India: Pushkar and Agra

From India - Pushkar

A cricket bat in Pushkar

From The Taj

Me and the Taj

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After another brutal overnight and half-day journey, my beat-up tin can of a bus pulled into Pushkar, 150 miles northeast of Udaipur, on March 25, three days after Holi. Maybe it was just because I wasn't on the bus anymore, but I immediately took a liking to the place. wikipedia says:

Pushkar means born due to a flower. In Hindu mythology it is said that the gods released a swan with a lotus in its beak and let it fall on earth where Brahma would perform a grand yagna. The place where the lotus fell was called Pushkar. It is situated 14 Km from Ajmer and is one of the five sacred dhams (pilgrimage sites for devout Hindus.) It is often called "Tirth Raj" - the king of pilgrimage sites.

Pushkar lies on the shore of Pushkar Lake. It has five principal temples, many smaller temples and 52 ghats where pilgrims descend to the lake to bathe in the sacred waters. One of the primary temples is the 14th century temple dedicated to Brahma, the Hindu god of creation. Very few temples to Lord Brahma exist anywhere in the world. Other temples of Brahma include those at Besakih in Bali, Bithoor in Uttar Pradesh, India, village asotra near balotra city of barmer district in rajasthan INDIA and Prambanan in Indonesia.

The town sits on the shore of a small lake, and it is packed with temples, some big, some small. Along the banks of the lake are 50 ghats where pilgrims go to bathe in the sacred waters. One of the main temples, from the 14th century, is dedicated to Brahma, the Hindu god of creation. Apparently it is one of the only Brahma temples in the world. the reason why goes something like this:

Brahma wanted to perform the yagna at the most auspicious time but his consort Savitri whose presence at the yagna was vital for its performance kept him waiting. Irritated by this Brahma married Gayatri, a milkmaid and installed her instead. Savitri on seeing someone else in her place was infuriated and cursed Brahma that he would be forgotten by people on earth and never worshiped. She relented on pleas from other Gods that he could only be worshiped in Pushkar, hence there are no Brahma Temples elsewhere.

so there you go. it's a very calm, serene place-except for the wild monkeys-but there is also this strange sort of carnival-esque atmosphere floating on the air, because of all the lively ceremonies and colorful pilgrims and holy men wandering around. Every night there is a parade through the center of town; dozens of people carrying lights all on long wires and rolling a diesel generator on wheels behind a large float of some pudgy Brahmins and a Sun God deity of some unidentified sort, with a small ragtag band marching in front. the first time I encountered this procession, I was totally caught off guard, just walking down the street and then suddenly I'm surrounded by dancing ponies and a crushing mass of people. another foreigner nearby saw me taking pictures and said "You are really lucky, you know, this only happens once a year. Take a lot of good ones." then, when the parade happened again the next night, and every night after that until I left, I got the joke.



I made friends with the band. Sweet keyboard, eh?

I stayed at a hotel called Mount Everest that was run by a very friendly old Indian man. He offered me a cup of chai when I checked in, and we ended up talking for awhile about Texas (he was a big Houston Rockets fan). His nephew helped him run the place and was also really nice. I had some real hassles with my guesthouses in Udaipur and Jaipur, and started to expect the same for the rest of my trip, so this was a pleasant change.

Met several good people during my stay, including a Dubliner named Niall and an Israeli girl named Aya, both of whom I would end up traveling with several times later on in my trip. One day, the three of us forced ourselves out of complacency (which sets in quickly in Pushkar) and climbed up to a nearby mountaintop temple. There were monkeys. The view was sublime.



On my first day in Pushkar I was a little perplexed by the factt that every other restaurant on the main street seemed to specialize in Falafels and Laffa, often with giant signboard menus in Hebrew, and I was constantly getting 'Shalomed' by the shopkeepers who thought I was Jewish. This was my first experience with what my Israeli friends dubbed "the Hummus Road": certain places in the subcontinent that are super popular with Israeli backpackers, most of them having just finished their military service. And let me tell you, when Israelis decide that a certain place is worth visiting, man, they really take it over. A few of the Israelis that I became friends with actually complained about it, saying they felt like they might as well be back at home. I didn't really care though, I was just ecstatic that I finally had another option besides Indian food (not that I dislike Indian food, I love it, but a little variety is nice, ya know?), and while I was there I took full advantage. After 4 memorable days in Pushkar, I was forced to move on by the vastness of the subcontinent and my relatively short time within it.

So I headed east, to Agra and that big tomb you might have heard about, the Taj Mahal. Truth be told, I wasn't dying to see it, but I didn't want to deal with the countless conversations back home of "Wait...you went to India and you didn't go to the Taj Mahal????" Just one of those boxes you have to check off here. (Another reason I was hesitant to go was the price of admission. Fifty cents for Indians, $20 for Foreigners.) But it was worth it. A really sublime piece of architecture. I got there around 5am, just in time to witness a perfect sunrise delicately paint the Taj light shades of orange and pink.




I spent several hours walking around the complex (and met a big family from Austin! that was really nice, made me very homesick. the grandma in the group offered to call my parents for me when she home to tell them I was doing okay. I thought that was so funny), then I came down with my first case of 'Delhi belly', and spent the rest of the day moaning on a rock hard mattress in a cinder-block hut that I paid 40 Rupees for at a hotel that had seen much better days, near the train station.

After 6 hours of misery, I started feeling better, and got out of there as quickly as I could, jumping on an overnight train east to the holiest of cities: Varanasi...