Deshnoke : the rat town

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Deshnoke was not a workaway like any others but was an incredible experience. We were there with Lena and Alyce, a german and new-zealander girl. It started in a kind of funny way. Lena, who arrived the day before, came to meet us at the train station. Unfortunately for us, her sense of direction was just about as good as megan’s… We entered the house of a few strangers before finding the right one but weirdly enough, people didn’t seem do find it weird to have strangers coming in and out of their houses with no obvious reasons. When we arrived, we were, at first, surprised to realise that we were not really going to work. I’m not gonna lie, that did not bother us for a long time, indeed if at the beginning we thought we might end up being a bit bored, we quickly realised that that was not going to be the case. Babou and his wife, Nadini, didn’t welcome volunteers because they needed them but only to share and make us discover their culture and discover ours. We loved when Babou was taking us out with him to visit. He brought us on a camel ride on their own camel, he brought us tonvisit Bikaner and took us to a cattle fair, which was really impressive! But we also loved staying at the house with Nadini. We were helping her to cook and she was, at our delight, teaching us so many different Indian dishes. She was also dancing for us and her five years old daughter was sometimes joining her. We could have watched them dance for hours!

Nadini really loved to sing but mostly she really loved to talk. We were 5 girls, Nadini, Leena, Alyce, Megan and me, and we would chit chat for the whole day. It was extremely moving and instructive to listen Nadini talked with an honesty that few demonstrate back in France or England, including us. She was often saying “life’s too hard” but never making us feel that she was complaining. She could not go out alone and even if she was accompanied she had to moderate her outings – we only saw her go out once, with us and her husband, the whole week we were there. She could not speak to her grandfather nor be in the same room even though they live under the same roof. Every time she was hearing people coming, she would quickly stand up and check if she was decent (vale) or leave the room (depending on the visitor). It was extremely surprising to see how full of life she was, to see her singing, dancing, laughing, joking while she was with us or her husband and kids but how she was tense when in contact with the exterior. I guess that them being one of the priest family of the village, the traditions were even stricter than most families. Babou had other jobs on the side but one month every 6 years, he, with his family, had to go and live inside the temple and perform all the ceremonies. This temple was no usual temple – it was the rat temple. They believe that the temple’s rats are the reincarnation of a goddess family members and thus worship those rats. Believers eat the same food from the same bowls the rats also eat in. We went to visit this temple with Babou. We were only there for an hour, but I have to say that with mice running up, down and on the sides, one hour was enough time. I have a hard time even imagining that someone could live there for a month, sleeping and eating with the rats. But everyone has their own culture, traditions and beliefs. Babou spent a lot of time telling us stories about the Indou gods. In the evening we loved listening to him, lying on the couch, brought back in childhood. We really felt comfortable in their home and their 2 children, even if a little too excited, were adorable. We had to help them get ready to go to school in the morning, and help them do their homework in the evening. I don’t know if it’s India, or luck or a little bit of both but once again we were welcome by an amazing family, making us love India each time even more.