This has been an amazing approach to all the road trips I’ve taken around the USA as well. When my family moved from New Jersey to Texas when I was 12 we went full speed along the interstates of SE USA. It was really boring. However when I began to plan itineraries as an adult I dabbled with the smaller scenic routes and realized that the speed difference is not so big. And the general store smack dab in the middle of nowheresville is much more interesting than the exit 786 rest area.
I wasn’t feeling so stimulated by Pushkar this season.
…At first.
But as my attitude was getting a bit wack I stopped myself and wondered “why?”. And I made a mental list of the things that agitate me or have lost their intriguing touch. I came to realize that I was taking the “highway” approach in forming my opinions. What I mean by this is that the main road of Pushkar, the mostly pedestrian road densely lined with shops of all sorts and several chai shops, was draining me. I’m not shopping this year. Shopping isn’t why I come to India. For many it is, and at one time it was a highlight for me in my travels. But it is no longer a priority for me. So I can point a finger of blame at Pushkar because it is so shopping oriented. But Pushkar being a shopping town is only one aspect of this village.
Realizing this, I began to purposefully avoid walking on this main shopping road as much as I could avoid it. Instead I wandered through the back village streets and alleys…passing the villager homes, children playing, laundry being hung on the line and friendly authentic greetings from locals not trying to sell…me…a thing. Wow. The energy completely shifted. Once I left the main shopping road and spent an additional 5-10 minutes to arrive at my destination…I had a head and heart filled with the images of the sweet sweet Rajasthan village. And what completely blows my mind is that I cannot recall one time while wandering in this area of the town where I walked past any other foreign tourists.
The same thing goes for the lake. Even more than my walks in the alleys of Pushkar I had redirected my itineraries alongside Pushkar Lake on the ghats. All along the main shopping road of Pushkar are ancient archways opening up to the set of stairs leading down to the lake. It is along these ghats where Brahmans travel from around the country to make puja in the holy water of the lake. Can you imagine the difference for me each morning by taking this lakeside route? Walking down the stairs, removing my shoes, slowly sauntering along, making sure not to disturb the hundreds of pigeons feasting on the seeds spread out by the pilgrims, the occasional cow or bull resistant to clear space for me to walk through the tiny doorway leading to the next ghat…
And through it exposed is a burst of many colors of saris on a large group of bathing Indian women… and on I see families praying together, pouring holy water atop each other’s heads, cupping it up to each mouth to drink and finally the afterglow in the form of flower petals spread upon the lake. Each morning after my local cart man’s Rajasthan traditional breakfast of Poha, I descend the ghat and take in the beauty, serenity and openness of the ghats of Pushkar. Here on the lake and off the “highway” I am free of the “Namaste, madam…come look my shop” or the whizzing beeping motorcycles blaring by missing me by only inches.
And again, I barely saw nary a foreign tourist during my daily walks along the ghats. I felt incredulous that I was one of the few foreign visitors that had made the discovery of so many sweet spots. But then I remembered back to my first few visits to Pushkar that the shopping and stimulating distractions of the main road were pretty freaking cool. So putting this all together in my mind, even though I am not compelled by shopping, etc., I can accept it. Plus the attraction of the main shopping road for most of the foreign tourists is great because, what I feel is the most special part of Pushkar is maintained and nearly empty from the scads of foreigners showing up each year.Every day, several times a day, I sit at various chai shops watching “the movie”, as I call it. …the cows, the dogs, the beggars, the passersby, the monkeys, the motorcycles, the interaction of the local people with each other, with the foreigners, and all the unexpected and quirky offerings India gives. Early in my 2 week stay in Pushkar I noticed a blind young man walking tentatively along the main shopping road…not begging…just making his way. He caught my eye because he appeared so calm and happy…puttering along tapping his stick along his path and maintaining a smile on his face. Then as he got closer to the chai shop where I sat, many of the local shopkeepers gave him a hard time, spinning him around to confuse his sense of direction and taunting him (not sure because they spoke in the local language). I was hard pressed to not get really defensive for him. I wanted to run up and stop them…but I remained patient with the faith in goodness in people and just watched further. The blind young man never lost his smile. In fact, it got bigger…and he sassed them back. It was actually sweet, if you can believe it. In the end he was back on his path and with a bigger grin on his face, shining his light as he walked in the dark.
After a few days I became aware that his tapping trek through the street each morning is routine. Mornings amidst in my own poha breakfast routine I came to expect him to travel by as I sipped my chai. Each day brought the same interaction with these local men and it dawned on me that this is actually a very sweet way they show each other love. This realization was touching for me because, while it is so easy to react to something we think we understand, if we place our reaction on hold and quiet our mind and really SEE… we can see a whole new light on a situation. And if this man can have so much peace and happiness when only seeing what appears as darkness, well…wow. This opens up a whole new perspective on beauty and happiness…
I feel so blessed with my two weeks in Pushkar. I had the best room in the best guesthouse, filled with the best fellow travelers under the amazing champa tree…dropping the occasional champa flower down on the sand aside the 7 large turtles who live there. My regular compadres were three sweet Maltese and the rest of the folks in my guesthouse like one large family…spending what ended up hours watching the slow motion lives of the family of turtles and marveling at even the most basic activities like walking, yawning, eating and shitting. It’s a big day at Shiva guesthouse when one of them does something as fantastic as blow bubbles from a nostril or lay an egg…Ahh, a day in the life in Pushkar.
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