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Published: December 1st 2005
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The cold has now progressed to a hacking cough, so at least it's developing as per a typical McCabe cold. A visit to the Karni Mata temple at Deshnok may not have been the prescribed course of action from my GP at home, but I decided to go with it.
The Rough Guide had neglected to mention that the bus to the temple originates from the main bus station, which happens to be walkable from my hotel. So instead I took a bone-shuddering auto to a roundabout on the south of the town, where I also found out that the RG was incorrect about which exit to stand at in order to catch the bus. Unsurprisingly, I was the only non-Indian there, but I was soon joined by a dead pigeon that appeared on the ground a few yards away with a squelchy thud. I'm assuming it had either hit the live part of one of the overhead power cables, or it had been dropped by a passing bird of prey.
When a bus finally pulled up, I asked the conductor if it was going to Deshnok. He gave me a deceptive head wobble, which I interpreted incorrectly as
a "no", but he shouted after me as I was walking away, so I did an about turn and boarded. There were 3 other foreigners on the bus, an oldish couple and a young guy, the latter of whom I ended up chatting to. He's near the end of a year out after graduation, and was also staying at the same hotel. He'd been in India about the same time as I had, though had been moving around significantly more rapidly, so there were experiences to share.
The journey was uneventful, and on disembarking there was a 10 minute walk down a dusty road to get to the temple itself. Boots had to be removed at the entrance, which was a shame considering the state of the floor inside.
The big attraction of the temple (for non-devotees) is the large number of pigeons and, especially, rats that are in residence. Though city dwellers throughout the world might think this an ideal site to be blown up, it does have a strange charm. The rats scurry around minding their own business and doing rat things, while tourists snap photos of them and wonder if they can pick up Weil's
disease from a rat turd-encrusted sock. Large bowls of milk and assorted other goodies are laid out at regular intervals to ensure there is adequate sustenance for the inhabitants.
One of the temple elders gave a brief history of the place, and also pointed out one of the nine white rats who have made it their home. Seeing one of these special rats is supposed to be lucky. On the bus home, I was the only person who didn't have a seat, so I have a bone to pick with the little blighter.
And in a subsequent piece of ill luck, I discovered a major drawback to the SIM card I'd purchased in Delhi, which the salesman had, frankly, lied to me about. Even though my SIM has great coverage nationwide, it can only be recharged in major metropolitan areas such as Delhi, Mumbai, etc. That isn't much use when your balance goes to zero in the middle of Rajasthan. After a great deal of silent cursing on my part, I initiated the process of buying another SIM. On the application form, gender could be either Male, Female, or Others.
On the plus side, I was pleased
to discover today that, in a hotel whose name translates as "Music of the clouds", the dog's name is Terry.
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David McHarg
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Rats.....
Oh jesus the picture of the rats around the bowl of milk is awful. Is your accomodation rat infested ? These little guys carry many diseases...not good.