Dandkala, Bajju & Exit from Bikaner

Day 3 of this Rajasthan Road Trip started rather early with a planned visit to Bajju which got extended to the village of Dandkala.

After having the same breakfast routine at Harasar Haveli as yesterday, we left for Bajju, which is around 100 km from Bikaner in a remote area to check out the amazing stuff the weavers and artisans of Bikaner were churning out.

The simple picturesque village of dandkala.

We broke our journey to check out the Rangsutra showroom in Bikaner first and moved onward to Bajju. Here we shopped for or some fabulous stuff URMUL and Rangsutra NGOs supply to Fabindia. We got it right from the source.

Then we proceeded to the URMUL factory in Bajju, After a walk around followed by a humble “Nashta of Rajasthani pakodi and chai,” we drove to a village called Dandkala.

Dandkala village rajasthan. Quaint, serene and welcoming.

Dandkala is located 140 km from Bikaner city in the Thar Desert, which is harsh, arid and tough, with shifting sand dunes and extreme temperatures, the lives of rural women in Dandkala is not easy by any means.

URMUL & Rangsutra encourage a unique crafts technique called Applique, that made popular by the nomadic and semi-nomadic camel herder communities of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

These applique artisans belong to a community that migrated from Pakistan during the war of 1971 and settled in parts of Rajasthan (Barmer) and Gujarat.

Through the ornamental needle work, pieces of fabric shaped into popular desert motifs are sewn into a base cloth which are then crafted to produce bed covers, sarees, kurtis and the like.

These artisans also do embroidery, the craft of embellishing a textile or other material with needle and thread using motifs, which are usually geometrical, floral or inspired by nature.

These ladies are of the bunch that embroiders the lovely motiffs and patterns on your bed covers, pillow covers, bags, stoles, kurtis etc which are sold by retail outlets as fabindia.

The pedagogy of both these NGOs, inclusive of product development and operations management, is what helps level the playing field for rural artisan communities, most of whom lack access to formal education or vocational training.

After a humble “Nashta of Rajasthani pakodi and chai,” we drove to a village called Dandkala, located 140 km from Bikaner city in the Thar Desert.

This area is harsh, arid and tough, with shifting sand dunes and extreme temperatures, the lives of rural women in Dandkala is not easy by any means.

But it has not stopped these women artisans from earning a living with dignity. Dandkala village amongst other has around 100 artisans (all ladies) who are masters in creating exquisite embroidery on Kurtas, Bags & Bedcovers etc.

This embroidery was done in front of us in less than 5 minutes

Dandkala was another 80 km from Bajju and by then the temperature was feeling like 45-degree centigrade. We walked in the hot sands to reach their chaupal and were greeted warmly. We were then shown the craft of their expertise. We shopped a bit too.

The women of Dandkala village in of Bikaner district in Rajasthan are a class apart.

Although they are refugees from Umerkot district in the Sindh province of Pakistan, they have fought displacement by taking ownership of their traditional embroidery skills, which has enabled them to become breadwinners for their families.

To top it all apart from the warm welcome and a hot cup of tea, we were also served authentic village “chaas” which revived us totally for the trip back to Bikaner and onwards to Jodhpur.

The road back from dandkala … these are simple village roads (not even state highways) and in such great condition that they can put the city roads to shame.

After reaching Bikaner, we drove in for lunch at Laxmi Niwas Palace. This was by far the most expensive meal consumed on this trip till now at their flagship restaurant Swarna Mahal. It was totally disappointing too. In another life, I also stayed at the same hotel.

My accommodation was their Rooftop Palace Suite, however, that experience was nothing like this one.

Laxmi niwas palace, bikaner

The biggest setback was caused by Laal Maas. While the gravy was acceptable to taste, the mutton tasted funny. It seemed that the rich red colour was acquired from an external source (food paint). It was surely not traditionally or regularly made. Or, maybe the head chef had his day off.

The gatta kadhi on the other hand was really nice. We also ended up paying Rs.100 for an onion salad and Rs.90 for a tandoori roti each. That was the last blow and an expensive one.

After a not so good foodventure, getting a bill totalling Rs. 2500 made us a bit unhappy about the entire experience. We departed for Jodhpur immediately after lunch.

The road trip from Bikaner to Jodhpur is amazingly comfortable. You can halt at your convenience anytime, anywhere and enjoy your short break. Nagore is the only major town on this route. And, the distance between the two cities is approximately 254 kilometres via Nagore.

The smiling lineman at the railway crossing just before nagore

The road that leads to Jodhpur is very desolate but butter smooth. The landscape offers a flora mostly of grass & acacia trees and fauna of herds of deer. On both sides of the roads, just emptiness of the desert leads to the horizon.

If you live in a city you may never see earth meeting sky, but if you travel across Rajasthan there are mostly such vistas which give such sweeping panoramic views. Overall, the route is quite scenic, with even small hills at a distance.

So, make time to appreciate such small things in life. Practice gratitude for all those little things in life which are easy to be taken for granted or missed. In all today we drove about 450 kms and I loved every bit of it.