Drishan Desai 1 The road to the caravanserai seemed endless, a ribbon of dust unraveling between the pale, desolate mountains. The solo traveler had been driving for hours, his jeep groaning under the strain of altitude and gravel, its wheels kicking up fine sand that swirled like smoke in the thin air. He had expected only silence here, a silence so vast it might collapse upon itself. Yet when he finally slowed before the ruins, the silence seemed heavy rather than empty, as if it were filled with the residue of countless footsteps, voices, and lives that had once passed…