A stranger who is now a friend- a story of finding a friend in a foreign land and how a right turn changed this story. “Travelling is all about turning strangers into friends.”

It was around 1 p.m when I reached the village where I later told that I am, in some way, lost. There was no one outside. The wind was playing with the dead and dried grass, rolling it again and again until it turned into a ball. This was the Thar Desert region which is located near the town Jaisalmer which is also called the Golden city of Rajasthan, India.

“Where am I?”, I asked myself.

My mouth dried up in worry. I reached for my water bottle only to find out that it was empty, I drank all of the water when I turned my bike on the untrodden road. At that point the road diverged into three directions, the small shopkeeper, whom I met an hour before, told me to take a left and turn back to Jaisalmer and google was telling me to take a right turn and go on the road that was bumpy and empty. Honestly, I am really bad at making decisions. I stood there for about 40 minutes and in that time no vehicle passed by me nor a human being. I thought that maybe at this time of the day people don’t come out. Heat. I was sweating because of my warm cap. I couldn’t remove it, I had my head shaved 10 days earlier and I look like a freak when I shave my head. But the shades of that Acasia tree made the air cool.

So you might have already figured that which way I turned.

After riding my bike for 5 kilometers I finally saw an old man on a bike coming towards me. I waved my hands towards him, signaling to stop but when he came to near me he didn’t stop. He just smiled, bowed his head, and moved on. I was shocked to see how he ignored me. But anyway he might have been in a hurry. Maybe he thought that I was saying “Hi!” to him.

The horizon was so vast, I had never seen a flat land like this before. It was flat for as far as I could see, not a single object to interfere. Not a single bird flying in the sky, no animals, nothing. The silence was so silent that I could hear my own heart thumping. “This is what I came here for and this is what I got.”, I told myself.

I was much relieved to see a village at the end of the road. But there also I was told to turn around and return to Jaisalmer. They also told me that this road will take you to Kuldhara (an abandoned and haunted village in Rajasthan) but the road is so bad that I will not make it without having troubles, serious ones.

It took me more than 3 hours to come this far and if I decide to turn back now then it will take another 3-4 hours and the day will be wasted and I will not get another chance for who knows how long. But I insisted on moving forward. I told to myself- If anything goes wrong, I will simply follow the road back. I was taking a huge risk and the risk is what makes our life adventurous.

I was riding on a road that was playing tricks on me. At someplace it disappeared and at some, it became very hard to move on and in some, it opened on flat ground so huge that at-least 10 football matches could be played at the same time. And I got scared at a point when the road disappeared for several hundred meters. But somehow I reached the village that I was talking about at the starting of this story, where I found Dineh Khan. I will tell you about him later.

So it was around 1 p.m. I thought that there was no one out at this time when I saw children poking their head out from a half-broken wall of a building. It was the village school and the word Building is very big for it as it only had 2 classrooms, a washroom that had no gates, and a neem tree in the center on which a swing was tied from one of the thick branches.

The three children came running to me followed by 7 more. Within a minute I was surrounded by 10 children who bunked their classes to greet me. Every one of them greeted me with a firm handshake. Everyone stepped aside when a boy, wearing a navy-blue kurta with a bright red colored shawl on his shoulder, pushing everyone aside like he was the stronger one. He came to me with a broad smile on his face and his smile widened when he shakes my hand, he waved my hand up and down with great joy.

He was Dineh Khan, studying in 4th standard in his village school. He came and greeted me with a handshake, but not like everyone else. He, in a way, was different from others. I have met people so empty of joy, that when I shake their hands, it seemed like I was shaking hands with a body without a soul. Others there are whose hands have the shine of a star in them so that their grasp warms my soul and Dineh Khan was one of them. And, through him, I came to know that I was, kind of, lost on my way and he was ready to help.

When he sat behind me, he grabbed me so hard that I could hear my snacks cracking inside my bag. “We are not going to fly”, said I and he loosened his hands. The other kids, they ran with us for several meters. I could see them in the rearview mirror, waving their hands and shouting Good-Bye to me.

He first took me to see the dunes. Initially, I didn’t believe what I saw there. The dunes were as high as a two-story building. It was very hard for me to climb one of them but the boy, he climbed it like it had stairs and reached the top within no time. And on the other hand, I struggled to reach the top falling and eating sand at every step I took.

There, on the dunes, stood three of his friends and he introduced me to them. They showed me around. And while moving towards south I stumbled upon a half-burnt bush. I asked why and who burnt the bush and they told me about the grasshopper storm that came last night.

“We burn the bushes because the fire attracts the grasshoppers.” said one of his friends.

The burnt grasshoppers could be seen everywhere on the ground. They burn the grasshoppers because they destroy their crops. I don’t know where they hid their crops because I couldn’t find any greenfield for miles in any direction. I asked if there are any deers in this area. They said that if I am lucky I might see the deers open in the wild. But unfortunately, I was not lucky enough.

“We should go now or I might get late.”, said I to Dineh Khan. I wanted to spend more time there but I had limited time. Actually, we should only go to a place if we have enough time to spend there. And from that day I made a pact to mysleff that I will never rush while visiting a place.

“Don’t you want to see the windmills from close?”, he asked.

They were huge and the blades, when they spin, made a loud w-o-osshh sound. I was so close to them that I had to turn my head up as much as I can and still couldn’t get a proper view of the top.

I remember the first time I saw windmills on Discovery Channel and back then I thought that they were used as a fan, a huge fan which provides cold air to the hot regions of the desert. And when, in 8th grade, one of my friends told our whole class about him seeing the windmills from close I felt so jealous of him and I promised to myself that one day I will too see the windmills from close. But now when I look back, I laugh at myself for being so stupid, but also I was a kid back then.

Then off we go towards the graveled road which was supposed to take me to a major road that would eventually take me to where I was going. We reached the graveled road at around 4 p.m. He climbed off from the bike and stood in attention position, staring straight into my eyes with a broad smile. He didn’t move.

“Ahh! Money. You want money, wait.” I reached for the cash in my pocket. “No! I don’t want money. I want chocolate if you have one.” Well, who in this world carries chocolate into a desert? “I don’t have one. I can give you money to buy a chocolate bar.” But he denied saying “It’s ok. Good-bye”.

And I became alone in a foreign land, again. But this time I was sure that I am on the right path. I did’t lost anything there nor I wasted my time. But surely I made a friend whom I will remember for my whole life. Travelling is all about turning strangers into friends.