The night of the Howling Women

To go on a trip that makes you forget your life is not just memorable, it's unforgettable.

We had an amazing day out, in the wild of Rajasthan's Thar desert, looking for any wildlife we could spot, all in our open 4 x 4 jeeps. We spotted the usual Nilgai, deer, the local Koonj (a migratory crane) and others. There were adventurous drives getting stuck in the Looni river bed and repeatedly stuck in the terrain. By midday we had reached a not so authentic, 'authentic' village scene which had just the right amount of localness that we city folk could manage. Enough modernity to allow us all to enjoy the experience. We had a great local meal and headed for an ancient Rajasthani tradition of welcoming visitors in their 'Amal Sabha.'

The Amal Sabha is the tradition of the partaking of opium to welcome visitors. Forbidden elements or not, the experience was very enjoyable and perhaps knowing it was forbidden made it very exciting and buzzing.

We headed to the campsite which was an hours drive from the closest village and surrounded by two rocky hillocks.

As the day settled, so did we. Around the fire pit, stories were shared, games were played and food was cooked. It was dark enough to feel cut off from the rest of the world but with our friends there was no want of anything else.

Our hosts told  us of the local story of the 'Howling Women'. Apparently, at night, one could hear some howling women from the top of the hillocks, but no one ever knew where the sounds came from. To appease these howling women, a temple had been constructed on the other side of the hillock, but to no avail. Every night the howling women could be heard.

As the night progressed, slowly everyone retired to their tents. First the children, then our hosts, then slowly our group. At midnight, a birthday was celebrated and slowly by 2 am there were only 3 of the last standing. Our stories never ended, our glasses never emptied and we didn't stop smiling and laughing.

As the sun flirted with the moon at dawn, we realised we should catch a few hours of shut eye before our next drive. As we headed to our tents, the 3 of us laughed and wondered where the howling women had been tonight. Could our laughing have scared them or perhaps watching us from afar their sorrowful howling also turned into laughter and love?