Pushkar: Little Israel

Day 9- april 21- udaipur still sick brinch at and shopping arounf, city palace and heena at night
Day 10- april 22- drive back to delhi (22 hours)
April 23- day 11- upper class delhi shopping and amazment
Day 12 April 24- back home- doctor in Bahrain sick long trek back to TA





We got to Pushkar, or should I say little Israel around 12:30. Pushkar’s small town, full rooftop restaurants, and is another mini shopping paradise. It’s a Hindu pilgrimage town surrounded by a holy lake, housing some odd 400 temples. It’s a religious town prohibiting all alcohol, meat, and dairy, even eggs, completely vegetarian, and is home to a slew of priests ensuring the dietary laws are kept. The place was full of Israelis, there were so many Israelis even the local’s spoke Hebrew, menus were in Hebrew, signs were in Hebrew…little Israel much? It was unreal. Everywhere else we got by telling people we were from Israel (they give Israelis cheaper prices, like I said USA and dollar signs flash), but in Pushkar we were out of luck, if we said we were from Israel the shopkeepers would start speaking to us in Hebrew. My Hebrew is not that great to begin with, neither is Sara’s, couple my limited vocabulary with a thick Hindi accent and I was completely lost.

In Pushkar we checked into Hotel Oasis. It was a nice place, by Indian standards. There were two clocks in the entranceway, one reading Indian time and the other reading, obviously, reading Israeli time. The keyboard for the computers had both English and Hebrew letters, at first the whole thing was bazaar, but cool, oddly enough, we quickly got used to it.

Our room had a TV, yeah that’s right a TV! When we got settled in I turned it on to see what Indian TV was like. I flipped through the channels and found Hindi MTV; it was hysterical, loaded with Bollywood films and scandalous music videos. Sara and I had it on every time we were in the room and just laughed and laughed, it was almost as if they were trying to hard to impersonate Americans. Everyone that was interviewed mentioned the US, every other comment was about America this or America that. I guess the whole superpower thing really comes into play when you leave homebase.
We didn’t stay in the room long at that point we figured we only had one day there we had to walk around and get a feel for the town. There is only one very significant sight in Pushkar; it is home to one of the few Brahma Temples in the world. We checked it out it was a tall white building, with delicate detail, but compared to some of the other sights we had seen it was not nearly as impressive. On the outskirts of the temple were priests, chanting their prayers, it reminded me of Hairy Krishna’s that walk down Lincoln Road on Saturday nights. Watching them pray was different. Afterward we went shopping, by shopping I mean we walked in to every shop, shop to shop. Actually, the shopping here was more fun, less harassment, but they were tougher bargainers. One even turned us down we were shocked. Serves us right I guess.

We got back to the hotel around 6 o’clock after a full day of walking around. We both went over to use the computers and sitting next to us was a religious Jew. We started talking to him and it turned out he was a Rabbi, Rabbi Shimon, he ran a Chabad house that was just across the street. He asked us all about our travels and invited us for dinner, and for Pesach Seder. He said that he rarely used to computers at our hotel since the Chabad house had Internet and that our meeting was meant to be. We were meant to meet him so that he could offer us an invitation for Pesach and Shabbos. Sara doesn’t buy into that kind of stuff, but I agreed with him. I don’t think situations like that are so coincidental. Its not everyday you see a religious Jewish man walking the streets of India, I can tell you that much.

After he was done with the computer we went across the street with him to eat. Him, his wife, and their five kids all lived there, along with two other members of the Chabad community from Tzfat who were just there for 7 months, after which, two other members would take there place and stay for another period of 7 months. The children were born there and him and his wife had been living there for the last 7 years. They were 32. He hated it in India. I asked him how much longer he had to live there for until he could go back to Israel, his response: “until the Moshiach comes”. Wow, I didn’t know what to say. His life was dedicated to providing a Chabad house, a place to pray, a place to go, for Jewish travelers like myself, his life was dedicated to HaShem, he was entirely selfless. Dinner was great! The food was wonderful. Actually I don’t know if the food tasted so good or if it was just the fact that the company was so refreshing. The kids were so cute, ages 10, 9, 5, 3, and 1. There were two girls and three boys. The place had a few Israelis around, after dinner we helped chop walnuts for the Charoset on Pesach (which was just two nights away). We hung out there till around midnight. We loved it. We met great people, they mainly spoke Hebrew, but a few spoke English with us, specifically a guy named Hagay and a girl named Allyah, Hagay had been in India for 3 months already and Allyah just for 2 weeks. Typically Israelis travel after they finish their term in the army and they will stay for months, many go to India.

When we left we were invited to Shabbat dinner the next night and of course Pesach Seder the following night. I did not think we would have the opportunity to have Seder considering we were in India, and this opportunity was too good to give up, so Sara and I decided to extend our stay in Pushkar 2 extra days.

When we left the Chabad house it was like culture shock all over again, being surrounded by Hebrew and Israelis for 4 hours brought us back to the Promised Land. When we left the security inside it was back the chaotic streets, the cows, the harassment, and the dirt, the poverty: India. For one, there were a crowd of people with lanterns walking down the main road, all dressed up, all singing, at the end of the string of people was a man on a white horse, we was the groom, Sara and I were witnessing a Hindi Wedding. We watched him ride on horse back up to the temple where he would meet his bride. It was so culturally different, check! Another experience under our belts.

The next day was Friday; we decided to sleep in since the previous day we had pretty much seen all of Pushkar. We got out and about around 12pm. Our first stop was the lake to see the holy bathers in the water. It just so happened to be a holiday so there were tons of people around. Right when you walk in the priests bombard you giving you flowers to throw in the lake. The catch is right after you throw the flower, which has some form of religious symbolism; they hit you up for a couple of rupees. They then say a prayer on your behalf and put a red dot in the middle of your eyes, symbolizing a third eye. After they put rice in the center of the dot and tie a pink string around your right wrist. All done without explanation…donations required for their services. I didn’t feel comfortable going through the process, I know they say when in Rome…but still I’m a Jew I don’t walk in to a church and take the sacrament, why should I allow rice to be stuck to my red third eye? I politely told the priests no thank you that I was just an observer. This did not make them happy…nope not at all, and they kicked us out. As the Israeli’s say “ain baya” (no problem). Sara and I then stopped for lunch on one of the rooftop restaurants. Pushkar was infested with flies; they were everywhere so it took a few attempts until we found a fly free zone. We ordered cooked red lentils and white rice. The food was just ok. Afterward we headed back to Hotel Oasis, we ran into Hagay along the way and all decided to hang out. After an hour of chit chatting Sara and I were due for a siesta. We woke up 4 hours later…just in time for Shabbat!

We crossed the street and walked into the Chabad house, meal two there. We were slowly becoming regulars; Hagay went there for every meal pretty much. They all took a really strong liking to us. Rabbi Shimon did the Kiddush in Hebrew, but Hagay translated it for us into English. I was mostly excited for Sara, I had been to a Shabbat dinner at a Chabad house before, I mean never in India clearly but I knew the prayers and was raised around Jewish tradition, culture, and religion, while she wasn’t as much.

After the prayers the wine was passed around and the food was served! We talked the whole night as we had the night before. We shared traveling stories, talked about Israel, about India, about the US, war, politics, Judaism, love, relationships, children, Pushkar, religion, the Middle East, on and on and on it was wonderful. The Chabad made my experience in Pushkar. I was so excited for the next night…Seder!

The next day we really had nothing to do. We woke up went to a rooftop restaurant called Baba’s (which means father in Hindi), shared some Indian food, went back to the hotel and napped. I mean I guess that’s what you’re supposed to do on Shabbos. We got up in time to shower and get ready for Seder.

We got there a little early to help Zelda, the Rabbis wife, set up. An hour after we showed the place was packed; literally there were probably 40 Israelis there. We all sat together, and for my first time at a Seder I actually had 4 glasses of wine. Seder wasn’t too long only 2 hours and what I found interesting was how they used boiled potato as karpas rather than parsley which my mother uses. The rabbi said either one is appropriate its all about tradition.

The rabbi told the story of Pesach, again Hagay translated for us, some of the guests asked questions and sparked up controversial conversation. A few debates spurred up but all in good fun. I couldn’t of asked for a better night. If I had to be away from my family for Seder, which on that night I did, I really could not of wanted anything more. It was good company.

The food was not as good as the previous nights. Since there is no meat or chicken allowed in Pushkar, and these were Ashkenazi Jews, so no rice, potatoes were the main course, there were boiled potatoes and mashed potatoes…take your pick. Needless to say, I cannot even think about eating a potato after that meal. But again, it was all about the company. The only place I went wrong was with desert. The night before, at Shabbat dinner they served a fruit salad, I ate it. The food at the Chabad house was clean it was inspected by Zelda and the guests every night for the next days meal, and prepared appropriately. The fruit salad hadn’t given me any problems so I figured why not eat it, its fine…baddd choice (ill get there in a minute). After the Seder was done and it was time to go, they invited us back the next night, they told us that the second Seder was just for family and close guests, within 2 days Sara and I had the same status as Hagay, someone who had been going there 2x a day for 14 days, we were part of the crew. We were honored, however we had to politely decline, 3 days in Pushkar was more than enough and we had more to see on our itinerary. The next day we had an 8-hour drive to southern Rajasthan to a city called Udaipur, known as the Venice of India.

When we left the Chabad we were again slapped in the face with our reality of being in India, not Tzfat. Again we saw all these men in white robes and lanterns walking down the street, this time instead of a groom on a while horse there was a body wrapped in a white sheet which a long vertical red stripe on the top. The body was hoisted up being carried by some of the men. When we got back to the hotel, the owner told us it was a funeral. The body was going to be taken to the lake where it would be burned. That was how they disposed of the corpse, not by burial, but by burning. Sara asked if anyone could go, he said that funerals were open anyone could attend. We then asked if anyone was buried, he informed us that the custom was always to burn the body. Another thing learned. Interesting.

Back to the fruit, that night I went to bed with a horrible stomachache, I figured it would pass. It was difficult to fall asleep but I finally did. When I woke up in the morning I hardly made it to the toilet and then blahhhhhhhhhhh…vomit…FOOD POISONING. I was a trooper though I took a handful of plastic bags and step by step made it down to the car. I was sick the entire day, the entire 8-hour drive, Sara was so great, she sat in the front and gave me the whole back seat to lie down, and try and sleep. After 4 hours, our driver, Mr. Singh pulled over to a pharmacy. He came back with glucose medicine. During this whole fiasco he was so kind, warm, and genuinely concerned. Sara and I completely changed our opinions about him. For the rest of the drive, while I was in between sleep and being sick Sara started talking to him, asking about his family telling him about what we were doing in Israel talking about Hindi tradition and Indian culture. Clearly, we warmed up to him. We liked him.

I made it alive to Udaipur. Sara checked into the hotel for us, hotel Udai Niwas, and I went up to the room and passed out. I was beat, and still felt horrible.