Adventures in International Education

Written at the Vijay Guest House, Bikaner, Rajasthan, India

I’m near the Pakistani border in the city of Bikaner on Thursday afternoon 18 July 2019. I left New Delhi a little after 7:00 this morning. It was hot and steamy. Gerald and I had breakfast together, and surprisingly, I ate very little. I was nervous. I sweated through my shirts just getting to the train then I couldn’t find where I was supposed to be. A Good Samaritan helped me out and a crew of other guys yelled at me telling me I had booked a train that left yesterday. It took a few minutes for me to figure out that I had the right train and I eventually found Berth 33. 

Tip #1: Travel in India is complicated until you find your seat.

Indian trains run efficiently (we arrived in Bikaner about 15 minutes early). The air conditioning was powerful. I had to dig out the sheets supplied to every berth just to stay warm. An older man joined me in the compartment after a few stops. He didn’t say much but eventually his curiosity got the better of him and he asked where I was from. So I gave him the Fulbright story and told him I was a teacher in the United States. He had lots of questions about American education and told me that he had attended a banking conference in Delhi, that he had an MBA, and worked in the Bank of India in Bikaner. He slept most of the trip but was kind enough to tell me to throw my meal tray in the “dustbin.” 

I dozed on and off during the trip. I should have done my blog post—I created a hot spot in my room tonight using my Indian cell phone in order to create the post because there seems to be no internet at this guest house!— but the train was rattling and rolling, I was tired, and I preferred to read about Rajasthan and the Camel Driver.

Tip #2: Have a plan, a backup plan, and don’t take yourself too seriously.

The eight hours on the train flew by. I even ordered a meal, delivered hot to the station and loaded on the train and brought to my berth. What a convenience!! Of course I looked out the windows: From the fallen down structures and trash of Delhi’s back streets to farms where cattle, sheep, goats, and camels huddled in the shade to escape the heat.

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The desert is amazing. Acres and acres, miles and miles, of red clay earth. Even the camels sought shade as did the goats and cattle. There was nothing but scrub land and I wondered how the animals ate.

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Then, nearing Bikaner, the landscape changed. A brown field was bordered by a lush green one. The son of my host, Hiteshwar Singh Rathore, told me on the drive to the guest house that it was all waste water. It seemed a good idea to me to make the desert bloom using sewage.

Hiteshwar’s great-grandfather was a famous camel driver for the British during World War I. It amazes me that this area has been fought over but I guess borders are like that. We passed a huge military base and Hiteshwar told me it was there to protect the border, that the base contained camels to patrol the desert.

History Nerd Alert: These stories excite me greatly and I want to learn more about Indian history. There is a richness here that sparkles well beyond the pallid American version of the last 245 years. Read on at your own risk. The history teacher in me emerges with a vengeance, although in summary fashion only. I still need to study more about about Indian history. When I taught at Mahe two weeks ago, I asked a class what they were studying.

“Medieval history” replied one brave boy. I thought I could jump right into the lesson, expound about Michangelo, Da Vinci, and the Renaissance, until he explained that he studied the medieval history of India, a time period totally out of sync with my understanding of European history and the Reformation. Indians have their own vivid history, with significantly more details, a broader scope of world events, a larger country, and a grasp of history more extensive that its European cousin. 

I’ll have to read up on my Indian history. What appears as a footnote in an American textbook occupies volumes in Indian history. (My must read when I return is John Keay’s India: A History. Revised and Updated). What I remember (with help from the Lonely Planet guidebook) is that one early people (the Harappan part of the Hindus Valley civilization) took over the land and spoke a pre-Sanskrit language. They simply disappeared 3700 years ago. Alexander the Great got tired of conquering the world—as did his troops—and simply bypassed Rajasthan. 

The Huns from Asia came in 5 CE. They took over from the ruling Gupta emperors and almost simultaneously the Raiputs (“children of kings”) began living in the region, after escaping from the White Huns and Arabs who attacked from Pakistan and Afghanistan. They considered themselves warriors, which gave them a high rank in the caste system, second only to the Brahmins. They decided they came from the heavens, descendants of the sun, moon, or fire. The Rajputs dynasties practiced chivalry, nobility, and a “strict code of conduct” (Brown & Blasi, Lonely Planet: Rajasthan Delhi & Agra Travel Guide, 2017).

I sit on the veranda today and a man named Gulji just served me chai tea. I heard the call to prayer from a nearby mosque and the blaring horns took on a muted sound because of the walls surrounding this courtyard. I opted for an air-conditioned room at 1500 INR (or $22.05). The choice seemed logical given the fearsome dry heat around me. A young man named Jugle is watering the lawn. A small schnauzer dog (“Snowy”) came to greet me when I arrived. Hiteshwar told me the refrigerator was stocked with cold drinks, including bottled water. I told him I wanted to go into the desert on a camel trek and see the camel farm (yes, photos of baby camels; no drinking camel’s milk). I also want to learn more about his grandfather Lt. Col. Jai Singh Rathore who served in the Border Security Force, managed 1000 camels, and became a hero in the 1965-71 war with Pakistan. That information would enhance my teaching of the World History for sure!

In many ways, this trip is a vacation from the rigors of the Fulbright program, a time to kick back and relax without the pressure of teaching and reading (although I plan to visit the school across Jaipur Road in the morning). I am committed to continuing these blog posts and recording my thoughts about this wonderful country. There is something magical in India, and now that I’m reading more of the history of Rajasthan, I’m becoming more aware of my dearth of knowledge about this culture. 

Discourse About History

The Indian history books seem daunting to read, given the time these cultures have been around: Stone Age paintings date to 10,000 BCE; Alexander the Great invaded in 326 BCE; trade routes date to 1 CE; the literature and arts of the Guptas spanned the fourth to the sixth centuries, coinciding with the rise of the Rajputs; invasions by the Muslims in the late twelfth century; the arrival of Vasco da Gama and the Europeans in the late fifteenth century; and the battles between tribes, Hindus, and Muslims, often involving control of Delhi; the arrival of the British East India Trading Company in the seventeenth century with the construction of the Taj Mahal following some fifty years later. Details of the Mughal Empire span this period, up to an including its demise in the eighteenth century. Then the British Government irrevocably altered India history by assuming control from the British East India Company in 1858. Gandhi’s birth in 1869 also changed the country, leading to India’s independence in 1947.  

Most of the details related to Rajasthan history, and history in general, originates with the fine guidebook by Lindsay Brown and Abigail Blasi, which provides a historical perspective on this area (Lonely Planet: Rajasthan Delhi & Agra Travel Guide (2017).

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A Wonderful Spot

History aside, the Vijay Guest House is a wonderful spot. Dazy, Vijay’s wife and Hiteshwar’s mother, prepared a wonderful meal, with rice, a cabbage dish and curry, followed by a pudding for dessert. Vijay talked about plans for our camel trek. Daughter Vaismali played with Snowy the dog. We had a wonderful evening, and my air-conditioned room was a pleasant retreat.