pushkar

pushkar, india

it was well past dark. i found myself sitting atop a concrete platform in the middle of an empty, lush valley with the rain steadily increasing over my shelterless head. i dug into my dhal, alongside the twenty college students i had just met, and wondered: how the hell did i get here? the answer is found in a simple chain of events, but sometimes explanations do not adequately capture just how bizarre reality can be.

like the griswold vacation of decades prior, there could have been a wah wah wah on the soundtrack when i arrived in pushkar. the lake of the hindu pilgrimmage town (where the indians are pilgrims and the pilgrims are indians) was almost entirely dry. as the significance of the town is found in the ritual of bathing in the sacred waters accessible by 52 ghats, this is kind of a big deal. fortunately, a few of the ghats had concrete wading pools and the hordes clad in orange have continued to come, leaving me plenty of visual stimulation for my three days here.

one of the must-do's for this town is to climb up to savitri temple, an hour above with sweeping views of the town and surrounding valleys below. yesterday afternoon, when i reached the archway just shy of this temple, about a dozen young men, many still wearing school uniforms, were sitting. i sat with them to cool off and before i knew it they were teaching me a traditional rajasthani dance set to a download played on one of their mobiles. they showed me the proper protocol in the temple, helped me avoid the monkeys that were swarming near the summit, and shared light conversation on our descent. towards the bottom, i received an invitation to their party, which i accepted.

they were students in the teacher training program at a university in nearby ajmer. based on conversation, let's just hope these are not india's english teachers for the next generation. we walked away from pushkar along the tar road that bisected the green valley, kicking rocks and making jokes along the way. about 5 km from pushkar we reached the site of their party. what they had referred to as their palace was actually a concrete water bunker, with steps leading up to the flat platform no bigger than a couple hundred square feet. we met some more of their friends and helped them finish the two bottles of whiskey, then saw indisputable qualitative data supporting the hypothesis that rajasthani's cannot handle their liquor. but while the three prime examples of intoxication sang and danced (if you can call it that), the rest of us dug into the bati (bread) and spicy dhal that the cook had prepared. so through listening to the conversation among friends, savoring the amazing meal, and being honored and pampered as an esteemed guest, i realized that if i couldn't see the sacred lake of pushkar filled with bathers, i may as well soak up my own bizarre immersion in rajasthani culture.

know your hindu deity, part 1: brahma
brahma was an active part in the creation of the world, but has been at rest since. legend has it that brahma dropped a lotus leaf on the ground and that this town, pushkar, arose (hence pushkar as the home to one of few temples dedicated to him). brahma is usually depicted as four crowned and bearded (see!) heads facing in the direction of the four points of the compass.

tourist info
for those travelers looking to buy tickets at the train station in jaipur, be sure to go to the kiosk designated for foreign tourists, journalists, handicapped, and, yes, freedom fighters. when i bought my own ticket, i wasn't asked which one i was, meaning it was entirely possible that i rode from jaipur to ajmer like so many comrades from the spanish civil war.

stereotype defeated!
always love it when a stereotype takes a tumble, especially if its mine. to date, and this is fact, i have not met any cool italians while traveling. i actually hadn't met too many to begin with, but the ones i did meet tended to be insular and traveling in groups, often clinging to their guide. plus, the whiny, primadonna nature of their world cup team from 2006 gives me enough reason to bedgrudge them. until two nights ago, that is. we shared a brief walk back from our separate dinners, but danielli seemed like a pretty cool, well-traveled guy. i haven't seen him since, but the meeting was enough to shatter one glass ceiling. israelis, you're on the clock......