The one with the Baba's of Pushkar!

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Pushkar.... "Brahma dropped a lotus flower on the earth and Pushkar floated to the surface", or so the stories say..... The small hindu Pilgrimage town is a serene oasis of shops, temples and holy men. The town is built around the "Magically Magnetic" lake.... but due to 'refurbishments' there was no lake for me to be drawn too... although the empty hole left was still pretty spectatcular! The ghats surrounding drawing everyone in with their spiritual air, temples line the steps and the array of different rooftops, domes, spires and hilltops decorate the bright blue sky line. This is Pushkar!

I arrived midday on the Sunday after a long and early train journey from Udaipur... thankfully I had a couple of Brits to keep me entertained, the volume of their london accents also stirred the rest of the carriage which we found quite entertaining! I left them in the town... their want for a luxury hotel with swimming pool didn't quite suit my budget and so I managed to find a lovely room the otherside of town for a fraction of the price. Perfect! My first afternoon was beautiful... I roamed the ghats, taking in the locals going about their daily blessings. Over the bridge I was beckoned over to two Baba's (Holy Men) who were sat chilling eating roasted Chenna (chick peas) dressed in their orange attire, turbans sat proudly on their heads, their sunglasses magnificently retro.... I went and sat with them, pulling out my own little bag of Chenna and adding it to the mix. Communication was difficult what with them knowing little English and me knowing no Hindi "Tola Hindi" (Little Hindi) I would say and they smiled sympathetically. They tried to communicate through actions that they enjoyed meditating, that their temple lay a few feet behind one of the ghats. They granted me permission to take their photo as long as I printed it off and brought them a copy, I was happy to make a deal and so thanked them for their hospitality and went on my way to another temple. Everyone I passed greeted me with a warm smile which made mine stretch even further. Inside another tenple another two, younger, holy men invited me to sit with them as they smoked away at a chillum.... it's perfectly legal for Holy men to smoke Marijuana as it enables them to reach enlightenment.. you don't say (!?) So I sat and watched them smoked their lungs on fire, both inhaling the think smoke harder each time as I snapped away with my camera.... they were keen to see the results and how much smoke they could then exhale. They weren't as impressed with the photo's where I captured the painful expression on their face as they tried to keep it down, and so hacking up their lungs in a delightful manner! Highly entertaining! They then allowed me into their temple, up onto the roof to get a beautiful panoramic view of the town, to see their statues to the God's, their living area based around their main shrine to Shiva... their little beds of a small straw mattress and a few blankets a beautiful sign of the simplistic way of life their live. I thanked them for their kindness and offered to return with copies of the photo's I'd taken as a thank you, they seemed grateful with the suggestion. Around the corner I bumped back into my first original Baba's as they sat outside their temple with various other men.... they once again beckoned me over with the greeting of "Friend, Friend sit sit!"... I sat and watched them chat amongst themselves, often about me as they looked, gave me the once over and continued with their discussion.... They then asked me to take a few more photo's and so I became their personal photographer for half an hour... taking photo's of them sat around, other people working to make rennovations to the temple, their prize cow and calf. It was hilarious, the poses given, the want for just one more photo, the two women buily shovelling cement in their magificent saree's posed hidden behind their veils in a fit of giggles. It was a wonderul half hour, which unfortunatley forced to an end as my battery threatened to die. I promised my return said my goodbye and went back on my way around the ghats. I stopped a few more times to watch a group of boys attempt to regain their ball from one of the baths, a mass of locals offering blessings to the ghats where some water was still held... the colur of different flowers, sweets and towers of powder decorating every inch of the concrete structure. Back at my hotel I sat on the rooftop and watched the lightshow that was the sunset, epic as always, giving a new magical light over the town and the children who flew their little paper kites from the rooftops. I finished my evening eating a falafel wrap on a street stall watching the world go by... and that was all in my first afternoon!

Monday was spent raiding the shops.... oh so many shops. Oh my poor bank account hehe.... shops selling scarves, shawls, pantaloons, bags, leather books, dangly things to hang from the walls, wall hangings.... and so much more! I dotted from one shop to another, running my fingers over the different textures and surfaces, treating my eyes to the pretty things... it was all too much, thankfully night fell and I was able to put my purse away for the evening... treating myself to a tasty pizza and an early night. Shopping is tiring... especially when one man provides you with chai and tells you that you're his sister, in order to get the sale. He even took a great liking to one of my rings and refused to take it off, saying that I should give it to him as a gift, as I was his sister... then he decided his daughter was the same age as me and so I was in fact his daughter and so should come back tomorrow with gifts for both him and his daughter. Right... so I clenched the deal on some wall hangings and hurried out noting to myself to avoid his shop the next day!

My final day in Pushkar reflected the mood here... relaxing! I'd printed off the photos and so returned to the two temples to deliver them... the men at the temple of the elder Baba's all got incredibly excited over the photos and hurried me into the temple and over to a mass of blankets that calmly moved up and down with the Baba's sleepy breathing... I felt rude that they'd woken him on my terms, but he seemed more than happy to greet me (to be fair it was midday) and told me to sit on the edge of his bed as he looked through the photos. Others came in a bowed at his feet, giving some money to him and then to the Shiva temple... it was then that I realised that this Babas is highly respected and with that I was overwhelmed with how priviledged I was to be there. Chai was brought in and we sat slurping noisily out of respect as the Baba once more looked through the photos a proud smile spreading on his face. We then tried onece more to communicate about meditation, he chanted 'Om' to me several times and approved of my (new) Om pendant hanging from my necklace.... he then decided he wanted to teach me the Hindi alphabet and so wrote it all down for me including my name in Hindi.... Although spelling it 'Sali'- an actual Hindi word meaning my 'brother's wife'. Once I'd finished my chai, thanked the Baba once more and said my goodbyes I went on to the other temple, to pass on the photo's to the younger Holy Men... suprise suprise their doors were closed and I imagine they were still asleep, so slipped the photos under the door. Quietly slipping past my Indian 'brother-father' shop door unnoticed and back to my hotel for lunch before heading to the bus stop to catch my overnight sleeper bus. Whilst waiting for the bus a friendly local who liked to be called "John" sat and spoke to me about the ways of the world, religion and maintaining a hotel in Pushkar... he sat there teaching me useful phrases in Hindi where we laughed and joked over my poor pronunciation. He showed me to the correct bus stop where I met a few other friendly travellers... two aussie boys in particular who kept me highly entertained for the first leg of the journey before we changed buses for the second leg to Agra... where I found myself in my own little booth/bed wrapping up in my new wooly shawl where I attempted sleep for the journey!

The next leg of the adventure.... one of the wonders of the world- The Taj Mahal, another wonder of my world meeting back up with the beautiful Anna Banana and her Pa, Delhi and the revolving restaurant!

Love to everyone!

Lessons Learnt:
The international language of smiling goes a long way.
Hindi words such as... err... let me fish out my notebook 😉
Simple living is a simple pleasure.

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Comments

[Praky]

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