Did you know that is is legal for the sadhu to smoke opium, drink it, get completely smashed in a "spiritual" state of high to bind with the heavenly beings?
Or did you know that should you accidentally knock dead a goat while driving in Rajasthan (even though the goat may had ran into you instead) that you have to marry the goat herder’s daughter? No bargaining allowed.
Yes, and did you know it was completely not unheard or unseen to get laced tea and watched many saucer-eyed travelers, dressed up in the most ridiculous hippy clothing, some running stark naked up the small religious sacred city of one of the most revered ghat in India?
Think, Nehru, Gandhi, part of their ashes were scattered in what was presently a dried up lake. For us, we took to watch the early sun rise on the hills, and soak in the sunset amidst the wide stretching Aravalli Hills, with the ashram and long-tailed gibbons hanging about.
Pushkar is one of the holiest towns, with complete adherence to the strict vegetarian diet, even no eggs! However, Pushkar was also a place competing for the precious tourist dollar and many came to “legally” get high (doing something stupid was at the abuser’s discretion, unfortunately recent records showed women were the worst perpetrators) and Pushkar was also a city that woke you up with pooja and a strange feeling of spiritual contemplation. Perhaps in the midst of such juxtaposes, I found myself thinking more of what’s and what’s not.
Pushkar was also the hiding ground for one of the head planners of last year’s Mumbai terrorist bombing of the Taj and the CBI happened to house up at our little lodging!
I saw my first homeless, how they lived, where they slept, where they communed and ran their daily lives as normal as their circumstances would allow. They seemed nonchalant about it. I bought some fantastic wood carving work by an old man, I was not allowed into a Hindu temple that was bought over by a single fanatical owner that had some unsettled issue with “foreigners”. I refrained from being forced to buy flowers and prayers. I had some fantastic vegetarian dishes since arriving in India. I learned about the table and the dholak. We shipped 15kg of things home to Australia.
I still am not sure what to make out of Pushkar. Had never been to one place that carried that much oxymoronic nuances, yet in a quiet elegant way, had never seen a city as queer and charming as Pushkar.
