SUM PHUN GAI IN RAJASTHAN AND THEN SUM (27 Dec 2018 to 1 Jan 2019)

And while we tapped our phones

Connected in real time with virtual avatars

The yellows of mustard fields went by, 

dotted with Peacocks, Chinkara and Nilgai

Tractors plodded in a slow crawl,

Stuffed, like pumpkins dressed for a ball

Shopkeepers held conversations spoken not typed

Discussing life over Bollywood hype

Customers quipped over steaming cups of chai

As the world slowed under a bhang lassi high

Cows stopped speeding cars with mournful stares

The settling dust revealing Potters and Weavers wares

Newspapers were read on Charpoys, while wrinkled eyes gazed

at bright coloured dresses that walked with confidence veiled

Camels ruminated dispassionately while strange foreign animals roared by

on a road that stretched for miles under the cool December sky

Children, bare foot, ran old tires by a barbed wire fence

Playing sans care, sans wet wipe, sans hand sanitiser

No Facebook, No Insta, No Hangouts or Whatsapp

But who was the wiser ..., I wonder

The mind never rested

for the food we tasted, 

and the rooms where we nested, 

were bested by the roads we tested 

Truly time ... was never wasted

 Jaipur - (336km) - Jodhpur - (252km) - Bikaner - (330km) -Jaisalmer -(41km) Sum Dunes - (598km) - Jaipur