Most of today was spent wondering around and having a gander at Pushkar. We spent alot the time chilling out on the roof of our hotel. I finished my book 'Noughts and crosses' which is a childrens book but was a nice easy read and i enjoyed it though the ending was shocking. Unlike Giselle who decided to bring along Tolkiens 'Silmarillions' (you douche), despite both our attempts neither of us have got very far reading it.
In the centre of Pushkar there was another festival going on for one of there many Gods. There was a big marching band, the clarinetists still managed to smoke while playing, wedging the fag in between there fingers while playing and taking a quick drag in between each section. Local people carried a statue of the God which we think may of been Krishna (a few people told us different things but the people were partying in the Krishna temple) and people were drawing with powder paints on the pavement. They seem to have a festival every night here.
Later in the evening we met up with Steve and Vera in 'real out of the blue' again. Where Sunny looking particularly off his face told us that he hadn't slept, "Ten days, no sleep, no problem!" he said dragging every word out. When we asked for some chai his response was "Whhhhhyyyyy?", then after that every thing was followed by "Whhhyyyyy nooottt?" he said with a massive grin on his face, i mean a grin that used every muscle in his face and made his eyes squint. I can still see his walk in my head, it was a slight strut but not in quite a straight line, with a tea towel thrown over one shoulder and a joint in his other hand. What a character, all i could think was this is actually his life, every day. Yep you can actually live like that, crazy!
We got Kicked out of 'Real out of the blue' at around midnight as they wanted to close up. Me, Gis, Steve and Vera wondered back to our guest house. But not before having to walk past all the sleeping dogs. Pushkar is full of dogs, most of them mind there own buisness, some are overly friendly and annoying and the odd few like to bark at you. But when they are sleeping and you wake them up they are not the happiest. Most of them just barked at us to let them no they wernt impressed, then just as we went round the corner Steve said something loudly and a black dog got up and started barking angrily at us, we just carried on walking but realised it had started walking after us,we then started jogging, then decided actually this was one peed off dog and ran away from it very fast ! It was reasonably terrifying but it was followed with a few giggles which makes up for the scare.
Our hotel was in front of the Krishna temple and as i said earlier they were having a party. As we walked past a man at the door ushered us to enter. We all hesitated a bit but Vera and Steve decided they were going to see what was happening. We figured we were in safe hands, a girl who can speak quite a bit of Hindi and a big bold guy who looked like he could be scary if he wanted to be, so we followed.
Admittedly walking up the steps to the temple I felt a bit nervous (nearly certain they were out to murder us or steal all our belongings), took of my shoes and walked in. It didn't have a ceiling so you could see the clear sky and stars. There was a group of guys playing some music in the middle on the floor and ladies and children sat on some mats around the edge. I went with my bag and sat next to a lady who had made a space for me. Smiled and said 'namaste'. Vera and Giselle followed and sat next to me. Vera started a conversation in Hindi and the ladies looked very happy, we told them our names and shook hands. They handed out chai, we took it while putting our hands together and saying thank you a few times and bowing our head slightly (this was what Vera did so i just followed). After a while they took us all out into a court yard bit where the men sat in a circle one end smoking, this is where they took Steve. Me, Vera and Giselle got sat on a mat further down and they brought out the tastiest chapati ever with curry and some sweets that look like sweetcorn. It was tasty but spicy spicy ! I tried to eat as much as i could so as not to be rude. The girl then poured water over our hands while we washed them. Vera gave them some sweets to say thank you, which both me and Giselle made a note of to invest in. The rest of the evening or early hours of the morning i should say was spent dancing with the ladies, or me, Vera and Giselle doing our best attempt at Hindi dancing with two of the ladies. It was one of the best experience's of the trip, they didn't ask for any money or any thing in fact, they were just grateful and happy we had come and celebrated with them. And it nearly didn't happen because me and Giselle were too scared of being ripped of or taken advantage of.
This was the point that i think we decided to let go a little bit whether for better or not.
"Try to relax completely, and go with the experience. Just..... let yourself go. Sometimes, in India, you have to surrender before you win." Karla ( Shantaram an amazing book I'm reading atm)
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