No-Man's Land

“Surat? Oh good. So now you can buy loads of clothes, I believe Surat is famous for cloth, isn’t it?”
“It must be, but I am not going to Surat. I am going to a place called Suratgarh, its somewhere in Rajasthan.”
“Suratgarh?? Never heard of it.”
“Well, so haven’t I.”

I got married and had to leave the place I had been born and brought up in. Incidentally, I had married the person I loved. He was in the army, so not one place was home for long.
Well, about 10 days after marriage, we packed our bags, bid our goodbyes, shed tears and boarded the train to Suratgarh. I was to leave my parents who were with me for the past 24 years of my life. It was harder than I had thought. But a whole new life lay ahead of me.
Never had I travelled so far. In the train, as we entered Rajasthan, the seat was covered with fine sand, even though the windows were shut!!!! It went in my hair, my eyes, and in my mouth!!!! There was no escaping it.
It took us two trains to reach a place called Ganganagar. From there it was a 60km road drive to the Cantonment area. Suratgarh happened to be another 20 kms ahead of the cantonment, but thankfully that was not our stop.
With the usual fauji custom, an army vehicle had come to the railway station to pick us up. There were some sandwiches and some cold drinks kept in the vehicle for dhiraj and me. That was a welcome relief. But I was dazed. It may have been because of the long journey or the fine sand that made crunchy sounds in my mouth or the heat. All I wanted was to get to the place we were destined to stay for the next two years!!
It took us about an hour to reach the place. We were to stay in a makeshift house. It was hardly a house actually. They had converted a garage into a room. But I didn’t care at that time. All I wanted was to clean up and plop on to the bed, a bed that was stationary…… But for the next two days whenever I slept I had the feeling that I was sleeping on a berth in a train that rattled constantly.
Dhiraj had been posted to this place which was in the middle of nowhere. It was a small cantonment. To one side was Ganganagar (60 kms away). To the other side was Suratgarh ;( 20 kms away) a small city with growth prospects only due to the deployment of the army. The cantonment itself sported not a single shop or a place for an eat-out!!! Outside the gate there were a few shops that sold groceries and essential items. It was quiet a change for me, someone who came from a place called Pune. Any and everything was available back home. There was never a dearth of things and commodities.
But if one overlooked the location as such, I was in heaven. Dhiraj and I had been in love for the past three years. It was a dream to get married and we finally had. Now, it was just the two of us. Life made me sit in her lap and sang sweet songs to me!!
Now, when I look back, I see that it was the best time I have ever had in my life. The beautiful sand dunes, the one and only dhaba; located about 15 kms away on the highway, that served only vegetarian food( to the utter disappointment of my husband), the small bakery in Ganganagar which quenched our thirsts for pastries and biscuits, the rare times when it rained and made our souls full of the scent of the wet earth, the feeling that there was nothing else in the world except for dhiraj and me……
My mind still wanders in the streets of that place sometimes and reminds me of the friends I made and the life I lived in that no-man’s land. For me, it was no longer that anymore. I started my married life there, and I can never ever forget the precious moments I shared with every corner of that place along with Dhiraj.
There were more experiences like this in my life, about which I will talk some other time. : )