I will soon move out of the guest house at the NRCC and into a small apartment in town. While I can't wait to get into a less isolated, more socially stimulating living situation, there are some things I will miss. These are perhaps best described in an outline of a normal day.
I get up briefly after dawn, around 7-730. While the desert is still cool, I run along the Bikaner-Jaipur highway. When trucks start passing me and the sun gets hot I know it's passed 8AM, and I return to the guesthouse for tea and a shower. After a simple breakfast of eggs, chapatis, and yoghurt I walk the quarter mile to the Centre, arriving as it opens around 10AM. I spend the days observing research, studying in the library, or learning practical skills with the raikas, taking a brief break for dhal and chapatis around 1PM. By 4.30 the work day is winding down and I head to the residence colony where the NRCC Athletics team, preparing for the annual ICAR championship meet in November, lets me join in their workout. With a short break at the dairy for fresh (camel) milk, I head back to the guest house for a largely empty (and sometimes lonely) evening or hitch a ride into town to run errands. At the oasis-like NRCC, crepuscular time can be kept by which species of bird is in roost, and as the sun sets a cool breeze picks up. Twice a week the security guards gather to watch the serial version of the Ramayan, and before bed I enjoy a simple veg dinner.
I get up briefly after dawn, around 7-730. While the desert is still cool, I run along the Bikaner-Jaipur highway. When trucks start passing me and the sun gets hot I know it's passed 8AM, and I return to the guesthouse for tea and a shower. After a simple breakfast of eggs, chapatis, and yoghurt I walk the quarter mile to the Centre, arriving as it opens around 10AM. I spend the days observing research, studying in the library, or learning practical skills with the raikas, taking a brief break for dhal and chapatis around 1PM. By 4.30 the work day is winding down and I head to the residence colony where the NRCC Athletics team, preparing for the annual ICAR championship meet in November, lets me join in their workout. With a short break at the dairy for fresh (camel) milk, I head back to the guest house for a largely empty (and sometimes lonely) evening or hitch a ride into town to run errands. At the oasis-like NRCC, crepuscular time can be kept by which species of bird is in roost, and as the sun sets a cool breeze picks up. Twice a week the security guards gather to watch the serial version of the Ramayan, and before bed I enjoy a simple veg dinner.
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