Inspiring People #1 Dinesh and Francine

I have often talked on this blog about the extraordinary people we have met along the way without saying too much specifically about each of them. A few weeks ago I decided it was a shame as I really want you guys to get to meet them too, as it is very much worth your while. With this in mind I have decided to start an ‘Inspiring People’ series in which I will present you some such people through a short interview. 

For the first ‘Inspiring People’ episode I would like to introduce you to Dinesh and his wife Francine. They are the owners of the wonderful Krishna Ranch where we have been working with horses for several months. One of the reason I found them inspiring is because of the magic around Krishna Ranch, a very special place they have painstakingly built together over the years. For those of you who don’t know, Krishna Ranch is a horse farm a few kilometres away from Udaipur. It has a few (five at the time of writing) beautiful yet simple rooms where you can come to enjoy a piece of Rajasthani rural life and discover the area on horse back. They have managed to stay insulated from the craze of flashy resorts that have developed in the area and maintained the vision they originally had. Here, you can here it from their own mouth. Enjoy!

For clarity's sake, Dinesh and Francine used to run a guest house called Khumba Palace in Udaipur city at the same time as they developed Krishna Ranch. They now focus their whole efforts on Krishna Ranch and no longer run Khumba Palace (Dinesh's brother runs Khumba Palace now). 

Francine 

Where are you from?

From Wigchen, in Holland.

When was the first time you came to India?

In 1988, when I was 22 years old. I came to Delhi for a few months as part of my anthropology degree. After that I travelled in Kashmir and South India for two months. 

How did you meet Dinesh?

I met Dinesh in 1991 when I was travelling around India (again). I had initially planned to go from Jaipur to Jaisalmer but the guide book said that Udaipur was a beautiful and romantic city so I thought I’d better go see it. When I arrived at the train station a man in his auto-rickshaw offered a ride. I immediately thought ‘Oh no, here we go again.’ You can get harassed quite a lot as a tourist. 

But I took his rickshaw. Once in it, the driver showed me his comments book. At that time, every rickshaw had one. The last comment was from a Dutch family. He recommended a hotel in the city. Over the next few days he took me sight seeing. We went all the way to Eklingji temple in his horse cart, 20 km from Udaipur. That day he told me one of his horses was sick. He said ‘if my horse isn't feeling well then Im not feeling well’. That really touched me. 

After this, I went back to Holland for almost a year. We wrote so many letters to each other. Dinesh used to write English letters in Hindi script. I remember, he would draw pictures of a farm and horses in his letters. Who knew it would all become a reality? We still have all these letters. It was so expensive to call at that time but Dinesh had a friend at the telephone shop who would help us. He would let Dinesh call me and put the bill on some big hotel.

When did you start living in India? 

Around 1995 but I still went back to Holland every year for a few months to make money. You can probably say I was really living in Udaipur when we started running the Khumba Palace guest house from 1996-97. I stopped going back when our son Martin was born. I really, really liked it here from the beginning. 

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced whilst living in Udaipur?

Wow, that’s a tough question. I don't really know, let me think about it [she pauses]. Handling Indian bureaucracy is definitely a tough one. It took us 14 months to get our wedding certificate. In the end I had to type it out myself for the authorities. But ironically, in India, it’s always the small things that are difficult in terms of bureaucracy. See, for instance, how long it took to get a simple wedding certificate. On the other hand, a few years ago we had a poor man died at the guest house. He was a healthy young adult, around 35 years old. He was guiding a group. On the day the group was supposed to go trekking he told Dinesh he wasn’t feeling too well and stayed in his room. When the group came back he was dead. To this day we still don’t know what happened to him. We thought it was going to be a nightmare handling the body. But not at all! Doctors came, then the police. They took the body away. The only problem was when the coroner came from Belgium. He asked if he could stay at the hotel but he had the casket with him. That casket had to stay at the reception for a day. Can you imagine the face of clients when they arrived and saw a casket?

What’s the best part of your day?

I love waking up, going to the farm, I love my daily walks, driving my scooter around. Honestly, there isn’t a part of the day I don’t like. 

What does Krishna Ranch represent for you?

The simple life, really. When I grew up I always knew I wanted simplicity in my life but it was something I was never able to find in Holland. I did here and that makes me very happy. 

Dinesh

Where were you born?

Here, in Udaipur. 

When did you first start working with horses?

When I was 9 years old. I used to groom them. I started driving a horse cart when I was 11 years old. I stopped going to school at around that age but even before that I was already working during the day and going to school in the evening. 

You’ve bought and sold many horses. Tell us about one of the most memorable horses you’ve had. 

Without hesitating, Sultan. He is the second horse I ever bought. He was a dark chestnut stallion. I must have been around 21 years old at that time. I sold him once and then bought him back because the guy who had him wasn’t taking care of him properly. 

One day, I was on a 32 day horse safari tour. At that time there were no mobile phones. One night, I had a terrible feeling and I couldn’t sleep. The next morning I rushed to the nearest telephone and called the farm. Sultan had died. He was old by then but it was very sad. 

When you work with horses you have to get used to losing them. Once, in 2003, I lost 4 horses in 3 months to bots [a type of worms]. I was devastated. At that time no one even knew what bots where, the dewormer didn’t exist in India. Francine had to bring it back from Holland. This taught me to keep some emotional distance. But for a while after this, every time the phone rang I would get paranoid thinking something terrible had happened. 

What’s the hardest part of working with horses?

I’m always worried my horses will get colic. And finding staff, it’s not easy. 

What is the best part of working with horses?

Just seeing them makes me happy. I love to be involved, I still do a lot of things at the farm that many people at the managerial level in India wouldn't do, like mucking up etc. 

What does the future hold for you?

Francine: Honestly, if everything can continue as it is today until the day we die we will be very, very happy. We just want to be able to send our son Martin to study in Holland which he will in about three years. 

Dinesh: You have to see how far we’ve come. When I bought my first horse cart, I managed to borrow Rs 1,500 (about US$30) from friends and family and loaned Rs 3,000 from the bank. When we bought the farm, it was only a piece of land with nothing on it. I needed a place to keep my two horses. We never thought one day we would be living off that land. If our aim was to make more money we could. We would build more rooms at the ranch and I would sell and buy more horses. But the truth is that we are happy with what we have.Today, if we want to we can refuse a potential client. That’s a real luxury. Having said that, the last thing we want is to be able to buy the two plots behind the farm. That way, we can be sure the farm will stay peaceful forever.