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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