As we drive towards the Great Rann of Kutch, we see miles and miles of flat land, light brown, with either no plants or with a few acacia plants.
The colours are essentially brown, dull green and the grey of the road, interrupted by mirages.
Sitting here at the edge of the Rann, I am amazed at yet another wonder of nature. Vast and blazing white, it gives me an other-planetary feeling. The ground is hard salt. Waves and waves of it. I tasted it out of curiosity and yes, it is salt alright!
We walk about just for the experience. Ragini and I could be the only two people in the whole world!
The colours are essentially brown, dull green and the grey of the road, interrupted by mirages.
Sitting here at the edge of the Rann, I am amazed at yet another wonder of nature. Vast and blazing white, it gives me an other-planetary feeling. The ground is hard salt. Waves and waves of it. I tasted it out of curiosity and yes, it is salt alright!
It is only when tourists come that there is noise. Otherwise it is as quiet as quiet itself.
Surely at the other end, one will just drop off the earth? To think that this extends up to Pakistan! 7000 sq km odd.
I need to find out why and how the Rann happened.
Absorbed in our thoughts, we wait for the sunset...
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The ground is tough and hard salt. I looked around for a twig so I could dig and see what's beneath! But there is nothing there. |
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A walk or a camel cart takes people on the 1.5 km road that marks the end of colour. After that it is just a white stretch. |
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Sunset and full moon rise are what tourists wait to see. The land is so flat that the sun seems to suddenly dip, and disappears. |
Kutch is not like any other place I have seen before. It is vast - bigger than the state of Kerala and a little smaller than the state of Punjab. Yet, Kutch is only a district in Gujarat. We were told that they could not ask for statehood because of the low population.
We saw only two major crops on our many drives from one village to another the three days we were there - cotton and castor. There were mango orchards that grow the kesar variety of mango. Flat open stretches of nothingness, sometimes dotted with acacia bushes. The land is extremely dry. It does not rain much, the villages are far from one another, and there is no such thing as outskirts with industries and engineering colleges as we see in other places.
We saw only two major crops on our many drives from one village to another the three days we were there - cotton and castor. There were mango orchards that grow the kesar variety of mango. Flat open stretches of nothingness, sometimes dotted with acacia bushes. The land is extremely dry. It does not rain much, the villages are far from one another, and there is no such thing as outskirts with industries and engineering colleges as we see in other places.
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And I wanted to bring back this cute little 5-day old. |
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Kutch is also about skilled and beautiful tribal women. If only they knew how special they were! |
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A rude but very real reminder of the 2001 earthquake. |
Kutch is also Lagaan land, and we could recognise the landscape and the palace scenes we saw in the movie! There were also many temples on hills with stairs leading up to them. On one drive we also saw three teams seriously playing cricket in blazing hot sun...after all, it is World Cup time!
We spent just three days in Kutch and I now know how much more there is to see and experience. Somehow Kutch escaped all 'development' as defined by the 21st century, yet, or maybe because of this, there are plenty of friendly smiles, calm, acceptance and resilience.
*All photos copyright Sadhana Ramchander