|
Nowhere else but in Pushkar will you:
- See the largest human-animal gathering in a festival and every cultural spectacle thrown in.
- Watch Hindu religious ceremonies around the only known Brahma temple.
- Find countless rooftop Cafés, courtyard Cafés and German bakeries selling virtually every possible vegetarian food of the world.
 There are two Pushkars. A normal year round Pushkar is a beautiful white-washed holy town surrounding
a small lake known as Sarovar. This is a typical Hindu pilgrimage setting where nothing is out of place
despite everything looking tightly packed. Not even an overstaying westerner partly emulating a wandering
sadhu. This is probably the best place in India to buy the choicest music albums on India’s spiritual,
instrumental and fusion music. German bakeries run side by side to sweet shops selling local maalpuas.
Several ghats emanating from the street surrounding the Sarovar finally touch down the holy waters. At
every ghat is the peculiar scene of small shrines, bathing pilgrims, religious rites and priests who make
their living by being part of it all. You can watch all this unintrusively from Sunset Café at Jaipur
Ghat while sipping a full glass of black coffee. Incidentally Pushkar has several Cafés on rooftops and
in cool shaded courtyards of charming old havelies. Wandering cows, wandering sadhus, wandering pilgrims
and wandering tourists are all found on the street leading to the only known temple of Brahma- the creator.
Pushkar itself is located among the sand dunes in the Aravali range- the great geographical divide between the arid
Western Rajasthan and fertile East Rajasthan. It is its location in the very center of Rajasthan that makes
Pushkar a natural gathering point for everyone.
 Pushkar as a melting pot of communities and as a natural gathering point manifests itself into an another
Pushkar every year for ten days preceding the auspicious full moon day of Kartik month (October-November).
As if the coming together of pilgrims, tourists and sadhus was not enough. Now there many times more pilgrims,
tourists and sadhus for these days. Above all this are gypsies, farmers, shepherds, singers and entertainers.
Over the top are several thousand camels, horses, cattle and other livestock which are brought here for
trading. The venue is the huge swathe of sand dunes located just outside the holy town. People come here
from all over to either buy or sell but somehow end up entertaining others and be entertained. From giant
wheels & circus to bygone era bioscopes, everything comes up. This largest known human-animal gathering
is a soulful celebration. Also it is a fair in truest sense- the Pushkar Fair. A lot has been written about
the Pushkar fair but nothing comes closer to describing what it actually is. And probably nothing ever will.
|
