My Camera's Bigger Than Your

I've been in Pushkar for 3 days now enjoying the world famous Pushkar Camel Mela (Fair).  This is my first time in Pushkar...so I've been told that it's quite different now than it normally is. Before getting here, it seemed that everywhere I went in Rajastan I came across people who had just come from Pushkar and were raving about it.  Combined with the reputation of the camel mela, I came here with high expectations.

From the cynicism in my voice, you can probably tell that I'm not exactly in love with Pushkar.  Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed my stay here and the Mela is a great experience...especially if you're a photographer.  But at times, the whole Pushkar scene has been too much for me.

So what do I mean when I say the whole Pushkar scene?  Although Pushkar is among the most holy places in India (right up there with Varanasi), it feels a bit like Disney World.  The whole place is littered with shops selling every type of kitschy gift (yes, I bought a few) you could want and restaurants that make better banana pancakes than vegetable curry.  Of the places I've been on this trip, it feels most like the Thamel section of Kathmandu.  Its nice to have some of the creature comforts of home...but also a bit fake at the same time. While I'm off on being fake, Pushkar is also one of the gathering points of the whole Indian "Hippy" bandwagon.  Alcohol and meat might be banned...but marijuana is perfectly acceptable.  (No, I've been good and haven't tried any.)  It seems that at least half of the travellers younger than 30 have traded their western clothes for the Indian cotton hippy shirts and pajama pants.  I'd have nothing wrong with dressing as a local if the locals actually dressed that way.  Indian men wear western clothes and Indian women wear saris/pants.  The only people wearing the cotton shirts/pajama pants are the western backpackers.  As for the photography, like I said above, the fair is great.  There are tons of photographers here.  I really feel like a novice only walking around with a Nikon D40 SLR and an 18-55mm lens.  It seems that every other person in town this weekend is walking around with a huge Nikon (D200/D2 seems to be the camera of choice) and a big 10 inch zoom lens that's screaming to everyone else what a great photographer they are.  They might be great photographers.  But at times, it just gets to be a bit much with everyone flaunting their $2500 camera and 10 zoom lens.   As for myself, I've gotten more good shots of Indians there than anywhere else.  Initially, I have to admit that I was getting a bit angry when they all wanted something for a picture...oftentimes they'd ask for a 10-20 rupees for a picture...which was an outrageous sum of money in local terms.  But after a thinking about it for a little while, I decided that they should get something if I'm taking a picture of them and keeping it for myself.  So I ended up deciding to trade cigarettes for pictures.  They all smoke like chimneys and are generally very happy when you offer them a cigarette.   For the locals, the fair is mainly a time when they buy and sell camels, horses and cows.  Most of what I saw was just people walking around looking at animals they were interested in buying.  Occasionally I saw money changing hands.  But due to language barriers (not many of them spoke any English and my Hindi is really non-existent), I couldn't really talk to them about it.  Nonetheless, it was good people watching.  There's something about these people.  There faces have so much character to them...although they live simple lives, it looks like they've lived many lives and that they're older than dirt. That was my Pushkar experience.  One last night here and then its off to Rathambore National Park to see some tigers