PUSHKAR: PILGRIMS OF ALL KINDS










PUSHKAR, December 31, 2010 – The majority are Hindu pilgrims come to pray at the holiest of temples to Brahma. Mixed among them a sprinkle of
westerners, wrapped in saris and dhotis more Indian then the Indians, relics from the days of ashrams and gurus. Yet those who make this Hindu-Mecca
tick commercially these days are young Israelis who dodge the draft at home or completed three years (two for women) of military service and want a
quiet spot to chill out from the cruelty of war with the Palestinians.

Not that Pushkar is quiet. Drums, cymbals, flutes, bells, megaphones and piercing songs to venerate Brahma or celebrate a wedding blare over
loudspeakers around the clock. The faithful may break into full throated revelry suddenly, at three o'clock in the morning. The music reverberates around a
town of latice-screens and fluted-columns, each building a temple of some sort, all circling a dried up lake, now a mudhole with puddles.

Gone with global warming since the 1990s is the water Hindus believed would wash away their sins and grant them immortality if they bathed in it.

Today this urban jewel in Rajasthan has become so 'zionized' that vendors now greet a new face with the inevitable: “Shalom!� The
main language in the laid-back rooftop bars and lounges seems Hebrew and there are almost as many billboards in Hebrew then in Hindi.
Restaurants display Jewish menus and there is even a rabbi present somewhere, so locals claim, though no one has spotted him yet.

The Israelis hang about in groups, boys and girls, keep to themselves, dress bohemian, drive motorbikes with flying hair and no helmets. The girls are
friendly but tough with the local Romeos and in the evening the various groups gather at internet cafes and talk to friends and family back home on skype.

Years ago the town was a main refuge for Israeli draft dodgers whose parents sent them abroad for three years, supporting them with monthly checks. But
now, so the local “travel agents� insist, most of the Israelis are young men and women who want to put the three (or two) years of military service
behind them. For weeks they live in dinghy and bohemian guest houses in this drowsy Hindu bastion, then they drift away into the Himalayas or down to
Goa, before, one day, humping their backpacks, they return.

Some stay for years, some stay for months in this town of narrow alleys lined by shops and stands; here painted sadhus, aspiring holymen, squat near
naked against walls collecting their keep in tin cans while listening to rock music pumped into their ears through headphones; here straight-backed women
in bright saris cart loads on long-necked heads and slim young gypsy women offer tattoos and flirts to unaccompanied males while older women, cradling
infants, beg and attach themselves, leech-like, to tourists, nimble fingers flitting for wallets.

Now and then a camel rider trots down an alley, the camel's aloof head high above the throng, the rider's eyes on the desert that spreads outside town. In
November the Camel Fair attracts 50,000 camels and tens of thousands of potential buyers and gawkers. Camel rides into the desert at night here are as
much part of local folklore as ringing temple bells at sunset and sunrise. And don feed the monkey gods.

Here sewage still runs along gutters as it has done for generations and the stench of urine drifts off the walls which also serve as urinals in the absence of
public toilets. The smell of human excrement hangs over the holy city like a flagellating whip.

And beware of the hush-voiced 'guru-runners' pushing rose petals into peoples' hands, dragging off the unsuspecting to a prayer meeting with some
impromptu holy man who promises eternal health and wealth then urges them to make a 'donation.' If told the client has no money the indignant holy man
barks: “So why you come here?�

Pushkar is very holy: Alcohol is banned, so are drugs and prostitution, eating meat and even eggs - officially.

So what is the attraction here for served-out Israeli soldiers?

They say its the atmosphere of peace after years of violence.




Uli Schmetzer is the author of 'Times of Terror'

and 'Gaza' available on Amazon.com