Ajmer, Shweta's "Home" Home, and Pushkar

Alright. Now we're picking up some blog steam. I tried to find a photo of the rosy sunset as Praveen cruised us toward Ajmer and Shweta's mom and dad's place, but this is the best I could get. The desert and plains of India have beautiful, expansive skies.

When we got to Shweta's folk's place I met everyone and then we had a quick snack. The man on the right in the below phot is Shweta's brother Sumit. He thought it would be nice to have a Tuborg before dinner, which I was ready for. I can't remember the name of Sumit's buddy in the middle, but he was hilarious, as was Sumit. These two are exactly the type of guys I like to have a beer with. They were sharing a beer and there were a couple sips left. Middle man offers me the last couple swigs and I decline (I'm trying to be real careful so as to not get sick with anything) and he says "it's poison!" I said, "Yeah I know. Why do you think I don't wanna drink it?!" He laughs and extends his left hand to shake mine. We shake and I said "First you give me shit and then you literally give me shit." That got a good laugh out of him. Neither of these two would allow me to thank them for anything. They bought me water at the store behind them, in addition to the beers. Good stuff. Praveen doesn't drink, but he was there, laughing along with us. He's the one taking this photo. There were some kids who pulled up on a cycle and I recognized that the tune was based off of an American hip-hop song, so started rapping along. They approved. A perfect pit stop.

When we pulled up at Shweta's house everyone came out on the porch to greet us. I thought it was one of the nicest moments of the trip. Here are Shweta's mom and two sister-in-laws. Their family is super tight like mine. Felt just like home!

There's something I've been hearing over and over on this trip: If you want the best food in India, go to the state of Rajasthan. Well, here we are. Below is probably my favorite dish yet. I'm not sure what it's called but it's what I would describe as dumplings in buttermilk with spices and a spicy sauce. DELICIOUS, as was the entire meal.

Check out this spread! YUM. Indian food is already spicy, but Shweta's family takes spicy to a whole different level. This meal was so good. Sumit playfully called his daughter "fatso" in Hindi (sounds like "cowda" to me--fitting) when she was standing with her belly sticking out, as kids do. I was prepared to use the word to describe myself when I was offered more food, but I absolutely couldn't eat another bite. Comedic results were achieved. If anyone can comment and name some of these foods, that would be much appreciated. I know what I ate, but I don't remember all the names.

Wrapping up dinner with some sweet dessert. Everyone clearing the table like a good "midwestern" family.

After dinner we went straight to bed, and as usual, they insisted on giving me the best bed, in fact, a room to myself. In India they have something called a "water cooler", I believe, basically an air conditioner that uses water instead of freon. My room was so cold I ended up turning it off. I slept like a baby. In the morning we went onto the rooftop terrace of the house to have morning chai. You can see that we're surrounded by mountains. The kids played, we read the newspaper, and we watched people trickle down the road into school and work (and cows, too, of course).

This is the view toward the southwest, I believe, behind the previous photo. There's a temple rising up on the left.

After that, we went downstairs and relaxed on the porch. Sumit rounded up some greens, called a cow over ("Ay! Ay!") and I was able to feed him some breakfast.



Quicker than you think, a bull popped up, and with confidence. I fed him, too. He had an entirely different disposition than the cow and you can see some nervousness in my smile. I was instructed not to get too close.

Pre-breakfast cartoon dance party in one of the bedrooms. It seems common here for the girl toddlers to have boy cuts. Do not be fooled.

 

Here's where the culinary magic happens. This is Shweta's brother Amit and his wife. Everyone in Shweta's family cooks and they pride themselves on it. Cooking is a 'round-the-clock job in this house. A lot of the food they eat requires a day's preperation, if not multiple days (fantastic spicy potato chips that we had with chai on the terrace) or even weeks (in the case of pickled mangos, which I love). The list of foods that require preparation must be long.

 

Amit here with Shweta's sisters-in-law, who were so sweet and kind.

Here's their breakfast spread, made to order. Delicious as always.

After breakfast Amit, Sumit and I headed into Pushkar, which is over the mountains in the previous picture. Pushkar is seriously Amit's town. He runs a hotel and everybody knows him. This is a lake in Ajmer on the way to Pushkar. Big sky.

We stopped and got a couple loaves of bread to feed these cows and monkeys. As soon as we got out of the car they were on me quicker than I could even have the bread opened up. There was no way to feed them slice by slice. They were coming too quickly! I saw that the monkey nearest to me had a pretty nice raspberry on his shoulder, plus there was this BULL WITH HORNS intent on getting the bread I was holding, and that's when I decided to chuck the entire loaf and retreat for the car.



This is the main road that leads to the Brahman temple in Pushkar and a bustling market. Both sides of the street are lined with shops. This place had a great atmosphere.

I think we took a right off of the main street, or it wound down and to the right, either way, the street got smaller. Here's a closer look at the traffic, which includes cars, cycles, scooters, bicycles, rickshaws, auto-rickshaws, cows, people, .... anything that moves. They sold cloth, clothing, leather, knives, fruit, food, a wide variety of goods.

This is the Brahma Temple in Pushkar. It is believed to be the only Hindi temple devoted to solely one Hindi god in the world. Brahma is the creator god, and this temple, and Pushkar, is his home. The current temple dates to the 14th century, but this temple has been in existence for over 2000 years. You could feel the antiquity when you entered the temple, the intensity of the religious experience shared by everyone. Photos were not allowed, and neither were shoes. After checking our shoes in and getting a bowl of flowers and what I will describe as holy Rice Krispies, we climbed the steps to the temple. There are several sanctuaries within the temple. The first one you climb to, and the highest sanctuary, was crowded with people getting to the front of the shrine. When we got there, we threw our flowers into the shrine. We prayed and moved through to the next sanctuary, where we did the same thing. A Hindi woman shrieked really loudly and our group wondered what happened. We were thinking that she was just moved by the experience. The last shrine had a holy wall, where people would literally write or trace their words of prayer onto the wall, which we did. I had quite a few words to write.

 

This is on the walk back to the car. The girl relaxing on the trailer in the shade offered us a camel ride.

 

This is the holy Pushkar Lake, formed by Brahma's tears. You should check out the wiki of the temple and Brahma: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma_Temple,_Pushkar Shoes were also not allowed near the lake. The Brahma temple is behind the opposite shore.

After we returned from Pushkar, we ate some lunch and had a quick rest before leaving for home. Sumit took the first driving shift and he drives like a bat out of hell. It was so fun! There's NOTHING quite like bombing down a desert planes highway, rocking Indian music, no lanes, weaving through traffic, decorated truck tailgates whizzing by at eye level, the beautiful skies. Below is a hotel we stopped in for afternoon chai. These beds are made out of rubber from truck tires and they're found at quite a few rural hotels and  truck stops. They must have a machine that cuts the tires into strips.



I can't tell you how generous Shweta and her family were. It must be experienced to be believed. I've never been treated like such a guest in my entire life, and I'm not just saying that. Again, Indians say guests are gods, and I can tell you that I was treated like one. It was a humbling experience and I'm so thankful for everything that Shweta, Praveen, Tuk Tuk and all the Bhola's did for me. What an incredible first weekend in India!

Weekend number two will be posted tomorrow, which was my first trip into Delhi. I'm determined to catch up and keep this blog current! Peace!