Animal Kingdom India

The highlight of my trip to Rajasthan included a camel safari with an overnight stay by the sand dunes of the Thar desert under the star witnessing the cloudless skies filled with stars, sun set and sunrise, eating chapatis and curries cooked under the shade of fresh green deciduous trees. We visited the grand forts of the Rajputs in the blue city (houses with blue to repel mosquitos and keep cool) of Jodpur with its English style clock tower, and Jaipur, the pink city, famous for elephants.

I've encounted animals in both urban and rural settings. The urban centres are of course crowded with the throng of humankind, bustling, eating, selling and selling their wares. Camels pulling carts, buffalos pulling carts, donkeys pulling carts. As one meanders through busy street side, goats nibble at mounds of garbage stashed at the side of the road. I also saw a boar gnawing at a pile of garbage in Jaipur.

Cows seek shade anywhere they can in the city and eat chapati fed to them by people. They are taken care of a bit more - and I wonder if they are indeed holy cows. Sometimes horned buffalos/cows unexpectantly fight each other as I jump away. I saw one with flowers in its hair. Dogs bark everywhere, some homeless, many hungry, some protective of their puppies. Just like humans, animals in the urban jungle vie for their livelihood in chaos and competition with each other. On the tops of temples overlooking busy streets, monkeys with bright pink bottoms stare down at you curiously.

In the village, buffalos are also present, except they are kept in stables, waiting to provide milk to the villagers. It tastes like homogenized cows milk after it is boiled - add a bit of curd overnight and you get Indian yogourt to dip and eat with chapati or bananas. Every morning I hear crows caw with their grey necks, pigeons also. Dogs also live in random corners here, lying lazily in the shade on hot afternoons.