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A Handful of Lunar Dust anyone?

After a crazy rickshaw drive in which we saw, first-hand, the geography of Rajasthan after dark, Harish (risk driver) and we reached Ramgarh Jheel... location of Moondust 2006 - India's first 5-day trance festival!

White spotlights pierced the black, frozen sky around that deserted road. Slight strains of music seeped through the still night. A lone foreigner sat on a chair beside a chai shop, lit by one tungsten bulb, smoking whatever he had brought or acquired here. Few vehicles passed on that road. Whatever did, were making a dive into the main scene. Foreigneron ka party, it was called.

Ode to the Past

I'll start off from where I left off last time and move on from there forward. So that all of the crazy last year and the first few crazy days of the new one are typed, published, locked and stashed away in gargantuan cyberspace. For ever. Well.....may be for ever. Till When? Can u say?

Goa was where we celebrated Babboo's birthday. August 13, 2006. Had a good bit of fun but couldn't find any parties. However, the waves lapped at our feet withing close range on an eerie night and left us bundled in our room at Sai Prasad, Anjuna. That was the highlight of August.

September came and brought with it a crazy end to the rains, the anticipation of Diwali and a return trip to the mountains. She was already there. At Pinku's Palace in Kasol. I was caught in these attendance schedules and weekly rosters in this glitzy, RGB-lit bored room! But I guess the power of nature and one's basic inclination towrads the object of its desire is greater than any fucking corporation or desk-slave job. Feigned some family's death and made off. 35 hours of an ardous journey in the Ferozepur Janta saw me in Delhi. Got drunk with a Brit-American living in mid-USA at Spirits, CP. Hopped aboard a bus and veered off that same road where the air reeks of sensuos pine, the moisture of the river clings to your nose and everything looks just the way God had made it and man has decided not to meddle around much with this - Kasol.

At Pinku's, met Tsering (well, here was ANOTHER one). From Ladakh, Tsering just deals in small reatsurants, cafes and returns home only in the summers. When the wind blows cold and the sun don't shine that long, he heads off to Goa. Just like all the smarties. How I just love this country!!

Monsoon days were simply great in Kasol. All you ever did was drink chai, roll, wear warm clothes, explore the nearby bushes for mushrooms and visit the occassional waterfall. And what a waterfall it was! Shrugging off my complacency and getting my ass there was the best thing. I loved her more than ever for that.

October brought with it an anticipation of MoonDust in Rajasthan. Diwali happened and she left for Delhi and I, again, went away (but this time!) with Bunny to where else..? Here we come Goa, brace yourself! Travelling with Bunny was one weird scene. We lived in an uber-cool guesthouse near Candolim (very nice) and the first day were up there for the "10 to 10 scene" at Curlies. Quite honestly, I didn't have such an explosive & great trip with Bunny as I expected. It was good, it was fun. But felt slightly constrained by and restrained some times...actually, quite a few times. Or may be I just have developed this great connectiong with Simar so I can't really take anyone else's ways of travelling, walking free, roaming the countryside or taking a vacation....whatchamacallit! Also here, Leonardo Da Vinci created his anatomical masterpiece on 4 blobs of board paper and quietly slipped into my pocket. We left on Oct 30 for Rajasthan.

November was a Cracker! Began with a departure from the city to the breezy, vivid corners of Jaipur. Got conned right at the station, when the rickshaw guy took us all over tha place and got us a room right opposite the railway station.

Moondust? Well, a trance festival couldn't get any better than that. Awesome location, ripping music, loads of SPACE, desert sand, moon.... (even the venue was right under the moon!)...! First night was like being in a jungle maze looking for that elusive pearl. Rode along in a crazy rickshaw on a wintry night and found the place after seeing half the countryside.