LIFE STYLE | ||
Bikaner – Land of a people who are brave and chivalrous, people with a warlike lifestyle around whom grew the most amazing legends of romance and heroism. The lifestyle of Bikaner is breathtakingly beautiful, impressive and fascinating. The lifestyle is full of history, art and culture that go back several centuries. Bikaner’s Lifestyle – where the mood and rhythm is so over powering that it impresses even the most seasoned traveler. For what is referred to as a desert, Bikaner is amazingly populated: its landscape scattered with a number of villages and hamlets, telltale signs of tree groves and population of cattle being the only indication that there is such a settlement in the close proximity. The typical village has always been difficult to spot till one is actually upon it. Its simplest hamlets, the most basic form of civilization with a way of life that has probably remained unchanged since centuries, consists of a collection of huts that are circular, and have thatched roofs. The walls are covered with a plaster of clay, cow dunig, and bay, making a termite-free (antiseptic) facade that blends in with the sand of the countryside around it. Boundaries for house and land holdings, called baras, are made of dry branches of nettle-like shrub, the long, sharp thrones a deterrent for straying cattle. Decorative facades in such units are limited to creating a texture in the plaster in the façade, or using simple lime colors to create vibrant patterns at the entrance, and outside the kitchen. Women of villagers ware the jewel that glints on their foreheads and faces would add to the shocking surprise of their magnets and oranges, their blue and green and pinks. Trims of gold ribbon add to this feast of color, and bangles jangle not just on wrists, but also all the way up to the arms above the elbow. Each village is a multi community settlement, the various castes creating a structure of dependence based on nature of their work. | ||
