I have begun jotting down notes during my travels in a small book that should please the environmentalists: while the pages are hand-made paper, the cover is made out of recycled camel. Now before Maneka Gandhi sends out her men to get me, let me assure everyone that the camel that helped make my book cover died peacefully one day in its sleep, well into old age? Or so was the impression I got from the gent in a small bylane in Udhaipur selling camel-skin souvenirs like books and hand-made juthies. (His name was Harischandra-so I'm inclined to believe he was telling the truth).
But I do admit to a sudden wave of guilt and panic when I was standing in line to take a camel ride recently in Rajasthan. My little travel book was inside my bag! Would this camel sniff it out and get upset that his recent ancestor was now a notebook??
Anyway it was too late- Ranjit (for that was his name) was sitting before me and looking at me benignly through his thick eyelashes. Now I don't know if you ever got on a camel before, but the experience is quite like being back in kindergarten: first you see-saw forwards as the camel gets its gangly back legs up; then you rapidly see-saw backwards when the forelegs untangle themselves.
Yeeeee-aaaaaah!
That was me screaming in chorus along with the camel-keeper urging Ranjit away on my ride. And I realised why it is called "the ship of the desert"-the sudden lurching with each step could leave the weak-stomached feeling quite seasick?
But not me. Proud of my ready ability to adjust to the challenges of travel, I even managed a happy wave to my sister taking pictures for our holiday album. And remember the next time you head off to Dubai or Jaisalmer or Cairo: the trick of easy camel-riding is-- you have to see when the camel sees, and saw when the camel saws.
This was featured on http://www.idiva.com/opinion-entertainment/camels-are-good-for-the-sole/2083
