February 12, 2004
Pushkar Raj (with photos)
It's been a week since I set out from Ireland. It's been pretty frenetic up till now but things are shifting down a gear. Slower pace, no rush, four months. Own place by the lake
I've just finished a bout of shopping over the past three days. Luxurious Rajasthani wall hangings, silk and pashmina scarves, saris, crochet tops, mala beads, ethnic cushion covers, bags, tee shirts. Hopping from one trader to the next, haggling for the best prices. It's better to get this done now so that I can relax and have the shopping behind me. Also a good way of settling in. In about a month, ten kilos of goodies will arrive to Ailish's library in the Department of Finance, all neatly parceled up. I'll ask her to send a few pressies around before I get back.
I took the camera for a walk today, here's some photos to show you. Again, this may take a while to download.
We'll start in my new little cottage, out on the western part of towm, being rented for a pittance. This will be my base for travelling around the area over the next month. Also, the festival of Shiva Ratri is coming up in about a week, that's when all the sadhu's in the area will descend on Pushkar and fill the place with their shenanigans.
Here's a photo of the other side of my cottage. There's a French baba staying there. A long time India traveller, he has all the setup of a sadhu. He makes dal and subji by the fire and excellent lemon and ginger tea. We were up last night till all hours listening to music & chatting. French and Israelis there, some of them had english. This is Fatou's little enclosure and only his friends get to stay here. It's guarded against anyone else except residents and freinds staying.
This is the view as I stoop to step out the door of my little hut. It's the Brahma temple at Pushkar. The only Brahma temple in india. Apparantly the god Brahma annoyed his goddess of a wife, so she put a curse on him that he would only ever be worshipped in one place -- you're looking at it.
There are plenty of Hindu tourists up at that end of town, as well as westerners. With the little Hindi I've learned since getting here, I've been watching the natives haggle to get a sense of the real prices of things, rather than the tourist prices. A little Hindi goes a long way when your'e haggling. The traders assume that if you know some Hindi, then you've probably got an idea of how much things really are and all of a sudden, twenty percent has come off the opening price.
This is Nina, from Reunion Island (a French protectorate off the coast of Madagascar.) She's a neighbour who's working for her keep at the Sai Baba Restaurant at the other end of town.
You could just sit and look all day.
The bustling main bazaar, mammon's den. Just try walking down here without being 200 rupees lighter at the other end.
The monkeys just hang out by the lake along with the Babas, they're quite tame, and even polite.
This baba is one of many that ply their trade in "pushkar puja". If you're not already wearing a coloured peice of string on your left wrist (which I am) the will inveigle you down to the lakeside where you'll go through ablutions and anointings and intonings by the holy water. You'll then get relieved of cash for the pleasure, despite them saying that money wasn't important at all to them on the way down. Fair enough, I see it as a kind of rent for my space on the lake while I'm here. I love that chilled out cow in the background.
More monkey business.
These two were grooming each other, then had a bit of a tiff. I think the monkeys must be in heat since one photo I took earlier on had them "playing" with each other. This is a family blog, though, so I didn't post it.
A small Shiva shrine by the lake, complete with statue of Nag, the great serpent.
Two pandits take a read of the paper in the shade in their shop.
Efforts to contact Bunker from The Barefoot college came to naught today, but I got his own number, rather than the general number of the college, So I'll try again tomorrow. I hope to start music lessons soon with a teacher based very close to the guesthouse garden.
I'm off to freshen up before heading out for more illicit beer tonight (alcohol is prohibited in Pushkar's holy city, as are eggs and meat) with the first paddy who I've met here. Paul, from the people's republic of Cork, has been travelling through south east asia and is blogging it too. I'll post a link to his blog when I get it. There's a good scene in the rooftop restaurant of the "Pink Floyd" hostel, where all the rooms are called after Pink Floyd's songs.
A plus tard ..
Posted by Mark at February 12, 2004 11:22 AM