Birthday in Jaisalmer

We have midsummer birthdays, July 9 and 15 to be exact. Summer birthdays are both good and bad. When we were kids, summer birthdays were a bit of a pain because school was out and that meant no birthday cupcakes to take to class, etc. But one upside of a summer birthday is that if you like to travel, then individual birthdays can be easier to remember later in life because they often take place away from home.

One birthday I remember was in the desert town of Jaisalmer, in western Rajasthan. July is the middle of the monsoon season, so Jaisalmer was wet, really wet, even though it’s in the desert. Rain fell without stopping, morning and night. The lanes of the ancient town became rivers, several feet deep. But the lanes were narrow, and the buildings built up, so there were tiny “sidewalks,” narrow ledges that ran alongside the lanes that had become rivers, and you could jump from one sidewalk to another and get around town like children on monkey bars. With all the rain, people were happy and laughing, despite the inconvenience.