From the category archives:
Dial 9799115956 for a camel in Pushkar, Rajasthan
This photograph was taken at the Pushkar Camel Fair in Rajasthan where these animals are brought for trading. The number tattooed on the camel may be a good idea to identify it but one question comes to mind: After it is sold by the owner, does this mobile number go as a part of the package? 
Click on the image for a larger view.
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Jaisalmer is at the edge of the Thar Desert close to the Pakistan border. One would be well served to book inside the Fort – one of the few places where people still live within a fort and offer tourists an experience unmatched for it’s charm and timeless beauty.
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Farmers sipping tea at night in Pushkar in Rajasthan during the Camel Fair
This image was taken late night in Pushkar in Rajasthan during the Camel Fair. These farmers, like thousands of others, would have come to the town to buy or sell animals (camels and horses mostly). After a hard day’s work, they are sipping tea at a roadside stall – just a few hours before this, there was barely space in the street behind to even move around with devotees in hundreds of thousands also coming during this period for a holy dip in the town’s lake. Click on the image for a larger view.
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The Jaisamand Lake (also known at the Dhebar Lake) is an idyllic place to visit if one has the time as it is a short 50kms away from Udaipur. This lake was built in the 1600s when Maharan Udai Singh built a dam on the Gomti River. It is the second largest artificial lake in India.
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We entered Udaipur at dusk after a satisfying visit to Chittaurgarh. Udaipur is known by many monikers - the Venice of the East, City of Lakes, the most Romantic destination in the country etc.. We cannot wait. As the sun sets, we can see the outlines of the Aravali range leading us into Udaipur.
We had booked ourselves in Lake Pichola Hotel – affordable, yet on the banks of Lake Pichola. We navigate through some pretty narrow streets to get to the hotel and check in (We did not take our cars out for the next few days). We got rooms literally next to the lake. We were thrilled at hearing the lake water gently lap the parapet wall, right outside our rooms.
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f70_ZO7L_Ks[/youtube]
This video was made at the Purani Subzi Mandi (old vegetable market) in Udaipur in Rajasthan in India. With most stalls run by women, it seems people are out to shop here all the time.
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One of the perks of being a travel writer is you get to meet characters you did not even know existed. Including Kikasso the artist in Pushkar.
The only Sikh I met in Pushkar, he says he has been painting since 1970. But he has had careers in the Army as a wireless operator from 1972-1978 and as a cashier in Syndicate Bank after that before taking voluntary retirement in 2000. It was then that he decided to pursue his ambition of being an artist full time. [continue reading…]
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Phool Chand Bhatt pursues his ancestral profession of making puppets for both sale and to put up shows. He lives in Jaipur, but travels to wherever opportunity calls. Like to the Pushkar Camel Fair where he sets up shop for a fortnight every year.
He is one of the many who take a shop in the market for Rs. 5,000-10,000; these would typically be tailoring or grocery shops rest of the year. He sells his puppets starting at Rs. 100 a pair going up to a few thousand. The expensive ones come with proper strings for all parts to move. He also has some very old ones: he collects these from other performers in villages who have decided to give up this profession. There are many he buys for 30-35 Euros to sell for 100-150 Euros to foreigners. [continue reading…]
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Chittaurgarh was not a planned trip. Our original plan of visiting Jodhpur was put on hold and our destination was changed to Udaipur when we found out that Lake Pichola was brimming with water. This was in October ‘05. Thanks to the incredible State Highway between Kishangarh and Udaipur , we had to pass by Chittaurgarh! Chittaurgarh was a last minute decision to visit when we learnt that this was the largest fort in India. Chittaurgarh is 120kms east of Udaipur.
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The process of buying and selling animals at the Pushkar Camel Fair is a regulated affair. All animals entering the fair grounds are issued a receipt; these need to be produced when the animal is sold.
At the end of all trading, the Government also issues a Safed Chitthi, a kind of a sale deed between the buyer and seller. And these have to be produced at checkposts as proof that only bonafide owners are in possession of animals. There have been incidents when animals have been stolen at night; after all, everyone sleeps in the open during the fair. People usually take turns staying awake to ensure their animals are safe. These receipts also serve as a record of the volume of trade each year, and the value commanded by the animals. [continue reading…]
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Events like the Pushkar Camel Fair are also a time to display special skills – with some bravado thrown in. Take the acrobats and an 11-year old girl dancer, Manjari.
While the acrobats were getting into position, the young girl was introduced as an exponent of Ghoomar, a traditional Rajasthani dance. Her claim to fame according to the show host? She is capable of taking 2,000 revolutions while dancing when normal people would tire after just a few. And off she went…1, 2, 3…by 25 she was looking like she would fall under the harsh sunlight. [continue reading…]
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Camel racing is a popular sport in rural Rajasthan, and it was only fitting to include the event at the Pushkar Camel Fair. However, dollops of amateurism was added to the event when foreign tourists were invited to race the camels. Of course, they could scarcely be expected to make these species walk, let alone run. They were thus allowed a local to ride pillion and be the actual ‘driver.’ [continue reading…]
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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. [continue reading…]
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Who came first: the chicken or the egg? What happened first: Jodhpur’s Omelette Shop becoming famous or the coverage in Lonely Planet making it so?
The shop, opened in 1974 by Ram Kishen, is one busy shop. Selling a thousand eggs a day, half of them as omelletes and the rest boiled. Spiced to taste, with our without slices of bread, these cost as little as Rs. 10-15 (20-30 cents) a portion. It opens at 10 am, and closes just before midnight. Go at peak hours and Ram Kishen will have no time to talk to you. The clientele are mostly travellers in the day, and locals in the evening. [continue reading…]
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If you are an Indian, a sweet tooth has to be a part of your anatomy. With taste buds allocated specially to Indian sweets made of milk, sugar and other flavourings.
That is why the mawa business is so big in the country. A key ingredient for most Indian sweets, the Mawa Bazaar located just off the Banthiyon Ka Chowk in Bikaner is the biggest wholesale market for mawa in Rajasthan after Dholpur according to Laxmi Narayan Raj Purohit, one of the vendors. Made from cow milk around Bikaner, and buffalo milk around Dholpur, villagers make these at home and sell through wholesalers. A drop of poisonous hydro gives it the solid, granular look; current prices when I checked were Rs. 80 per kilo at the retail level. The distributor would have bought it for Rs. 74, the difference being his profit. [continue reading…]
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Bikaner can get anorexics to start questioning their own resolve. The city is full of food, all in your face, being prepared afresh and looking so sumptuous that you may have little choice but to try it all.
Take your pick from kachoris, samosas, jalebis and ghevar straight from the frying wok. Or choose from all kinds of Indian sweets and savouries from menus that read more like encyclopedic compilations rather than offering of a single eatery. Go a level below and join the crowds ordering hot dogs and tikkis simmering in oil. [continue reading…]
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Someone needs to send Wee Willie Winkie to put the people of Bikaner at bed on time. They simply don’t want to call it a day – keeping their bazaars bustling with activity till late into the night.
Not that travellers would complain. It just means more to do and see; beats retiring to the hotel early. So you have men getting a shave at ten in the night, while some others try out the traditional Rajasthani shoes or Kolhapuri Juttis. You could buy stone mortars and pestles in various shapes and sizes from a roadside vendor, or buy lingerie from a shop called Shanti (meaning peace, wonder where?). Another shop, Matching Point, promised to match silken laces with lingerine for women. [continue reading…]
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When in Jaisalmer, do pay a visit to Doctor Bhang. Everyone knows where to find his ‘clinic.’ For a different kind of a high.
Prepared from the leaves and buds of the female cannabis plant, Bhang can be taken in many different ways. The most popular in north India is mixed with Thandai, a cool milky drink, or in pakoras taken on the festive occasion of Holi. The Government in Rajasthan has even made its sale legal. In fact, it is a source of revenue from those who successfully bid for the vending rights. [continue reading…]
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The first sight of Kuldhara village, more a town actually, sends one imagination running to the time it may have been inhabited. Buddha Singh, a local contractor engaged by the Government to renovate a temple and a house to showcase the past, was happy to be my guide.
A well planned settlement, the straight and wide streets ran in grids with houses opening into them. All design elements kept both aesthetics and utility in mind. A kind of a garage opened into the streets to park carts in. Temples, stepwells and other structures were all signs of sound development over the centuries.
Click on any image for a larger view. [continue reading…]
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This is one of the most bizarre stories of human migration one can hear.
Drive 18 km west of Jaisalmer and you will come upon the village of Kuldhara. Once a prosperous settlement of the Paliwal Brahmins, all the residents of Kuldhara and 83 nearby villages vanished suddenly one night in 1825, having lived there since 1291. In all likelihood they set up base somewhere beyond Jodhpur but no one has ever been sure.
Click on any image for a larger view. [continue reading…]
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