A Dream Rann

From a surreal salt road to a Harappan city, Dholavira draws tourists beyond the spectacle of the Rann of Kutch

- - MOHD SHEHWAAZ KHAN

The Road to Heaven begins as a promise rather than a direction.

Stretching out from Khavda toward Dholavira in Gujarat, it unfurls for nearly 30 km, bordered by backwaters so vast and still they coax travellers into silence. When the waters recede, the scene shifts into something almost hallucinatory. An unbroken white of salt marsh stretches to the horizon, luminous and blinding, with the road slicing through it like a line drawn in air.

Then come the flamingoes, thousands of them, migrating from Central Asia and Europe, stippling the sky and wetlands like drifting constellations. At a glance, the road seems to lead not merely to a village or an archaeological site, but somewhere beyond the ordinary.