It is an old heritage hotel right on the banks of the “holy” lake in the centre of Pushkar. It really reminded us of the Exotic Marigold Hotel from the movie. The rooms were clean and very large but it was clear that it was old and unlike the two previous heritage properties where we had stayed on this trip, nothing had been done in recent years to improve the property.
Pushkar is famous for a number of things. It is an important Hindu pilgrimage site and devout Hindus are supposed to visit the town at least once in their lives.
It is also a town with a number of restrictions. Within a five kilometre radius of the city, no one is permitted to possess any meat, chicken, fish, alcohol or eggs. And therefore every restaurant or hotel within the city lines is Vegetarian or what they call in India Pure Veg. And therefore when visiting Chabad for Shabbat, be prepared that there will not be any roast chicken or schnitzel on the menu.
We found out during the course of the weekend that people do “smuggle in” eggs, meat, alcohol and fish into the city. Not sure what happens if they get caught. In fact many of the newer hotels being built will be located just outside the 5 km. radius and will have full meat menus, alcohol and even casinos.
As our driver Vikram (who has been around many Israelis in his years as a tour company driver) said to us: “many Hindus come to Pushkar to be ‘oleh regel’ “ (a Hebrew phrase that he used, usually used in describing the pilgrimage of Israelis to the Temple in Jerusalem).
There is a lake in the centre of the small town which was said to have been magically formed when Brahma dropped a lotus flower from the heavens on the very spot that is now the centre of the lake. People now come to ritually bathe in this lake.
Surrounding the lake is a very strange town; it is a combination of a very commercial mile long “Shuk” with people noisily hawking their souvenirs and wares, and about 400 temples of various stripes (Hindu, Sikh, Jain etc), a few mosques and churches; and one solitary Chabad.
The Shuk is especially interesting because almost every one of the hundreds of merchants knows the basic Hebrew catchphrases used to grab the Jewish traveler’s attention. There are signs everywhere in Hebrew and a couple of restaurants with lengthy menus totally in Hebrew. It is clear that this town is smack right in the heart of the Israeli tourists’ travel route.
A barber shop:
A local restaurant with an extensive non kosher vegetarian menu; to understand the prices, figure that 100 rupees equal $2.00 Canadian.
And one of the waiters at this restaurant......
A local stall advertising the “best incense in the city”!
And the Rebbe’s picture is everywhere, usually as a marketing gimmick to attract people to their shop or as an actual recognition that places him among the other holy men, gurus or gods, l’havdil!
Lest one think that our use of the description of the town’s Shuk should evoke any sort of comparison with the now gentrified and well organized Shuks in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem; understand that Pushkar, like a number of other places we have visited in India, is a total mess; infrastructure work is desperately needed, there is no civic pride in terms of cleanliness or basic neatness; hotels, stores and homes are run down; but the town nevertheless has a particular charm and as such attracts many visitors.
The town is also the site of the annual Pushkar Camel Fair when over 200,000 people visit over the course of one week to purchase and trade camels.
Around the banks of the lake are 52 ghats or steps that allow the religious pilgrim to descend from the banks to bathe in the “holy” waters and if you are there in the early morning, hundreds of such pilgrims dunk in the lake.
One of the features of their service to their gods is the sound of their “puja” or prayers, which can be heard as a combination of chanting, drums and gongs. Think back to the “hari krishna” groups that used to chant on Avenue Road in Toronto or at airports a number of years ago. I personally experienced this ritual throughout the night on Friday night. After returning from Chabad and getting into bed at about 10 PM and looking forward to a quiet peaceful sleep, the beating of drums and chanting began right outside our window. It went on for hours and my menuchat Shabbat (Shabbat rest) was only accomplished with the use of earplugs. I generally am respectful of religious practices, but not outside my window at 3 AM on a Shabbat! Anyway, back to Friday night at Chabad.
Chabad is located at the entrance to town in what appears to be a storefront. Outside sits the requisite armed soldiers, who have been assigned by the government to every Chabad house in India since the terror attack in Mumbai in 2008 which took the lives of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, the Chabad emissaries to that city.
When you enter the front door, you are inside the main hall where the Synagogue and meeting point for many Israelis is located. If you walk to the end of the room and up a few steps, you are now in the back yard of the centre, which has a huge outdoor patio that can be set up for over 100 diners and is used on Friday nights. Above the Synagogue room that we had just left was a large shaded rooftop sukkah area that is used for the Shabbat morning meal. Surrounding the patio is the commercial kitchen and the home of the Chabad shaliach and his wife, Rabbi Shimmy and Chaya Mushka Goldstein, who have been living in Pushkar for about 17 years. They have 8 children, some of whom are already in israel attending school.
Rabbi Goldstein’s brother, Moshe, is the person who runs India Kosher Travel, who has arranged most of our adventure in India.
Rabbi Shimmy and Chaya Mushka are assisted in their duties in Pushkar by a few male Chabad emissaries-in-training and a few female Israeli girls who are doing their Israeli civil service, helping this Chabad Family in Pushkar.
People started streaming in and Rabbi Shimmy told me that there was a bus load of about 20 religious Israelis who were on route from Agra (a seven or eight hour drive) and they had encountered typically horrible Indian traffic and it would be touch and go in terms of their arrival in Pushkar before candlelighting.
Once again, I offered to read from the Torah and again, there was jubilation in that one of the emissaries in training was off the hook and would not have to prepare the reading, which would take him a few hours on Friday night.
By the time we began Kabbalat Shabbat, there were about 50 people in the room, a collection of travelers like us and the Israeli group, a number of observant backpackers, an Israeli couple with their small children who had been here for a number of weeks designing and manufacturing clothing for their online “modest clothing” shop in Israel, some tourists, mainly Israeli, who just happened to be walking by and stopped out of curiosity; in short, members of the Jewish people united by the desire to be “with family” during Shabbat.
We had a very nice so called “Veggie meal” beginning with a wide assortment of freshly prepared delicious salads, tuna patties (I guess they must have smuggled in some cans of tuna) and dessert, ending with chai masala tea (tea with cinnamon, ginger, milk and sugar). It was plentiful and delicious. As well, there was the traditional l’chaim, which was kept hidden in the Aron Kodesh:-).
Hey, we have seen people here with illegal opium, illegal marijuana and other illegal substances and apparently, because of widespread corruption and payoffs, such rules are not enforceable in this country. So it is really a minor offence to have tuna and a little hard liquor.
On Shabbat morning we walked to shul and passed numerous shopkeepers in the market who wished us Shabbat Shalom and there were about 50 people again in shul. Lunch consisted of salads including egg salad (more illegal substances), a large cholent with delicious vegetarian kubbeh and fruit salad for dessert. There was singing, a few speeches and generally a very nice Shabbat atmosphere. One of the people who spoke, a lady doctor from Holon, and a member of the Israeli group traveling thru India, recounted her story of how she became observant, after growing up in a totally anti religious family in Israel. Her story was fascinating and she retold it with a lot of emotion.
We walked back to the hotel to meet our guide who was to give us a Shabbat afternoon walking tour of the market and temple area. Many of the shopkeepers tried to attract us into their stalls but we simply said to them “Shabbat” and they understood immediately and replied “come back tomorrow to buy something”.
We returned to Chabad for mincha and maariv (the afternoon and evening prayers) and for Havdala (the ceremony marking the conclusion of Shabbat) and then once again returned in the evening for melave Malka and a meal consisting of shakshuka and french fries. All in all, it was a very pleasant Shabbat.
On Sunday morning, we went on a camel ride into the nearby desert. We had the choice of riding on the camel or being pulled by the camel in an adorned cart and we chose the latter due to the fact that it was a one hour ride and were worried what such a ride would do to my back.
Once back in Pushkar, we packed up and headed out to Jaipur, the largest and capital city of Rajasthan. We stayed at the Hilton Hotel and because we had written to the Hilton and told them that this year would be our 50th anniversary, they upgraded us to a beautiful suite, with a complimentary bottle of wine, cookies, fruits and truffles. It was such a nice gesture.
The room was absolutely gorgeous.
And to prove that we were married, Fran got the requisite red dot that married Indian women proudly wear....hey, it’s a lot cheaper than a wedding ring!
After unpacking we were off to see a Bollywood movie in the famous Raj Mandir movie theatre, one of the most famous movie theatres in the world. It seats 1200 people, was completely full and was featuring a new release called Pad Man. It was quite an experience. It starred one of the most famous Bollywood actors and was entirely in Hindi. What we were not prepared for was the loud cheering from the crowd when the star, their hero, first appeared on the screen and the loud and uncontrolled laughter whenever a joke was made.
From the visuals, we were able to understand the gist of the story, which centred around the reluctance of many Indian women to not use sanitary pads (it is still estimated that only 12% of all Indian women are currently making use of sanitary napkins). Pad Man is a true story of a man in India who is trying to change all this and since the recent release of the movie, apparently, the percentages are on the rise.
At the intermission, we googled the movie and saw that it was rated 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and we therefore decided to leave and try to either see the movie in English or with subtitles, so that we could really enjoy the story. What little we understood was very enjoyable.
Tomorrow, Monday, we tour the city of Jaipur.
All the best, Shabbat Shalom, and Chodesh Tov
Fran and David
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