It’s our first and only full day in Pushkar. I still don’t like it but the camels are all right.
First Impressions of Pushkar
The road to our hotel was closed because of the camel fair when we arrived last night so we had to walk down a slightly dodgy back alley to get to it. It sits on the edge of a large lake and is romantically named the Sunset View Hotel and Restaurant.
There’s always a place for romance in an adventure and so we’d booked a superior deluxe room with a view of the lake. In reality it’s a cafe with a few rooms at the back and the rooms are only deluxe in the sense of ‘de luxe like dey was fibbin on Booking.Com’.
We went out exploring for a couple of hours and quickly came back with the impression of things being over-priced and of poor quality. It also all felt ‘off’ in some way we couldn’t figure out.
Public displays of religion were everywhere and it turns out that the lake is a major pilgrimage centre although we didn’t know that before we came here.
Hindus’s are meant to avoid materialism so the monks tend to have very little in the way of possessions. The most extreme form of this includes eschewing all forms of clothing and we saw one monk walking the streets who was completely naked apart from a sleeping sheet over his shoulder.
Pious, exhibitionist, emperor’s new clothes, care in the community gone wrong – take your pick of explanations.
Even taking the most generous explanation of the behaviour though, it strikes me that there is a strong element of geographical context to the act. Try walking around with your kit off in Whitley Bay in winter pet and I’m sure you’d soon be looking for a different interpretation of the scriptures.
Second Impressions of Pushka
We’d chosen to come to Pushka not for the lake but because there is an international camel festival on. Annette was feeling unwell and I couldn’t persuade her to go for a quick dip to get better so she stayed at the hotel and I went wandering on my own.
The further I got from the area of our hotel the more things began to feel like normal. Or at least, normal for India.
For example, when I stopped to take a photo of a chemist’s shop, the guy on the bike saw me taking the photo. We got chatting even though neither of us spoke the other’s language and I have his address to send him a copy of the photos.
The two guys running the chemist shop were equally friendly and now have pictures of me.
The Pushkar Camel Fair
The Pushkar Camel Fair has been running for years and used to include camel racing. Sadly that got stopped because it was becoming too dangerous and the camels always won but the fair is still about buying and selling both camels and thoroughbred horses.
It’s also about making horses dance, making children bend in to strange positions and generally having a good time. It was exciting, colourful and great fun.
It’s Not You Pushkar, It’s Me
I’ve tried to reflect on why I didn’t like Pushkar and I’ve decided it’s not Pushkar’s fault. It’s mine.
The city is a major pilgrimage site and we were neither aware initially nor part of that. Worse, we were staying, albeit inadvertently, on the edge of one of the major ghats. Eating a meal and chatting at the side of that whilst people performed what to them was a holy ritual must have been like having someone having fish and chips at the back of church during a baptism.
Sorry it took me a while to cotton on, Pushkar.
Dave and Annette in India and Nepal 