Myth-Logical

Some places cast a spell and make you return over and over. Some places you never leave. Pushkar, one of the few places where Brahma is worshipped, is a town that belongs to the world traveller, the locals, the musicians, the devotees and the mystics. Come here in search of calm or chaos!

- Satarupa Paul

The sun had just performed its daily evening ritual of a customary dip in the lake—the centrepiece of the holy town of Pushkar in Rajasthan. Its fading glow bathed the water, the sky and the whitewashed buildings along the ghats in shades of molten lava and honey. Soon the mercury too followed the sun’s rapid descent, plummetting sharply as the last of the reds and oranges made way for the greys and blacks of the night sky. Hundreds of spectators assembled on the red-carpeted steps of the ghat to watch this remarkable opening act. Huddled under shawls and jackets, lounging against colourful bolsters and cushions thrown around, their freezing hands wrapped around earthen kulhars of piping hot chai or badam milk, they now eagerly awaited the main gig—the evening music session of the Sacred Pushkar Festival.

As if on cue, a beautifully designed stage lit up in front; the blues and pinks and purples of its many lights softly reflected off the water of the lake in the backdrop. Over the next five hours, the audience sat in rapt attention as musicians—from near and far, of cultures familiar and foreign, some famous and revered for years, others up-and-coming but already loved— took to the stage to perform music that enthralled, entertained and wowed.

The music was mystical, so was the setting. For the two nights of the festival, the venue itself had turned into a scale model of the town, offering everything that Pushkar offers— the holy lake, the ghats, the old houses and havelis along them, brightly decorated camels ambling alongside colourfully attired locals, pop-ups selling hot traditional favourites such as malpuwas and kachodis. Milling among them all were locals and tourists, devotees and hippies—all happily partaking in the music and a slice of the colour, action, frenzy and divinity that is Pushkar.