Atta Girl 2

Mela Melee

Pushkar is crazy at the moment, at this, the busiest time of its year. The Pushkar Mela is in full swing, it’s a combination of a number of festivals, including a camel fair, a cultural festival, and a religious gathering, culminating in a ritual bathing in the lake during the auspicious full moon, Kartik Purnima.

Gau Ghat, the main ghat in Pushkar. This is a very sacred place in the country, so important that the remains of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru were placed here, along with a number of other Indian VIPs. Local Hindus originally constructed a temple here to protect cows from the Mughal invaders back in the day, hence the name Gau (cow) Ghat.

People purchase these offerings to place at the temple.

Lineup for the Brahma temple. This line became impossibly packed on full moon day, the most auspicious day to do a puja (ritual offering and blessing).

The streets were crazy-packed sometimes

Chapati production line

Delicious kachori, served crushed with a serve of dahl and chilli in a bowl made of leaves. Kachori is like a deep-fried small thick flattened flour ball stuffed with lentils and other spices, or potatoes, or various other things. Served with a small wooden spatula. 100% biodegradable.

And a chai, in an old-school ceramic cup, also 100% recyclable.

There’s loads of sadhus in town, it’s an auspicious time to be here.

This legless guy was getting around on a homemade trolley.

Sugarcane juice maker. Just like at the north coast markets.

Poha

There’s a big fairground full of rides and sideshows and food stalls etc, to cash-in on the at-least half a million people who come here for the festival.

This is the undercarriage of the ride on the previous pic. It doesn’t matter that a floor panel has completely broken away, nah.

You have to throw a hoop on the blocks to win.

Elaborate balloon popping

Homemade dolls

Sand sculptures

Yeah right

I wandered away from the fairground, to the camel camps

This old guy doesn’t look well, his hide looks so damaged.

Where there’s tourists, there’s camel rides

Right in amongst the bloody traffic. Poor things.

Pushkar is basically surrounded by desert and sparse scrubland, with small hills and outcrops around the place. But the festival site has been encroaching on the desert, as more and more people turn up every year.

Kulfi is a frozen dessert made of milk and spices, kinda like icecream.

Sadhu posse, all chanting Jai Sri Ram!, which means “praise Lord Ram.” It’s a common greeting around here, and if I say it to people (which I do) I’m suddenly their friend for life immediately.

As opposed to when I don’t say it, in which case becoming their friend for life takes about 5 more seconds.

Rama is one of the Hindu deity A-listers, is featured in the Ramayana and Mahabharata, and is a reincarnation of Vishnu. He’s the embodiment of chivalry, virtue and heroics, sorta like the Rocky Balboa of Hinduism, but more stylish, and with a better vocabulary.

Sadhu camp

Selling coloured decorative rope

Temples and Bollywood

I’ve been hanging with some super interesting and nice people here in Pushkar.

Jordan’s a successful tech guy originally from Iowa, who’s created his own MBA course based around sustainability. Yeah, he’s the guy on the left. He’s inspiring, he really wants to make a difference to the planet.

Oli (German) and Jojo (Singaporean) have been living around the place for the past 7 years, and have the craziest stories.

Beautiful people, all of them.

And also beautiful is the monster in between us, whom Jojo tamed immediately, despite her terrifying growl and bark (the dog’s, not Jojo’s).

I’ve also been hangin with Gerald, a human Berliner who’s worked all over the place for the UN, and Dave, an English guy who’s also taught English in loads of countries, including Vietnam and Kazakhstan. So many interesting people. I’ve learnt loads from them.

We’ve been exploring the place together, on and off.

One arvo Jordan and I climbed this hill, to a temple. Loads of pilgrims were making the trek up. But the tourists with cash took the cable car.

The air was a bit dusty

The glitzy fairground down below

Cheap hotel

We cruised back to town and went to the aarti, the ghat puja, which happens every night at dusk, some nights bigger than others. In fact, there’s a few of them every night, at different parts of the lake.

One night Jordan and I went to the Mela Ground for a gig by Amit Mishra, a famous Bollywood superstar. The first few songs were pretty subdued, we thought it was ok but nothing special, but then suddenly he let loose and was amazing!

Everyone danced crazily, mostly on their plastic chairs. It was super fun. I almost knocked a guy off his chair in my craziness.

About ten minutes after the gig finished the Indian guy behind me handed me my phone and glasses, both of which must’ve flown out of my loose pockets during some of my elaborate bouncy dance moves. I didn’t even know they were gone.

Now that was lucky.

Him giving them back, that is.

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