Tuesday 1 January 2013

The Rajasthan circuit - Pushkar Fair (cont.) - the 23rd of November 2012



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We started our morning at Pushkar by visiting the Brahma Temple said to be one of the very few dedicated to Brahma, who according to myth was cursed by his wife Savitry when in her absence  he invited a  tribal girl to take her place in an important ritual.

We were very few among the huge amount of pilgrims. Though there was nothing specifically worth photographing apart from the worshipping spirit one could easily feel, we were not allowed to take any photographs, neither were we at the next "visiting place", which ended up being a ceremony in which we participated in a rather reserved way, at one of the ghats.

As we tried to follow along the "prayers" and get into the spirit of being blessed as a Hindu priest put a holy mixture on our foreheads and a bracelet around our wrists, we managed to see quite a few pilgrims bathing in the holly ghat to remove their sins.







As many of our trip companions took to the stalls and shops Christian and I just strolled along the main road trying to "absorb" the festive, almost Carnival-like atmosphere as we headed towards the local stadium, where camel, horse and donkey  contests were supposed to take place.






































































All we managed to see were some horse-riders training themselves for the riding competitions and a few cheers from people on elephants gathered around a sort of circle, where something must have been going on, but which we unfortunately  had no access to from where we were.















It was fairly late when we drove towards Jaipur, where we were supposed to have arrived in the early afternoon, having had therefore to have the circuit schedule re-arranged one more time. It was nevertheless a different cultural experience,which gave us a thorough insight into the spirit of the Pushkar Fair, which so many of our trip colleagues had been looking for.




We got to the hotel late in the evening and tiredness made us go to bed almost immediately. The following day would be culturally "overcharged" and we had to be prepared for it.














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