The unexpected is part of life and travel and so, one day, walking through the streets of Jaisalmer, ready to go shopping for fabrics and saris with Indian women, I was bitten by a dog twice, and that, besides having caused me a great shock, he did not allow me to follow the course of Vipassana meditation to which I had registered.
I have now learned to believe in the signs, and I am now aware that everything happens for a reason. If I had not been bitten and had taken the meditation course in Jaipur, I probably would not have gone to Nepal, I would not have done meditation in the birthplace of Buddha, and it would not have happened all that happened. Of course, I will never thank that dog for biting me but it is undoubted that the event created a series of conditions that led me to Nepal and continue the journey in the company.
The experience of the Jaisalmer government hospital was tragicomic but very interesting and authentic. Entering a government hospital in a desert city means entering a context frequented entirely by locals, women, men and children, all with their colors, with their make-up eyes intent on observing you, watching those Westerners who for whom reason they are there. Yes, because foreigners would not go to such a place, they would tend more to turn to a private clinic/hospital considering the low costs (for us Europeans) of Indian health care. But for us, local of the place, it was natural to turn to this structure, being also the only one in the city. I do not hide I was worried about the hygiene rules, because I had to do before, an anti-tetanus and then 5 shots of anti-rabies at the doctor’s defined cadences and I felt relieved and lucky to be surrounded by some friends. It was interesting and disconcerting to find out how even in these contexts privacy is not a well-known concept, and as the curiosity of the Indians has no boundaries or barriers, in the room where I was in fact, in less than no time, we were surrounded by about thirty nurses who looked at us, asked questions or simply smiled amused .. practically within a few minutes there had been a word of mouth inside the hospital! Me and my friend, once out of the hospital, waiting for the tuk-tuk back, we even caught a guy from the reception intent to photograph us!