India, Feb. 8 -- In December 2013, a few friends and I took the Corbett Park Express from Old Delhi railway station two days before Christmas. Our holiday destination was Jaisalmer, a distance of about 980km that the train covered in 20 hours. It was about 8:30 pm on Christmas Eve when the train finally reached Ramdevra, two stations before the final stop. My friends and I were eagerly waiting for this. We got off the train and started taking selfies (though this word was not yet so popular) in front of the station signage. One of my friends cried out in his heavily accented Hindi: "Pahuch gaaye Ramdevra! (We have reached Ramdevra)!"

There is no reason why this village, named, apparently, after a 14th-century Hindu ascetic, in west Rajas...