Pushkar Impressions

Pushkar impressions

I have come to the conclusion that I really do not like Pushkar. It is said to be a place for pilgrims and worshippers and those Westerners who want to watch the pilgrims, but the first thing that greets you is a sign for the "Pink Floyd cafe and Hotel", all the restaurants seem to serve pasta and pizza and "Israeli salad", it is noisy, many places smell of a mix of sewers, cow shit and incense and everyone of course tries to sell you something, as usual. This morning I saw a certain Dr. Mathur, recommended by Lonely planet, who gave me a very painful reflexology treatment. He had all kinds of little tools there, made of metal, wood, wire, plastic. It may have helped but I do not really want to go through that again. On the other hand, tonight I ventured into an Indian beauty parlour for the first time in my life, feeling slightly dusty and dilapidated and in need of a make-over and some tender loving care. I asked Neelu to thread my eyebrows and henna my hair. All the other women seemed to be there with their girlfriends. One was getting her arms waxed while 3 other girls waited. But they all turned out to be her friends and left with her. When Neelu started on my eyebrows, she grabbed a roll of thread and after a very short stretch of time had managed to reshape my eyebrows into some delicate, finely chiselled arcs, and it did not hurt. After that she ran out for some henna, came back, brushed it all over my hair and told me to "sit carefully" on her waiting couch. She did not even use plastic gloves. Well, her finger tips were decorated with henna anyway. She gave me a magazine to read, so I read an article on how to cure impotence with ayurvedic remedies (onions? garlic?? who knew these were aphrodisiacs?), and another one on darga, the grave of the great Sufi saint, in Ajmer, where I went this afternoon. The interview with someone from there however, cited some rather useless pieces of advice, like "sex is not for fun but for procreation", "homosexuals do not deserve to live" and so on which does not seem to have anything to do with either Sufism nor Islam, to my knowledge. There was also something on the "water diet", the cheapest cure of all, apparently drinking 8 glasses of water can cure anything from asthma via arthritis to constipation and whatnot Interesting. Certainly worth a try, I guess. Can't hurt...
Whgen she was done with my hair, she offered me an ayurvedic masssage which was great, way better than this Dr. Mathur, and finally I had run up a huge, unregretted bill incl. a bottle of Indian hair oil she talked me into, of a whopping 1400 rupees, which is, well, 20$, the same as what my room costs for tonight...; )
More on the Sufi grave tomorrow, it is getting late. Here is the photo I took of the entrance.

Sun, September 20, 2009 - 11:01 AM