The Mayhem (otherwise known as the Pushkar Camel Fair)

We arrived in Pushkar at around 3:30 in the afternoon. Pushkar is essentially a small village about 12 km outside Ajmer. Once a year there is a festival held there. The festival is twofold. It started out as a gathering to sell camels and horses. Of course, it has now become a tourist attraction. The other part of the festival is that the last day coincides with the first full moon after Diwali. As this village contains a holy lake, many Hindus make a pilgrimage to this place on that day. Between the camel sellers and buyers (not to mention all the camels), the devout Hindus, and everyone else who has come along to see all this madness, it is quite a crowd!

The first afternoon was mostly spent trying to navigate the crowds and find ourselves a couple of rooms (after we got some tea, of course). Once that was accomplished, we could relax, get some dinner, and check out the festival. We found the fairground, which was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel. There were people everywhere, there were camels, there were camel carts, there was a ferris wheel and other rides, there were people selling everything imaginable, and there were Punjabi dancers. It was amazing!

The funny part was that through all these incredible things to look at everywhere, everyone seemed to think that I was the most interesting spectacle to look at of all. An interesting thing about India is that it isn’t rude to stare. People will stand right in front of you and stare at you. They have no qualms about it. Sometimes (but only occasionally) if you stare back, they will look away. Almost always, if you smile, they will smile back. I was watching the Punjabi dancers, the row of people in front of us were turned around staring at me.

The next day, we got up early to check things out. We had obtained a schedule of events which started with cow milking at 6. We felt comfortable skipping that, but wanted to check out the next event which was wrestling at 8. We got to the fairgrounds at 8:30 because everything here runs on Indian Standard Time (which means nothing is even close to on time). The wrestling hadn’t started. Poppa, Jigar, and I found seats in the shade so we could watch all of the goings on around us. Alan was really excited so he went to go check everything out.

There were some fun events. We saw a parade of camels. There was a matka race (which is when the women carry a matka – a clay water pot – on their heads and race with it). There was a show of small children who were contortionists. There was musical chairs. There was a matka breaking contest – which Alan participated in. It was foreigners against Indians. There were two matkas strung high above the ground. The team that could get to their matka and break it first won. The Indians won, but they gave each of the foreigners a trophy and a certificate of appreciation for participating. The wrestling finally started at about 12.

Since the sun is strong in India, there are no events in the afternoon. We took the opportunity to have some lunch and rest before heading back to the fairgrounds in the evening.

The next morning, Poppa arranged for us to go on a camel ride. It was an odyssey across the desert. We got to see the entire fair, which is much bigger than we realized. We saw the camel sellers and the camels. We saw the horse sellers and the horses. We saw the ladies in the traditional Rajasthani dress. We saw all of the shops and food vendors who were there to sell to the camel sellers and horse sellers. And we got to see all of this from a camel’s eye view. It was definitely the highlight of the fair so far.

That night we skipped the mela (which is what Indians call the fair). On the final night 250,000 people come into this already overcrowded village in anticipation of bathing in the holy lake on the day of the first full moon after Diwali. We decided to take a break and stay at our hotel. We ordered room service (Chinese food, Indian style) and played cards.

The final morning, we made our way through the crowd. Suddenly, our friend Alan felt a very slight brush against his pocket. Sure enough he had been pick pocketed. He reacted quickly by grabbing the boy next to him. Alan started yelling that the boy had his wallet. The boy feigned ignorance for a minute or two. Then he dropped the wallet at his feet and pretended that it had just fallen there. Jigar grabbed the boy and slapped him a couple of times (that’s the Indian way). The boy acted as if he didn’t know anything about the wallet. In the end, the police took him away. It was an adrenaline producing start to our day.

We finally made it to the mela around 9 just as the events were starting. The fairground, which previously had been filled to about 10% of its capacity, was spilling over with people. There were people sitting on the tops of the walls and in the trees. We tried to get in the VIP entrance, but the police told us that you had to have special passes to get in that way. They directed us to the next entrance. It was packed. And I mean packed. As we pushed through the crowd, I had visions of stampedes and I remembered every headline in the paper that mentioned people dying in the crush of the crowd. But we were experiencing a real Indian mela, the way the Indians experience it.

The events began. The last day is a recap of the events of all of the previous days. The first one was a procession of the people in traditional Rajasthani dress followed by decorated camels. Poppa has a habit of making friends with people everywhere we go. Sometimes that habit has benefits. When we first arrived in town, he befriended a policeman. About twenty minutes into the mela, Poppa spotted this policeman. We made our way over to him and he escorted us to the VIP section. There were chairs there and A LOT less people. It made watching the mela a lot more fun.

There was a camel race, parasailing, an award for the cow who gave the most milk (45 liters!), and a matka race. They needed foreigners for the matka race so I volunteered. You run part way, pick up the matka (clay pot filled with water), put it on your head, and run the rest of the race. The trick was there 16 women and 15 matkas. I got a matka, got it on my head, and finished the race. But I broke the matka when I put it down! That event was won by the locals.
Attending my first Indian mela, was quite an experience. I have never seen so many people all in one place. And I quickly realized that the beauty of India is not in the landscape or the shows they put on. The beauty of India is the people. The saris and the heartfelt smiles are India’s true beauty.

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The Palaces of Udaipur

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After being in India for a couple of weeks, I felt like I had adjusted a bit. The surreal traffic, the children begging for money for food, the smell, the bright, beautifully colored saris on the women that glitter like jewels in the sun, the sumptuous flavors of the food that bring your mouth to life... I felt like it was all becoming a little more "normal". I was ready to venture out of Ahmedabad to see a bit of the rest of India.

Our friend, Alan, who we met on the diving trip we took at the Great Barrier Reef, was planning to come meet up with us in November. We told him that the Pushkar Fair was November 10th-14th so, if he could, he should try to make it before then. He flew in on the 7th. We left the morning of the 8th.

First, we drove to Udaipur in Rajasthan. It is about a 4 hour drive from our house in Ahmedabad. We got there about lunch time so we stopped for a thali. Technically, a thali is a big silver plate, but it is also the name of a traditional meal served on that plate. The large plate has 4 or 5 small bowls on it. Servers walk around with different containers of food and constantly fill the bowls with different dishes and supply you with fresh roti and chutneys and rice and sweets and anything else you can possibly think of. It is a bit stressful because every time you turn around, they are there to fill up those little bowls. And you have to eat everything. You can't waste food in India where you walk outside and see people starving on the street. You have to be pretty vigilant to fend off these guys who are always at the ready to give you some more subgee (vegetables). The food is so good, but it is pretty easy to overeat.

As we left the restaurant, we met a guy who offered to be our guide for the rest of that day and the following day for 150 rupees (about $3). We agreed and he took us around to some of the sites of the city. We saw the Monuments of the Kings, which are monuments to the kings and queens of Udaipur. The monuments are built on the exact location where the ruler was cremated so they are just kind of scattered around a field. Some are clumped together and some are more set apart. Each one is built by the eldest son of the man or woman the shrine is dedicated to.

We took a little detour by an art shop and then we went to the Monsoon Palace. The art studio was neat, but it is a bit impractical for us to be carrying around paintings so we left empty handed… much to the dismay of our guide. We made it to the Monsoon Palace for sunset (which was our plan). The palace was never finished so it isn’t much to see, but it is on top of a hill and affords a magnificent view for the sunset.

While touring the palace, Poppa (Jigar’s dad) decided that Alan needed an Indian name – since Poppa had decided Alan should marry an Indian girl. Alan was renamed Arvind, I became Jaya, Jigar was renamed Jay (I’m not sure why he needed a new name), and Poppa became Uncle. Any time anyone used our old names, he or she was supposed to pay Poppa $1. Meanwhile, Poppa tried to convince Irvind that it wouldn’t hurt to meet some nice Gujarati girls back in Ahmedabad… He could be married by the end of the month!

We left the palace in search of “ick cutting” (that means one cutting of tea – or about half a cup) and a hotel room. We knew the names of a few hotels we wanted to check out. We got them from Alan’s Lonely Planet. But our guide didn’t want to bring us there. He was becoming less and less cooperative by the minute! Finally, after a harrowing ride through the alleyways of the Old City which was not designed for a Honda to pass through, let alone two way traffic, Poppa found us a beautiful hotel. The rooms were spotless and really nicely decorated. Our room didn’t offer a view of the lake place, so it was Rps. 600 per night (about $12 which is pretty expensive for India). We told our “guide” not to bother coming back the next day.

In the morning, we went to the City Palace. We weren’t sure what to expect, but it ended up taking up most of the day. It was really nice. It is the ancestral home of the royal family of Udaipur. Alan and I learned a lot about the history of Rajasthan, including the story of Maharana Pratap and Chetak. Chetak was a horse who was so fiercely loyal to his owner that he jumped across an entire river to save his life. Chetak did save Maharana Pratap’s life, but, sadly, Chetak himself didn’t survive.

At one point, I finished looking at everything in the room we were in before everyone else. I wandered into the next room and found a place to sit down and wait. Soon after, I noticed a group of Indian ladies gathered nearby. They were whispering and seemed to be pointing at me. Then some of them came over and sat down next to me on the bench and others stood behind me. Then someone started taking pictures of us! This was my first brush with my Indian fame. They love white people! The Indian people just love having their pictures made with me. Alan had a similar experience when a group of young men approached him and asked to have their picture made with him. It is an interesting phenomenon to become an overnight pseudo-celebrity.

The palace was a fun day. Especially since Jigar remembered going there as a child. In the early afternoon we headed out for Pushkar. The camel fair awaited us!