Pushy priests of Pushkar

Brahma Temple
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Pushkar is best known as the home to the worlds only Brahma temple. Brahma is the Creator and one of the gods of the Hindu trinity of gods (Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva). Pushkar is a major pilgrimage destination. It has a holy lake around which are multiple ghats ( a bathing area where people come for 'holy cleansing' , known here as puja). Pushkar is also known for its pushy priests who try to get you to perform puja and 'donate' exhorbitant sums towards their cause.

First stop after we checked into our hotel was the Brahma temple, which to be honest looked just like anyother temple I had seen so far. The most striking difference was the presence of monkeys hopping on the trees and the roofs of the temple and surrounding buildings. We were apparently targeted immediately.  Some guy who looked like another religious devotee come up to us while making some offerings and somehow attached himself to us and before we knew it was explaining stuff and guiding us around. We didn't really mind as we were feeling quite lost in the whole ceremony. We were given some flower petals (the offering) and proceeded into the temple where we were given some more petals by a priest. These 'blessed' flowers are then taken to the ghat where they are surrendered to whatever god you are trying to please. When we got to the ghat (still being accompanied by the self appointed guide), we  got separated as we were each grabbed by a priest and taken down the steps that lead to the lake.  We were asked to recite prayers mostly for the dearly departed so that their souls can rest in peace followed by prayers for living members of your immediate family. Of course they wanted money for each member of your family and as you prayed you were supposed to name a sum for each person. Sorry folks, but I passed on giving him money for each member of my family. At the end our foreheads were smeared with red paint along with some grains of rice, and our offerings of coconut and flower petals released into the lake.  We gave them about $2.50 each for their efforts, though they kept telling us of all those people who had given them $50 -$100 PER MEMBER for their efforts! They weren't too pleased but we've been here way too long to fall for their BS! Honestly they are lucky they got that much from us, but it was a fun and new experience and I was willing to pay for just that.  (Korak note - I hated them.  I'm not a big fan of extortion religion and seeing people prostitute out a belief system like that really rubs me the wrong way.  I was not concerned that my "priest" knew I thought he is theif and worse than dirt.  He is and knows I think so.  If I wanted to be subjected to that I could stay in the US.)

Priest giving flowers that will be used as offering at the ghat
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Pushkar will also go down in my memory as a place where I had one of the best pasta pesto! I know, I know kind of an odd choice in this holy town in which by the way you cannot get any kind of meat or even eggs. The whole town is vegetarian!!!!  Never seen anything like it.  Anyway I ended up with the pesto pasta as it was my first day of feeling human after my illness and just the thought of ANY Indian dish was enough to send me running for the bathroom.