The scorching heat was a bit too much to bear but the enigmatic search for the highly talked about Pink Floyd Café in Pushkar distracted me from it. I and my friend found ourselves in a land covered with sun rays, colors and silence in the middle of a hot day in May.
After religiously following people’s directions and a 20-minute walk, we managed to reach our destination-Pink Floyd Café which was safely hidden under a mishmash of lanes. The first two floors have rooms to stay and the third floor is dedicated to the café. As we moved up to the third floor to deal with our hunger pangs and to quench our thirst, we saw rooms with psychedelic appearance, each based on a Pink Floyd song theme. The place was adorned with interesting posters on Pink Floyd, beer, Pushkar Camel Safari etc. There was an almost ubiquitous sign of ‘No Photography Please’. “That’s a bummer”, I thought. The third floor café was pleasantly airy but non-AC. The only thing that irritated me was a huge poster which talked about the heavenly experience of having chilled beer! Well, Pushkar is a no-alcohol land. So if you can’t effing serve me some, don’t tease me about it! Anyways, after a plate of oily pasta and gallons of fresh lime water, we went out to hunt for a comfortable and affordable hotel.
We zeroed in on Kanha which is run by a rather haughty old Rajasthani lady and is actually a haveli turned into a hotel. In fact, there are a number of havelis in Pushkar which have now been converted into guest houses and hotels. The hotel manager was gullible and we easily convinced to give us a discount. This was off-season as the cattle fair, which attracts tourists from all around the world, happens in the month of November. After a short nap, we geared up for the main part of our holiday which was to explore this dry, colourful, spiritual and humble town- Pushkar!
We started with a chocolate shake at Enigma Café which tried its level best to live upto its name with colourful prints all over its walls and a really mysterious café owner/care taker. A chat with the owner revealed the secret of the exotic menu. He explained to us that there are a number of foreign visitors who have now made Pushkar their home.
After this, we meandered through the narrow lanes to reach the main shopping market of Pushkar where one can pick up pyajamas, pants, kurtas, dupattas, stoles, chappals, wall hangings, vibrant umbrellas etc. I landed into a shop where I saw some western dresses which I had seen in the Janpath market at Delhi and I was curious to know if they were exported from Pushkar to Delhi or vice versa. The shopkeeper tried his level best to convince me that all the stuff is manufactured in Pushkar.
Exhausted with all the shopping, we headed to the Pushkar Lake which is sort of misnomer because the lake is non-existent now. It is just a vast chunk of baked land. Nevertheless, the view was peaceful and beautiful.
As me and friend both aren’t even remotely religious, we decided to skip visits to various temples for which Pushkar is famous. It boasts of the only Brahma Temple that exists in India. When the town began to brighten up with artificial lights in the night, we decided to have one more walk through the town. Technically, you can walk through the whole town in an hour.
The bright day and the silken twilight were wrapped up with sumptuous dinner which included freshly cooked dal, matar paneer and chapattis at our hotel and a conversation session accompanies with twirls of smoke.
