If you want to know how it feels to be on a magic mushroom trip – you must visit Pushkar. Not because magic mushrooms grow there - most of them grow down south; but because Pushkar is a blaze of color, is home to the strangest of visitors and has an innocuous charm. It is the quaintest little town I’ve ever seen and is a place where my soul can truly rest despite all the strangeness that you see around.
Walking down the narrow serpentine alley on a gloomy day all that registered on my mind was the riot of colors. The greyness of the day was lost in unique sights, distinctive taste and subtle flavor of the place. Most travel books talk about the color in Rajasthan and describe it vividly - the colorful turbans, dupattas and sarees. It was much more than just that in Pushkar, the tiny shops selling colorful scarves down the alley, the shop round the corner showing off the cheap, flashy yet colorful jewellery, the strings of bead hanging from awnings , houses with their traditional turrets and parapets painted a fluorescent green or orange- all try to make a distinct statement in a nondescript street.
Apart form the color, the other ubiquitous aspect of Pushkar is the lilting strains of Prem Joshua’s ‘Shiva Moon’ that follow you like a holy ghost. No matter which alley you visit you will always find your self drawn back to the main square and to the haunting tunes of Joshua. Joshua and Pushkar have a lot in common -- despite their contemporary experimental quality, they succeed in keeping alive the meditative quality its cultural roots.
Pushkar is a must visit place. You lose yourself in a haze of holy smoke. Most of the cafes have strange names like Moondance, Pink Floyd - and you know why the haze! A traditional Indian town suffering from a hippie hangover; sometimes you feel that traditions are only skin-deep here. Instead of ‘dhabas’ and Rajasthani eateries, you find the street dotted with German bakeries, instead of ‘chaat walas’ you find people selling apple, cinnamon, lemon and honey cakes on carts. Food in Pushkar is a true union of the west and the east. No meal is complete without mashed potatoes, felafel and fries. A pancake in Pushkar is a ‘chapati’ made of flour, soft and thin and fluffy on which you splatter dollops of Nutella or home made jam. This fusion pancake portrays the very essence of the place - fairy like it is the epitome of fusion culture.
Wandering aimlessly around the narrow alleys in the evening you are drawn towards the ghats. The entire town meets there in the evenings. Buddhist monks, Rastafarian travellers, pious Indian families - all of them congregate at the Ghats. The Ghats of Pushkar is the melting pot of all culture, religion and nationality. Every evening you can drown yourself in the most beautiful of sunsets listening to lilting strains of bhajans and Prem Joshua of course. The word lounging gets a whole new meaning at Pushkar. From the colorful alleys to the serene ghats the change in scenery at the Ghats is tantalizing. You can spend your entire evening here - enthralled, but there is also a possibility that you might step on to a moonlight rave happening on the terrace of some seedy cafe. Don’t be surprised! That’s just the beauty of Pushkar. It may take you some time to understand its soul but once you have discovered it you won’t be able to get out of the spell it casts over you.
Pushkar is a place where time often stands still. You go there for two days you will definitely end up staying for a week or want to at least. You will fall in love with the place, its people (though they are not as welcome when they realize that you are not an exotic foreigner) and its culture. For those looking for clean and slick-city experiences, this is not the place for you. A town that lives in it’s anachronistic past. Everything moves in slow motion here whether you are high or not. Every little thing happens in its own time here and this is right place to unwind ... very slowly at that. Leave your city slicker attitude behind as Pushkar is the lounger's paradise.
Walking down the narrow serpentine alley on a gloomy day all that registered on my mind was the riot of colors. The greyness of the day was lost in unique sights, distinctive taste and subtle flavor of the place. Most travel books talk about the color in Rajasthan and describe it vividly - the colorful turbans, dupattas and sarees. It was much more than just that in Pushkar, the tiny shops selling colorful scarves down the alley, the shop round the corner showing off the cheap, flashy yet colorful jewellery, the strings of bead hanging from awnings , houses with their traditional turrets and parapets painted a fluorescent green or orange- all try to make a distinct statement in a nondescript street.
Apart form the color, the other ubiquitous aspect of Pushkar is the lilting strains of Prem Joshua’s ‘Shiva Moon’ that follow you like a holy ghost. No matter which alley you visit you will always find your self drawn back to the main square and to the haunting tunes of Joshua. Joshua and Pushkar have a lot in common -- despite their contemporary experimental quality, they succeed in keeping alive the meditative quality its cultural roots.
Pushkar is a must visit place. You lose yourself in a haze of holy smoke. Most of the cafes have strange names like Moondance, Pink Floyd - and you know why the haze! A traditional Indian town suffering from a hippie hangover; sometimes you feel that traditions are only skin-deep here. Instead of ‘dhabas’ and Rajasthani eateries, you find the street dotted with German bakeries, instead of ‘chaat walas’ you find people selling apple, cinnamon, lemon and honey cakes on carts. Food in Pushkar is a true union of the west and the east. No meal is complete without mashed potatoes, felafel and fries. A pancake in Pushkar is a ‘chapati’ made of flour, soft and thin and fluffy on which you splatter dollops of Nutella or home made jam. This fusion pancake portrays the very essence of the place - fairy like it is the epitome of fusion culture.
Wandering aimlessly around the narrow alleys in the evening you are drawn towards the ghats. The entire town meets there in the evenings. Buddhist monks, Rastafarian travellers, pious Indian families - all of them congregate at the Ghats. The Ghats of Pushkar is the melting pot of all culture, religion and nationality. Every evening you can drown yourself in the most beautiful of sunsets listening to lilting strains of bhajans and Prem Joshua of course. The word lounging gets a whole new meaning at Pushkar. From the colorful alleys to the serene ghats the change in scenery at the Ghats is tantalizing. You can spend your entire evening here - enthralled, but there is also a possibility that you might step on to a moonlight rave happening on the terrace of some seedy cafe. Don’t be surprised! That’s just the beauty of Pushkar. It may take you some time to understand its soul but once you have discovered it you won’t be able to get out of the spell it casts over you.
Pushkar is a place where time often stands still. You go there for two days you will definitely end up staying for a week or want to at least. You will fall in love with the place, its people (though they are not as welcome when they realize that you are not an exotic foreigner) and its culture. For those looking for clean and slick-city experiences, this is not the place for you. A town that lives in it’s anachronistic past. Everything moves in slow motion here whether you are high or not. Every little thing happens in its own time here and this is right place to unwind ... very slowly at that. Leave your city slicker attitude behind as Pushkar is the lounger's paradise.
