Caravan

Couldn’t call it a night without sharing another crucial detail. A detail so cool you could probably chill your beer in it. (This madness is contagious!)

Do you know about the Ragasthan Caravan?

If you’ve been holding off on booking tickets because you don’t know how to get here, keep your eyes open and your ears pricked. They have started talking about it on their Facebook page but it’s still quite vague. All they say is that there’s a Festival Caravan leaving on the 15th – hop on.

We got the whole deal today. It's not just a bus. It's no less than Supertramp's mythical Magic Bus. I’m contemplating making the long trip to Mumbai just to get on that bus and come all the way back here for the festival.

Here’s a quick peek: It’s not just one bus from Mumbai and Delhi. There will be a convoy of buses travelling with the artists. And there’ll be space enough to take along a few hundred of you. Seats will be limited, though, so your hands better be on the buzzer when the tickets come out.

The buses (Volvos or the likes) will take you all the way – and back after the festival! It’s not just a bus ride either. Car-poolers and bikers (and, yes, a gang of Harleys) will join the merry convoy on the ‘road to Ragasthan’.

There’s more. Pitstops will not just be pitstops. They will be dinners at palaces and desert sunrises. Every route, every tiny experience, even the breakfast served when you board, is devised down to the last detail.

And there’s a gig just for the convoy on the way itself.

Deputy H is in charge of the Caravan. He wants the breakfast-stop to be by the desert, where buses from both routes could meet just before entering Jaisalmer. He wants to light bonfires and have everybody sipping warm chai around it as the sun comes up.

But would we find clean washrooms at a spot like that? There would be artists and passengers, tired from the night's journey and bursting to go.

Big Tony suggests the authentic Indian rural experience. Behind the bushes. Males on one side of the road, females on the other.

Vetoed.

Kaptaan explains to the team: “These are the people who are really kicked about the festival. They have bought tickets in advance and are already sold to the idea. We can’t let them down at any step. If they have a fucked experience getting to the festival, they’re not going to enjoy it when they’re here, are they? For them, the festival starts the moment they get on that bus. Nothing can go wrong.”

Respect.

The Ragasthan Caravan is going to solve the trip for a lot of people who waited too long to book tickets and now find train berths hard to get and air-fares expensive.

Plus, it's going to solve a major problem for the team. They’d be glad to see a drop in the hundreds of calls they field every day from people asking how they can get here. It frees their phones up for the hundreds others who are getting a busy tone.