We nearly didn’t

Today was a day we had to plan out ourselves as we didn’t have a guide and Bikaner, though big in our terms, is a small city and the main points of interest we had ticked off yesterday.

Last night we decided that we wouldn’t go to the Temple of the Rats as we read that you enter with bare feet and we thought that from a health point of view either standing on rat poo or being nipped by one wasn’t the smartest option.

Instead we mapped out the day so that we would end up in the city for dinner rather than here at the Palace.

As we weren’t getting picked up by Ashok until 11.30 it allowed us, after breakfast, to go for a reasonable walk in the grounds of the hotel. Gajner Palace was once the hunting lodge for the Maharajah of Bikaner and has a land area of 6000 acres so there should be somewhere to walk and having got some directions from the carpark attendant we set off through the forest area and having reached the furthest wall that surrounds the Palace we then followed it around the lake front until we got back to the hotel area.

While the hotel is remote – one road in which stops at the Palace – and therefore very quiet, there is something about being in the large expanse of the lodge when the only company we had was the noise of the birds.

At the furthest corner of the grounds on a small hill sits a long ago abandoned structure which we think may have been a quiet house for the Royal family or a guest house away from the main lodge as it had the hallmarks of at one time being something special including having a large curved lounge looking out over the lake.

At the agreed time we met Ashok and drove the 35kms or so into the city and asked to be dropped off at Panchsati Circle, a group of shops which we had seen as we drove through that area yesterday and which gave the appearance of being a little more upmarket than others in the city.

Pulled up and even before we could get out of the vehicle we were set upon by a group of children and an older person begging for rupees; in truth begging doesn’t describe it – aggressively demanding including tugging at your clothes would be a better description. It took some choice words from both of us and me turning on one in an aggressive posture to finally get through to them that they weren’t on a winner!

Found a pizza joint for lunch and after eating took the remaining 2 pieces of the pizza over to Ashok who as always had remained in the car and left them with him as we continued to have a look at a few of the shops around the circle. When we returned to the car we asked Ashok had he enjoyed the pizza and he said he had and that it “ was only the 2nd time in my life I’ve eaten pizza”.

We then moved to Lalgarh Palace museum which is dedicated to the Maharaja family of Bikaner. There were a lot of photographs of the various families over the years and some exhibits of various personal items, letters received from British Royalty and the like, numerous medals that one of the more recent Maharajah had won in shooting competitions including the Olympics as he clearly was a very proficient shooter.

We then had a walk over to the neighbouring hotel, The Laxmi Niwas Palace which was a stately structure with what looked like very nice grounds of some size but in which we being erected marquees and other structures for lighting all of which covered the whole area of the ground and in talking to a security guard it was for a wedding with 3,000 guests tomorrow.

We were now starting to kill time a little as we needed a fill-in to get us closer to a reasonable dinner time, otherwise it would be eating in the hotel restaurant for the 3^rd  night in a row, so we asked Ashok for suggestions.

Karni Mata Temple he says. We’re not stupid so told him that was the rat temple and we had decided not to go as we weren’t prepared to walk among rats in bare feet. No problem he tells us as you can get some paper shoes at the Temple. Now not having any excuse we reluctantly agreed and so we drove the 25kms or so to Deshnoke, a small dusty town which in a land of some quite stunning monuments and Temples was this rather underwhelming Temple.

Ashok took us to an area to remove our shoes and put on some throwaway paper shoes, he remains barefooted, and we followed him across the concourse to the Temple entrance and by now you were sidestepping one of the estimated 30,000 rats and mice inhabiting the Temple and surrounds.

They were everywhere, the smell in the Temple was starting to get overpowering and a reasonably quick circuit through the Temple and out into fresh air was achieved.

Worshippers were filing into the Temple carrying containers of feed for the rodents, not that they needed to as there was plenty of feed and milk already laid out for them – these rodents had no need to leave the Temple as they were living in Paradise, undercover and an endless supply of food and drink.

Hinduism is an interesting religion there being so many Gods that they worship – as one of the guides told us each day is a day for a different God – and the one at this Temple is Karni  Mata, a 15^th century healer who disappeared near Deshnoke at the age of 151. She was revered for her supernatural powers and the belief is that she was reincarnated as a human being in the form of a rat.

Ashok has also given us some insight into Hinduism - every day the first chapati (or roti) that is to be eaten is given to a cow and last chapati of the day is given to a dog and this is something his family follow religiously.

He has a large marble temple inside his house and at sunrise and sunset he prays in front of his temple. What do you do when you are driving tourists and not at home we ask “I pray to this” he says motioning to the picture of a God hanging from the rear vision mirror.

The reason cows are sacred in India is because they are seen as a symbol of life and motherhood and represent the divine mother Goddess and also the God Krishna who is often depicted as tending to cows.

One of the guides told us that the cows seen on the streets have been abandoned by farmers as the cow is no longer able to produce milk and they can’t be slaughtered as eating beef is a no-no!

Other facts we have picked up in our discussions with Ashok:

Tuk Tuks that are 2 seater can legally only carry 2 plus the driver. Today we saw one with 14 PLUS suitcases moving along the road.

Motorcycles and scooters can only carry 2 and helmets are compulsory- we have seen one with 5 up, 4 is not uncommon, 3 is very common and helmets appear to be very optional.

His youngest daughter Riya, is seen as more intelligent than her slightly older sister Priya and this is attributed to the fact that Riya was brought up on cow’s milk while Priya was breast fed - you won’t see that fact in a medical journal!

He was in a relationship with a lady for 10 years but couldn’t marry her as while she was from a “medium level”  caste as was he, they were from different castes. Out of the blue as we were talking about his sister he told us about the relationship and showed us a photo of this lady who had both her and his name “painted” on her body in henna.

And as for the quality of the roads:

You’ve not seen speed humps like they have here – try to take a double speed hump at any speed and then see  where your teeth have ended up!

While the roads on the highways are generally good, those in the towns/cities are atrocious. Our tuk tuk in the Old Town yesterday got stuck in a pot hole and the driver had to get out and try and rock the TT back and forward to get it out.

And almost finally for today as we were getting back to the car at the Rats Temple we were accosted by beggars again but Ashok said something to them that made them back away. When we got into the car Sherry asked him what he had said. He told  them that “these are poor people “!

And finally after leaving the Temple we stopped at a nearby restaurant for a drink and while there Ashok placed a rakhi or kalawa around both of our wrists, right for men, left for women, as worn by Hindus, which is supposed to provide the wearer with protection and good luck.