Thar was Darwinian

The novelty of riding exotic camels through the deserts of Rajasthan loses its romance when you realize you might as well be in Nevada - except, of course, for the presence of turbans, camels, saris, etc. And there's no Belaggio, which is disappointing to say the least.

Nevertheless as we rode atop the great humped beasts, we reveled in the solitude not often afforded in the India of rickshaws and narrow alley-ways/cattle herds. From our perch ten feet off the ground, the expanse of extra dry desert (five year drought) inspired the initially dull and annoying bounces of the saddle to become something of a rhythmical beat to count thoughts. The time on these wonderful animals was well-worth it to relax the mind.

It was not entirely devoid of educational material as well. You see, when a camel sits it doesn't sit, it buckles its knees until its calf touches its thighs, and folds the limbs under his belly like the legs of a banquet table. It lays in this seemingly painful position for hours without so much as a wince - not that camels seem cabable of wincing. Usually, they just have a dumb look of "I have no idea what's happening right now and I don't care. Just fetch me a cigarrette." It's not hard to see how Camel Cigs got their name. Sheer marketing genius, as I think has already been proven.

Anyhow, the most incredible aspect of all this laying on bellies is that the animal has rough padded skin and support at all the integral sand-connection points. The front of its underside right next to the front legs is the most impressive - a round patch perfectly suited for keeping the rest of its stomach off the scorching grains. The word "evolution" seems to beam from these patches such that it almost stuns the observer - as if he could never have wholly comprehended the word without this camelous example. If they put these things in the textbooks where opposable thumbs currently reside, there'd be no more debate in Kansas.

It would not be wholly unjustified to replace the time previously dedicated to the course in creation with a class along the lines of "Ridiculous futility of Socioeconomic Development on a Macro Scale in the 20th Century." (Colleges have classes with much more ludicrous names than this, believe me, I've taken them.) In fact, 20 years ago, while the World Bank was pumping dollars in the billions toward dam projects to destroy ecosystems and drive nations into the abyss of debt, our camel driver was still starting fires by rubbing sticks together as matches had not yet made it to the vicinity of Jaisalmer. Today, he makes 125 ruppees per day (less than three dollars) to lug tourists around the desert and act as though they (we) are wholly incapable of performing any task more complex than peeling garlic. We compared our pamper variously with Maharajas and colonialists a la Orwell. Hell, we even pay similar wages - adjusted for inflation, of course.

So there you have it. Thar Desert? Check. Moving on....