We are on our last tour day in India, in Pushkar where the camel festival reigns. The fragrance of dust, diesel, incense, patchouli, and dung. The sounds of Indian pop music, finger cymbals, motorbikes, horns, drums, and touts selling every kind of ware not needed by anyone in their proper senses. Paisley, henna tattoos, tie die t-shirts, sandals, batik, and even bell bottom jeans. Pushkar is northern India hippie paradise. Almost the entire route around the lake, about 2 miles, is packed with sights, sounds, and scents of the Haight Ashbury of old in a very third world manifestation.
Last night was a celebration of something unknown to me. The entire lake was circled with tiny oil lamps. Musicians and drummers competed in every nearby street. The crowds swirled and surged in time to the beat. The puja touts push flowers into any open hand expecting payment for the derived blessings. The henna touts stamp brown inked designs on bare skin the demand payment for their services. Beggars with warped and abbreviated limbs slither on bellies, balanced on caster boards, shaking metal bowls of coins with a tiny hope for two more - one for them and one for the beggar master who rules the lane. The air pounded with aerial explosions. Fireworks burst into the night sky with a fantastic display of amazing duration. A supreme finale.
Tonight we board the overnight sleeper train for Delhi. We don't look forward to 36 hours of thick brown smog. Only one more night there, then a day to catchup any last minute items before the 5 hour in advance trip to the airport.
This may be my last email from India to all of you. There will be one more in a week or two or three with pictures. Until then, Namaste!
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Michael & Susan Kuhn
Trip email: indiaadventure2007@gmail.com
Trip blog: www.indiaadventure2007.blogspot.com
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