Mark's Blog

I'm on holiday, for heaven's sake

I've not been blogging a lot lately, despite having lots to write about and a slew of photos to upload. This blog is at least two weeks behind my actual holiday but hey, I'm not heading into a Cybercafe every day to document my experince. I'd end up blogging about cybercafes. It also can feel too much like work for someone supposedly on holidays. Nevertheless, I'll post a quickie now just to let you know what I've been up to.

I spent some more lovely days in Pushkar, which is starting to feel like home at this stage. I'm going to do some quick write ups here and I'll attach the photos later.

A jaunt on the Mopheads

One glorious day with Shona, an English neighbour at the guesthouse, where we headed out to the surrounding villages on hired mopheads. We were greeted like rock stars at the crossroads of one village. Literally followed around by about fourty kids. It was like they all collectively had a foreign holiday for the time that we were there.

After zipping along the half finished ring road around Pushkar, we stopped for chai. The chai stand owner got chatting to us and told us about a special temple up the road, which he offered to show us. We could have dinner in his family home afterwards. Cool.

We hopped on the mopheads and drove up through two villages and a mango forest to the foot of a rocky hill. We left the mopheads and trudged up the hill for about twenty minutes, the sun had set at this stage. On the way we could hear the intoning of the worshippers echoing down the valley while our host told us that people come from far and wide to this temple to get healed. The crippled have walked, he said and a blind man was cured only last month.

When we arrived up there was a commanding veiw of Ajmer's lights spread out in the vally below. There was the sound of chants, the smell of flowers and incence. Inside the temple I could see a group of sari-clad Rajasthani women hunkered on the floor, singing in the light of the shrine's solitary oil lamp. There were shrines to Shiva and Parvati but the temple was dedicated to an avatar of Shiva who's name I can't remember.

I was asked if I had any ailments which needed curing. The only thing I could think of was this occasional rash I get under my arm, so I said "under my arm, red colour coming" to our host and he directed me into the temple. The bearded baba fixed his eyes on mine and made low guttaral sounds. He grasped my left shoulder and started to chant some mantras in a low, gravelly voice. He sprinkled some ceremonial ash on the shoulder and directed me to eat some of it and that concluded the healing. I did feel a twinge of some kind along my left side at one point. Who is to know what that was.

After a trudge down the mountain we buzzed back to our host's house on the mopheads where we were treated to some dal and chapatis, followed by some sweets. We entertained and were entertained by the kids and every baby in the place was presented to Shona to have a google at.

It took us about half an hour to get back to Pushkar on mostly empty roads. No licences, no helmets, no problem. The Indian traffic may look chaotic and scary but it actually works. You rarely see accidents and the system of beeping your horn to announce your presence does actually get cars and cows to move out of the way. You might have the odd hariy moment or swerve to avoid a dog who's decided to fall asleep in the middle of the road, but there you go.

Udaipur

It is beautiful and romantic and charming and I did take the boat out onto the lake and see the sunset from three different perspectives. Apart from the shopping (very cool hand printed textile teeshirts not available in Pushkar and some of the miniature paintings the town is famous for) and meeting some nice westerners, that was it. The hotel was great and had a mushroom gratin and tomato soup to die for. Omelettes too, after two weeks in egg-free Pushkar, that was a treat.

The Holee bonfires were alight when I was getting ready to go. The flames licked over the buildings all over the city, causing about three power cuts of five minutes each. Did they care? Nope. Just added to the experience.

I caught the night train to Ajmer with these two mad Spanish blokes who are here for three weeks. Gabbling away in Spanish with them all evening in the comparative comfort of the train. The bus journey to Udaipur had been an ass-numbing seven hours of discomfort beside a corpulent Indian woman and all her gear. We arrived in Ajmer at 4am and took a car up to Pushkar. The driver thought he was Ralph Shumaker.

That's it for the moment

I have a piece on the Governor of Rajasthan visiting Pushkar which I witnessed with an Indian Friend who spent 15 years in Ireland, setting Up Restaurants. His knowlege of Dublin's geography was better than mine (The town or milltown end of Ranelagh? he asked me). Photos later.

I've also to mention the clutch of great people who I've met here, Irish, English, German, French and Indian of course. I met a French bloke called Peter who had met Roisin Ingle, the Irish Times journalist who was writing a series on India shortly before I left. He met her in Sri Lanka. Two Irish guys, Rory and Tony, both here for a long time and loving it. Shona, who I hung out with for a few days and may cross paths with again. She's off to save the Tibetan puppies in Dharmasala.

I've also already spent four days at the barefoot college to which I'm retuning tomorrow to set up a Linux server with Sanjay, an accountant from Delhi, over a week to demonstrate Open Source as sustainable technology. I'll do at least two posts on the Barefoot college, what it's about and the things they get up to. An amazing place.

Posted by Mark at March 8, 2004 07:21 AM