The Rann Utsav tent city has every conceivable package for cyclists, sexagenarians, honeymooners, extended family reunions, budget travellers with arrangements for delicious vegetarian dinners and lunches, tour coaches, hybrid transport and camel carts, living up to the eco-village dream. The Contemporary Art Gallery offers perspectives by new artists, saluting Gujarat’s inclination for vibrant colour against blanched deserts. The craft bazaars slake the thirst for Ajrak textiles and ethnic design-hungry generations of tourists bargain with shop owners. From Dhodra, our next stop is Dholavira and on the highway via Khavda, we encounter ‘The Road to Heaven’.

This is no euphemism. The 32-km stretch cuts through the Rann of Kutch lake, offering unmatched views of the lake and the endless salt beds. The whiteness of the salt has the brightness of snow. There’s no one to police or regulate this 32km single lane stretch with diggers continuing their metallic dinosaur scoop of salt, soil and sea as they widen the road to two lanes. Laying this single strip was a four-year project that was completed last year. In the distance, cowherds lead their cattle, walking for miles, some on their mobile phones, as they steer herds of nearly fifty sure-footed Indian bulls with the big horns that seem the living resemblance of the bull on the seals of Mohenjo-daro. We pass the military outpost of the India-Pakistan border, Karachi visible in the hazy distance.