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Copyright of the text and the images with Arun Gaur

Leaf & the Sand of Khuri / Rajasthan / Tripolia-Exploring India-Arun Gaur’s Indian Landscape Images

The leaves slither and their shadows slither on the slant of the dunes.

A350, tripod and primary lens—the beercan

While the Camel-Man cooked the lunch in the desert,

in the shade of a tree

I took these snaps

(October-2009)

These images are taken at a small spot in the desert of Khuri—some 50 kilometers south to Jaisalmer. It was lunch time. We had unleashed the camel. After a two hour stay at a shaded place our plan was to move ahead to a deserted thani. Thani is a small hamlet—a cluster of houses.There would be more dunes there. The camel-man picked up dry twigs, peeled potatoes and cooked meals for two of us. I had gulped down my third mineral water bottle. “So little water is left in your bottle,…” he accosted me, “…and so much distance to cover in the blaze of the sun!” “You don’t bother about that, I will manage it”. I looked up for the last two of the apples Rana (my better half) had handed over to me when I had started from Panchkula five days back. With those two greenish apples, I was sure I would manage the long distance ahead. Those were luscious apples of the deserts. I still had those fruits left with me. Heaven in the desert. But desert is the heaven. The camel-man picked up a few stone pieces, set them into an amphitheatrical shape of the oven and lit the fire. After kneading flour and making a lump of it, he said “Your dinner is almost ready.” He boiled in a little cauldron the potatoes and with steadied hands flung some big fresh green chilies into it. Steam came out of it. You would eat this thing. How would I eat that vegetable? I never could digest or taste too spicy a food. “The camel is munching into the bushes and we will sit here for an hour.” Bajre ki roti, the bread of that coarse grain, is a staple diet here. I ate it and looked at that huge tree. I ate and the sand grains were crushed with my teeth and swallowed them. You have to swallow this sand in order to befriend it. Only then you would be able to cross the bare stretches of the sand. That tree was really huge. That was around 15 feet tall and was huge by any standards. Where would you find the trees in the desert? We sat in its shadow. We have the diminutive versions of this tree elsewhere. That tree is a mere two feet bush in Panchkula and here it is so gigantic. It is the divine incarnation of this shrub that I witness here. It is so gigantic here. Full 15 feet or so. So gigantic that it gave us shelter in the heat of the sun. While the camel-man reclined on a rough mattress that he had taken off the back of the camel, I walked around a few feet. A deer startled me as it dashed out of the bush and disappeared in the golden sand. A leaf shook on the tree with the blowing of the wind and with the blowing of the grains of sand. Some lay there. I took some snaps at the spot.

Leaf & the Sand-I

Twigs are broken. Wind came and broke the twigs in the desert. And they lie scattered everywhere. Wherever I go, these twigs I find. They would fire up and the food would be cooked. These little bits of dryness would give me food when they would be thrown into fire.
They mingle with leaf and sun and sand.

Leaf & the Sand-II

The yellow leaf falls from the tree. It falls near its base. The stem of the tree comes out of the sand. Its leaves I thought to be poisonous. But here there is no poison. The dryness of the sand and the wind washes off the poison. The shade given by the poisonous leaves is good. I would recline under it and take shelter and when the sun bends more, I will proceed to the thani of the deserted huts and houses.

Leaf & the Sand-III

So dark is the shade of the tree. Beyond the golden sand sizzles and then the light blueness of the sky. The venomous leaf has fallen off the tree and blown by the wind it has got entangled in the tree. The light filters through it and becomes a little yellowish.

Leaf & the Sand-IV

Leave are yellow. The sun sheds its own yellow leaves through the gaps in the leaves of the trees. All leaves lie and rest on the flatness of the sand under the venomous tree that gives me the sheltered life. The golden leaves of the tree mingle with the golden leaves of the sun and darkness is their matrix.

Leaf & the Sand-IX

Leaves are no more golden but they slither as translucent darkness on the slopes of the golden sand. The little toddlers of the sands have traversed their corrugated paths on the surface of the golden sand. They have left their clear marks on the surface of the sand and then disappeared. Leaves throw their shadows on the golden leaves on the sands.

Leaf & the Sand-V

They rear their heads like the fangs of upright creatures of the depths of the earth. They are the flowers of the sands.

Leaf & the Sand-VI

One leaf remained sticking in the crevice of branches. It stayed before me. It asked me to stare and stare its yellow blood. It has beautiful yellow poison. Its vein is green. The branches have carefully, tenderly held it in their harsh embrace.

Leaf & the Sand-VII

The yellow leaf fell from the tree and the sun ray struck it and the ray also struck the base of the stem of the tree. The leaf floats in the dark ocean of sand and tree bark reminds me of the hide of the crocodile.

Leaf & the Sand-VIII

This leaf refuses to fall down. It has no green vein, but its hue is delicate cream. . It has tightly engulfed the twigs. It has rolled itself around the slenderness.

Leaf & the Sand-X

The shades would go on creeping. They will search out the well-thoght paths.

Leaf & the Sand-XI

They will slither up or creep up with a determination of the sand of the desert. There is no stopping of them.
They will swarm all of us with the suddenness of their determination. They will even change their tactics. A new adaptation. Their colors will change with the change in the color of the sand.

Leaf & the Sand-XII

And when the time is ripe, when it is an opportune moment, they will elongate their necks, spruce themselves up and rush forward upward. Excelsior. They stretch their wings almost abnormally. I thought their shades had gathered enormous power to go up the slopes. I find their feet dig into the sands but they effortlessly lift them up and climb. They are the creatures of the sand.