Imagine, if you will, a sprawling red-sandstone building with 45 guestrooms set around stately courtyards, terraces and balconies in over 6,000 acres of wooded land. Imagine too the tranquil setting of such a stately edifice, beside a vast lake shimmering in the heat of the Thar Desert just half an hour’s drive from the noisy, smelly city of Bikaner. Give a thought to its builder, Maharajah Ganga Singh of Bikaner, in the early-1900s entertaining British Raj dignitaries, like the Prince of Wales, Governor General Lord Elgin, and Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten. They were doubtless thrilled to slaughter anything that moved during their visits to this elegant hunting lodge. The Imperial Sandgrouse Shoot here each Christmas was said to be the hottest ticket in the Indian social calendar of its day. The demise of the
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