Our first glimpse of it, a scene encompassing the shimmering waters of a lake amidst the hills, relieves us of the desert like an oasis that is cooling to our minds and revives our spirit.
We are replete with the historical and cultural treasure accumulated from weeks of riding our Royal Enfield motorcycle, fully exposed to the elements, through the almost featureless Rajasthani Thar desert, which is coloured by its people. Pushkar promises an altogether different experience – an opportunity to revisit spiritual India, to unwind in the company of other Westerners from all walks of life, and the possibility to admire and purchase handicrafts from all the states of India.
Wednesday, 20 February
Our haveli is painted light blue, which is quite unusual since most of the buildings in Pushkar are white-washed, adding to its pure, spiritual character. A few steps up from the narrow street and through a doorway we come to an internal, open-air courtyard with rooms all around it and an open-air bathroom. It is quite funny to see Leonard dealing with the tiny doorways, since he is over six feet tall. It is funnier still to see him moving inside the small rooms and trying to get comfortable on a five-foot-long bed.
However, he is adamant not to use the ample tourist facilities which have sprung up in Pushkar in recent years, including hotels with swimming pools. Not only does opting for the cheaper and more traditional option of staying in a haveli-cum-guesthouse make our stay feel more authentic somehow, but we also prefer not to encourage Pushkar's over-development in recent years.
Our neighbours are an American girl named Kelly and a Polish couple who are devotees of Lord Krishna. It is an extreme situation. While the Polish couple don Tulsi beads on their necks and ankle bells, wearing traditional attire like dhoti and sari, Kelly has not quite understood that she is not in Goa anymore and wears her short halter-neck top and miniskirt on her first cruise around the town. She comes back in tears. A handful of Pushkar's 15,000 inhabitants have forcefully sent her back to change into something more appropriate for this holy town!
Thursday, 21 February
Walking through the main street of Pushkar would give no indication to its sacredness. When it was discovered by the first hippies in the Sixties, little did they know that Pushkar would in time be transformed into a hub for backpackers.
As the South of India begins to get warmer, almost all travellers heading north or moving into or out of Rajasthan pass through Pushkar, which, enchanting as it is, has earned itself a reputation as a must-see on everybody's agenda. Furthermore, its atmosphere more often than not leads them to extend their stay.
Due to the influx of tourists, the main street is full of chai-shops and restaurants offering over-priced Western dishes. Luckily we discover some local restaurants offering delicious Indian meals for a fraction of the price. They lie just outside the main business area, on either extremity of a road that winds through the whole length of Pushkar, or on the outskirts of the town.
The town's main street also give insight to the unusual nature of India's general business mentality whereby, as opposed to the Western conception of avoiding competition, here all the brass shops are adjacent to each other, then all the shoe shops, and so on, making life much easier on the shopper. The central area has developed into a market place offering anything imaginable, from all parts of India, at unbeatable prices. This is a shopper's haven, a merchandising centre attracting both Indian and Western shop-owners wishing to stock up their businesses.
The square is a hang-out. One old man sits all day playing chess with Westerners. I meet one Italian guy who says that the old man played chess all day and every day even when he last visited Pushkar eight years ago!
Fresh fruit juices and lassis (yoghurt drinks) sell in this area like beer in a British pub. Incidentally, and rather sadly, due to the foreigners' influence, beer (and omelettes) may be obtained under the bench, even though Pushkar is a Brahman town, where it is illegal to sell meat, fish, eggs and alcohol.
Friday, 22 February
Pushkar is a Brahman town due to its concentration of brahmanas, the priestly class of Indian society considered the highest of the four castes. It follows that Pushkar has plenty of temples. However, the Moghul ruler Aurangzeb, who earned a reputation for destroying several important Hindu temples, also attacked Pushkar. Thus, although Pushkar's spiritual history is ancient, several of the temples have been rebuilt and are fairly new.
Pushkar boasts of its famous Brahma Temple. Very few temples dedicated to the four-headed creator god Brahma exist anywhere in the world, and a visit to Pushkar is incomplete without seeing this marvellous temple. Marble steps lead up to a silver turtle facing the four-faced deity of lord Brahma, called Chaumurti, flanked by the milkmaid Gayatri. The turtle is set in the marble floor along with hundreds of silver coins and the sanctuary has silver doors set inside carved marble.
Saturday, 23 February
Pushkar Lake is doubtlessly the highlight of Pushkar. The main street of Pushkar runs along the lake's edge, which is visible through arches on one side, ever inviting us. The beautiful Pushkar Lake is a sanctified spot, considered as old as Creation, and has been a place of pilgrimage for Hindus since time immemorial.
Pushkar means born due to a flower since, in Hindu mythology, Pushkar is the location where a lotus from the gods landed on earth. The lake is where Lord Brahma would perform rituals on Karttik Purnima, the full moon day of the Karttik month, which is around October-November.
During the four days leading up to Karttik Purninma, the 52 bathing ghats surrounding the lake are crowded with pilgrims. At any time of year though, pilgrims come to bathe in its holy waters, creating a delightful scene as women move around the ghats in colourful saris contrasting the white-washed buildings, doubled in a shimmering reflection.
Pushkar Lake is not only considered worshipful, ensuring salvation to those who bathe in it and worship at Lord Brahma's temple, but the mystical water is also believed to cure skin diseases, making Pushkar the Lourdes of the East.
Brahmans sit on the ghats ready to perform puja (worship) on behalf of the pilgrims. Flowers in floating leaf-plates are sold as offerings, and after reciting a few mantras and prayers, usually concerning the welfare of family members, a red cotton string is tied around the right wrist as witness to the puja performance.
Backpackers are a breed of their own. We sit around the opposite end of the ghats during sunset watching the sun dipping low near the hill of Savitri Temple, the still lake reflecting the beautiful scene. Some dreadlocked characters play various percussions and other acoustic instruments while others dance with fire-sticks and pois, adding colourful hippy-culture to the timeless Hindu culture. Not a moment's boredom, from whichever perspective you look at it!
Monday, 25 February
Early in the morning, we make the one-hour trek up to the hilltop Savitri Temple. We pause every now and then, either to observe the monkeys' antics, so lively at this time of day, or to take in the sight.
The air is clear and the view overlooking the lake becomes more and more spectacular with every few metres we climb. The colours of dawn fill the sky, a perfect backdrop for the silhouettes of trees perched sideways along the path. Baby monkeys huddle closer to their mothers' chests as we pass them by. A couple of goats are oblivious to our presence as they are busy ramming each other with heads down and horns forward. The air is filled with birdsong welcoming the new day.
At the top of the hill, we are surprised to find several pilgrims have already hiked up before us. This is indicated by the several pairs of shoes that lie outside the doorway of the temple. In India, every attempt is made to treat sacred areas with respect and keep them clean, and shoes are considered unclean, for obvious reasons. We follow the pilgrims in their circumambulation four times around the temple, offer a couple of Rupees to the deity and come away with yellow and orange markings on our foreheads.
Tuesday, 26 February
Leonard and I go to the roof-top of our haveli intending to enjoy the sunrise. We quickly discover that it is a rather silly idea, because the surrounding hills prevent the sun appearing until quite late in the morning when the light has long filled the sky. However, we witness an extraordinary humanity among the monkeys that live in the huge tree beside our guest-house.
Waking up one by one, the monkeys jump across to the roof-top of the haveli adjacent to ours. These are the bigger Langur monkeys, with black face, long tail and silver fur, which are very different from the red-faced, bare-bottomed, brown Rhesus monkeys that are doubtlessly more aggressive.
One mother monkey seems unwell. She leans over the edge of the building and begins to be sick. Immediately, another monkey runs up and grabs her baby from her, turning it in another direction to avoid it being disturbed by its mother's distress. Another monkey approaches the sick mother slowly, and gently puts a comforting arm on her shoulder while she continues to be sick. Eventually she pats her comforter's arm in thanks and goes to her baby, who has been playing, oblivious to everything. Leonard and I are speechless.
Thursday, 28 February
Of the several temples in Pushkar, five are most prominent. The Brahma temple's originality and the Savitri temple's location make them perhaps the favourites among tourists, however, we are keen to visit the other three to conclude our spiritual sight-seeing.
Having observed the diversity of ways in which devotees perceive the Supreme during my travels, I have developed a universal “One God with many names and different faces” ideal, so the temples nonetheless invoke something in my heart regardless of the unusual way in which Divinity is represented here.
The richly ornamented 18th century Varahadev Temple dedicated to the half-man half-boar avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu is compelling. The 12th century temple was rebuilt by the king of Jaipur after Aurangzeb destroyed it when feeling particularly offended by the image of god with the head of a boar!
The white marble deity of Mahadev of the 19th century Mahadev Temple is capturing, as is the elegant structure and décor of the temple. Meanwhile, the Ramavaikunth Temple proves to be the largest and most intricate of Pushkar's temples, built in the 1920s and sculpted with 361 different deities.
Friday, 29 February
Pushkar is also famous for its annual Pushkar Camel Fair which is held around November, bringing together thousands of people from all over Rajasthan, with thousands of animals changing hands in a few days. It is a delirious spectacle of smells, sight and sound, but only for the well-prepared, since Pushkar accommodation is sold-out and the crowds can be overwhelming. Nonetheless, it is a stunning reward for the hardy.
In this relatively peaceful atmosphere, we marvel at how this small town is so attractive to such a diverse array of people with different backgrounds and intentions: pilgrims, back-packers and business-men from all over the world. Indeed, for us it proves a sweet combination of reconnecting with spiritual India, enjoying a beautiful spot to relax, and going crazy on shopping!
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The nearest airport is Sanganer Airport at Jaipur at a distance of 146 km from Pushkar.
The nearest railway station is Ajmer 14 km away.
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Episode 30 of Melanie Drury's diary is due on 17 March
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