If you are looking to buy a camel or a horse, head out to the Pushkar Fair to pick up a good bargain. Yes, the fair ends on November 2, but if you read this in time you may still have time to make a quick trip.
The rates of animals this year have bottomed out due to the drought in many districts. This means lesser money in people’s pockets in a year when camel feed has become dearer – costing Rs. 10 a kg or Rs. 700 a quintal (100 kgs). A typical camel requires 10-20 kg of feed a day. But didn’t we read that camels can go without food for days on end? Rubbish, say the farmers. They eat when we do.
Camels can cost anything between Rs 15,000 – 1,00,000 each depending on age, health, fitness etc. When I asked a prospective buyer from Nagaur how he judges one, he said they have ways of knowing just like I would have ways of knowing of what makes for a good photograph. A farmer from Jodhpur was offering two camels at Rs. 25,000 each, which could have easily fetched 40 per cent more the previous year. There were four one year old camels going for Rs. 15,000 each. Deva from Ajmer was selling two young horses for Rs. 35,000 each, again lower than market rates. Do horses have breeds? Of course, he said. The white one was a Sindhi, while the brown a Marwari; both these are names of communities of people in India.
Likewise, many people who has set up shop selling accessories were down and out too. Jamil, from Gwalior, was hard pressed to recover the Rs. 20,000 rent he had paid a local farmer to set up a temporary stall for a week.
For the buyers though, it was a good time to shop – even if for all the wrong reasons. Like one I met from Barmar who picked up three camels for Rs. 15,000, Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 25,000 each – about a third less than what he had budgeted. I was being offered a few; and while the offers seemed tempting, I chose to defer such purchases.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Do you need a license to keep a camel in Delhi? I’m thinking…
I doubt it Shubho…
Go ahead, get one… we will all come for a joyride on it…
there were so many who could not sell despite the recessionary prices. what was most moving is the generosity the owners who offered their meals with such warmth.
That’s right Bulbul – the hospitality of people from Rajasthan cannot be matched. There is so much warmth and hospitality that come naturally to these people.