
I declined lunch and went into my huge room to figure out my plans - turns out I’m here for 3 nights and almost fell over because I felt so uncomfortable. Remember - this is the hotel that was put in last minute when I couldn’t get to Darjeeling and really wasn’t too excited to come in the first place.
So I went into the dining room and spoke with Shatrunjai to try to figure out what in the world I was going to do on my unplanned day. His wife, Bhavna, was not due in until later in the day. He came up with some ideas and as I was getting ready to go back to cower in my room, he asked me if I wanted to attend a local festival and see a parade. He asked the two local guys he was talking with if it would be safe for me and they kind of says yes. I wanted to make sure I had a way to get back to the hotel if I started feeling the heat and we came up with a plan. 4pm I met Mukjesh, a young local fellow - probably late 20s/early 30s - who walked me the 200 feet to the town and showed me around the town. I was THE ONLY foreigner and felt very conspicuous. He was very proud of his town, but, I have to say, I could have skipped it. It was nothing special and the flies were absolutely awful, especially when he showed me the local vegetable market which was absolutely disgusting. Some of the people in the festival wanted me to meet the president of the town which I declined. The one interesting thing about the town was the doors on the city’s main gate. They had long spikes in them which were to deter elephants.
The festival was Rama Navami, Rama’s birthday when he came to earth celebrated 10 April. According to Wikipedia:’
Rama Navami (Hindi: राम नवमी) is a Hindu festival that celebrates the birthday of Rama, the seventh avatar of the deity Vishnu. Rama is particularly important in the Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism.[2][3] The festival celebrates the descent of Vishnu as the Rama avatar, through his birth to King Dasharatha and Queen Kausalya in Ayodhya, Kosala.[4]Hazaribag(Jharkhand) is famous for International Ram Navami puja.This festival is a part of the Chaitra Navaratri in the spring, and falls on the ninth day of the bright half (Shukla Paksha) of Chaitra, the first month in the Hindu calendar. This typically occurs in the months of March or April by the Gregorian calendar.[5]Rama Navami is an optional holiday for government employees in India.[6] the town was decorated with orange flags to honor the festival.
Mukjesh found me a spot on a shop ledge/step that was about 3 feet above the street.
Finally things started to get lined up for the procession: 3 very large police cars, about 20 policemen with long sticks to whack people,
a decorated camel followed by beautiful decorated horses - a breed special to the area called Marwari or Malani specially bred with ears that are erect and touch at the top.
Tiered red umbrellas peaked around the corner and then everything stopped and sort of reversed and we waited. We heard chanting and loud yelling. Things went further backwards. It got hotter. The camel and horses went forward and the red umbrellas went backwards. Another “float” came forwards with images of Rama and stopped. People flooded the street and my stair step. No one was wearing masks (except eventually me) and no social distancing except I kept moving back further into the shop. FINALLY things moved forward.
There were some floats and a large number of people chanting and yelling and sitting on shoulders and orange flags. The music was so loud you felt your whole inside vibrate. And then it was over.
Mukjesh insisted I meet his father who was a handsome man with thick black hair coming out of his ears. He then insisted I come to his house and have tea. I didn’t want tea, I didn’t want to see his house, I just wanted to run back to the hotel. Being a nice American I did go to his house and met his mother and then his wife, Anita. He wanted to make me masala chai which I talked him out of given I didn’t know if the milk was pasteurized. So they started to make me black tea and I saw the tap water go in - I flat out said to use the bottled water. Anyway - no illness yet - either from Covid or from the water.
I finally got back to the hotel after being forced to talk with other people on the street - Mukjesh seemed to think I should want to do that - and several requests from them for selfies. No no no, I just want to be left alone.
I took a shower as soon as I got back and had to laugh at the water temp fluctuation. It never got really very hot at all.
A highlight of the day was meeting Bhavna at dinner who turns out to have been raised on a Tea Garden. This was fascinating to me because I just read Tea for the Firefly - a wonderful book - set in 1945 and was about an Indian girl who married a tea garden manager so I had so many questions to ask her. The book appears to be very accurate.
The place is run in such a way that you are like a guest in someone’s grand home. There are servants galore. When Bhavna says she enjoys gardening, she means she enjoys showing the servants where to plant things. Anyway, Shatrunjai is a “typical” male - he’s very sociable, but is the head of household and jokes that the house architect and builder is a Russian called Chatzhinski who had to leave after he had an affair with Bhavna. Chatzhinski does all the cooking and taught the servants how to do evertrying. He’s Chatzhinski. Anyway - the food is really wonderful. Can’t wait to see what bizarreness awaits for tomorrow….
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