A Million Hindus Can't Be Wrong

Pushkar: where a million people come to party… without alcohol. The annual Pushkar fair is a seven-day event. The first five days are centered around the trading of cattle and camel races and the last two are devoted to deep spiritual worship. The full-moon of November is when Brahma created the world. It’s actually a very long and involved story (cows get a shout-out), and quickly gets very complicated and confusing. In other words, the Hindu creation story is a lot like modern India: chaotic. The town is arranged in a semi-circular arch around a small lake. In the center of town, facing the lake is the temple to Brahma. During the two days of the full moon, people come down to the lake to bathe and pray. Molahti (our guide) says that bathing once in the waters at Pushkar is worth ten times bathing at Varanasi. Up until now, I had not realized that there was a point system. In any case, about a million people take advantage of the 10-for-1 offer and descend on this town of 40,000 each year. Since there are obviously not enough accommodations for everyone, tent cities spring up everywhere in the countryside surrounding the town and the lake. Our little tent village is nicer than some most.

Because our camp is a couple of kilometers from town (and it’s 90 degrees), we have to take camels, or camel carts into the fair. I have never been this close to this many camels before. You begin to notice differences in them – some are definitely cuter and nicer than others. They actually have very soft fur, and the like to be petted (at least the nice ones do).

At the fair, it is shoulder-to-shoulder humanity. Most of the women (and some of the men) wear very bright and ornate outfits. This would be a great place to get some good people pictures, except that everyone is shoulder-to-shoulder and there is very little room to maneuver a camera. I tried my best.

We are now in Ranthambore (the tiger park). This is gonna be cool!