For years, I have been wanting to go to Shekhawati. But whenever I did have the time, i scooted off to the Himalayas. But this time around, an impromptu plan took shape. My friend Rohit was about to visit his parents at their village outside Jhunjhunu and I decided to tag along. We took a 10:30 pm bus from Sarai Kale Khan which dropped us off to Jhunjhunu bus depot around 5 in the morning. As luck would have it, we immediately got the first bus out of Jhunjhunu and headed out towards his village in the early morning darkness.

But no, this was not the end of the journey. The bus dropped us by the side of the road, some 15 kms from Jhunjhunu. Rohit disappeared in the darkness, only to reappear with a guy and a jeep who agreed to drive us to his village of Bajawa, 3 kms further. The next three days were blissful. We walked around the village, climbed sand dunes, went for a joyride on a camel cart and made a day trip to the nearby Nawalgarh to look at the painted havelis.

Ok, I have to admit that I have shamelessly lifted the iodea of this shot from Sriparna’s Travelling Teadom site