As was described in camel story II, we would occasionally try to surmount this language barrier by coming up with conversations for the crew based on their tone of voice, gestures, and actions. We would put words into their mouths, which, more often than not, were incorrect (still, we could amuse ourselves in this fashion for hours, and so the practice continued - simple minds simple pleasures). Sometimes, the crew would talk to each other in Hindi, look over in our direction, and laugh. When we asked what they were talking about, Amar would just say, "we just joking!" Paranoia assured us that we were the butt of their jokes. We, of course, foolishly overlooked the fact that we too would sometimes talk amongst ourselves in English, look over at them, and laugh. Inevitably, our assumptions as to what they were saying sometimes offended us. This began to produce some very negative vibes. We became two groups of four men traveling together, but we were learning nothing about one another's cultures and lifestyles.

One might think we had learned our lesson following the camel feed incident. Not so. It took the fart flambé incident on the third night to convince us that we honestly had no idea what these men were ever talking about. To try and counteract these negative feelings, we resolved to stop joking about what they might or might not be saying. We had to stop wondering if we were being taken advantage of, and start assuming that we weren't. We also decided that we would try harder to get Amar to translate when we felt in the dark on any situation.

The fourth day of the trek, the half way point, showed a change in attitude that was remarkable. It was like we were a group of eight old time friends. That evening we spent time talking, through Amar, and learned and laughed, the difference being that now we were laughing together.

Bikaner | Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V