Kaku

After a few hour drive through rural desert life - camels, mud hut complexes, goat herders, and scrubs - we came to the tiny village of Kaku, only sq kilometer, if that. A village not in the Lonely Planet India guide (also referred to as the bible by some here) so therefore we were the only white people within 50 miles or so and most of the villagers acted as though they had never seen a westerner before. We stayed in the only hotel in sight, Kaku Castle, and the property was filled with peacocks! They fed us excellent vegetarian food, cabbage, potatoes, cauliflower (one of our favorite foods now), stuffed peppers, garlic spinach, and all deliciously flavored with spices and curries. We took a walk though the village just as a Friday night festival was beginning (Hindu festival worshipping one of the millions of deities), and instead of focusing on the religious procession through the town, most of the people had their eyes on us. Some shy - the women peaking out from behind their colorful had scarfs (a part of their saris); others, mainly children, couldn't hide their curiosity and were making large crowds around us giggling and asking our names over and over again. Making our way through the crowds we bumped into a wedding, where again all eyes left the bride and groom and turned to us. The whole party waved us in - I snapped a few photos and snuck out not wanting to be the center of attention on their special day. I would imagine this is what it would feel like to be a celebrity for a day. After straying away from the festival we reached the edge of town (and the beginning of the sand dunes), it was so quiet you could hear the whistling of the wind as it formed the ripple patterns on the sand. A woman and three of her children came out to meet us, luckily we had Moin with us to translate.

The beautiful woman, dressed in orange and yellow with bangles covering her exposed arms, and ten pound ankle bracelets around her tiny ankles, wanted to tell us all about her life. She had nine children, because her husband wouldn't let her have an abortion; she was married when she was 13 and pregnant by 17; her husband and eldest son worked elsewhere doing woodwork and were rarely around; and her youngest daughter was five, but looked only one or two because she had an illness that the doctors couldn't cure. She was 46, and for such a hard life, she actually looked her age.

That night we had a beer on our rooftop and listened to the wedding party, which we could hear until 4 AM...Indian weddings are no joke.