These images are a collection of three towns Russell and I visited in December: Pushkar, Karni Mata Temple (a rat temple) and Bikaner.
One of my favorite memories in Bikaner was walking through a open-air market. Everyone in the market wanted a picture taken with us, just for the sake of taking a picture with “Westerners”. People gave us tea, little snacks …and a carrot!
As I was taking a picture of one gentleman with Russell, the man handed Russell a piece of paper with something scribbled in Hindi.
Russell and I assumed the note contained the man’s email address, given to us in the hope that we would email the picture to him.
After making our way through the busy market and back to our driver, Rajeev, I pulled the crinkled paper out of my pocket and studied it. The writing didn’t look like an email address, nor a mailing address.
I asked Rajeev, “Is this an address?”
Rajeev looked at the paper and started laughing.
“This is not an address,” he replied. “This note says, ‘Don’t ever leave me’.”