Traffic in India can not only make you miss your deadlines and your meetings but can sometimes also make you miss your holiday! We realized this the hard way, when we missed our train to Jaisalmer because we could not reach the Delhi station on time, despite being on the road for more than two hours to cover a distance that shouldn’t take more than 45 minutes! After thinking and exploring various other ways and ideas to reach Jaisalmer – bus, cab, own car, another train – it seemed like we will have to bid goodbye to our plans and to all the money that we had paid for the entire package. As disappointment was setting in, we managed to get lucky and find seats on a direct train to Jaisalmer the next day, which would reduce our holiday by a day but yet allow us to savour the rest of the time.
Putting the disappointment behind us, we boarded the train that would begin our family holiday. After an overnight journey, the train chugged in slowly at 10.30 am at Pokharan – a town that I had heard so much of – a town that was in the papers many times in the last few years for conducting successful nuclear tests. It seemed like a small and sleepy town like many other parts of India, but the station was buzzing with activity. We were told that the train will halt at this station for 30 minutes. 30 minutes is a fairly long time, but then patience has never been a virtue with us Indians and as expected, the lone tea seller on the station was busy handing out cups of tea as fast as he could to all the people around him, who were shoving the Rs. 10 and Rs. 20 notes on his face to catch his attention.
Being patient can sometimes show you a different side of humans as I discovered when my turn came. I asked him for four cups of tea but his tea kettle could fill in only three and a half cups of tea. I handed him Rs. 40 at the rate of Rs. 10 each, but he returned Rs. 10 saying that since he had not given me the entire fourth cup of tea, he would not charge for that last cup. I was pleasantly surprised. I did not know that this was the beginning of the many acts of kindness that I am going to witness in the days to come during my short but wonderful holiday to Jaisalmer, Rajasthan in India.
We reached Jaisalmer station at 2 pm and the driver who came to pick us up seemed to be a helpful kind. Our first impression of the driver turned out to be bang on. During the three day trip, we asked him to show us one Jain temple and the luxurious Suryagarh hotel, which were not a part of the itinerary or the route, but he did not hesitate one bit as his single objective was to ensure that we have a great holiday without missing on a single thing.
We were staying at Hotel Rang Mahal and the last night of our stay was planned in a tent in the middle of the desert, but seeing the temperature in Jaisalmer, my family felt that it would be prudent to stay in the comfort of the hotel rather than the tent. This meant adding one more night to the hotel’s package and cancelling our stay at the tent. I called up the manager later in the evening, who had already left for the day. I explained him the situation, told him about how I had anyway paid for a night which we didn’t utilize because of our missed train and requested him if he could extend the stay by a night. Initially, he said that we will have to pay for the extra night but I requested him to see on what best can be done. The next day, despite it being his mother’s death anniversary when he was supposed to be home, he came to the hotel to only look into my case. After a brief meeting and discussion with him, he extended our stay by one night and made that extra night completely complimentary! I was completely blown away by his act of kindness.
Now that the hotel stay was taken care of, we headed to Sam to enjoy our desert safari. Since we stopped in the middle to enjoy the beautiful hotel of Suryagarh, by the time we reached Sam, it was nearing sunset and we had a camel ride lined up for us. There was also the option of doing a jeep safari and we could decide to see the sunset from the camel or from the jeep. We decided to do a quick camel ride against the normal time for the ride which is much longer. While getting off, the guy who took us for the camel ride mentioned this to us in Hindi “Please go and enjoy the sunset on your jeep safari. In case, you decide to not take the jeep safari, you can come back and I will be here and I will take you further into the desert so that you can enjoy the camel ride for more time.” Another pleasant surprise for us.
Next was the turn to meet the tent operator and ask him to help us in getting a good jeep safari and also figure out on what can be done since we were not staying in his tent that was booked in our name. He said that at the last minute, since he won’t be able to give the tent to anyone else, he will have to charge us the amount. But to help us, he will bring down the price of the jeep safari from the usual Rs. 3,000 to 1500. We went ahead with what we got. After coming back from the safari, there was a complete Rajasthani folk dance that had been planned, which was really enjoyable. After the dance, when we went to pay the tent operator for the jeep safari, to our surprise once again, he refused to take the money and said “Since you have already paid for the tents and not staying here, the least I can do is not charge you for this jeep safari.”
Now with so many incidences, we just came back wondering with one thought ‘Did we just get plain lucky during the entire trip or is kindness the norm in Jaisalmer?
