shopping madness and 'holy' men who want your money

I've been in a town called Pushkar for the last week and a half. This town is in the Northwest desert region of India; the state is called Rajasthan. I have been hanging with three awesome friends during my time here (Natahna and Danny from Prince George, and my friend Aruna from Switzerland).

Pushkar has been a completely different experience for me than any other so far. Many of the foreigners seem to come here for business and leisure (mad shopping). The locals seem to be taking advantage of the foreigners, and the foreigners are either fighting the locals to stop heckling them or trying to get a sweet deal on an item of clothing, etc. And meanwhile no one is really communicating all that well due to language/cultural barriers.

As for me when I got here I found myself spinning around in shopping land trying to see what I can buy and eat. In the midst of it all I was dealing with a lot of guilt and worry about being a consumer. And I've never really been one to want to sit around too much and just consume. This is quite the contrast to the previous 3 months I spent practicing and studying yoga up north. That lifestyle seemed to help me to feel more balanced all round.

And on top of everything this is supposed to be a 'holy town'. Yet I have not had any experience of holiness thus far. The first day we got here Natahna and I were forced to take a 'holy' flower for the 'holy' lake. When we got there the men were shouting at us to throw the flower in the lake and give them money for blessing us. Needless to say our experience here got off to a rather unpleasant start.

This is quite a shock to me as it is the first experience I have had in India (minus the madness of Delhi) that seems to be poverished on a spiritual level due to a fixation on money. I just don't like to be a part of the whole thing which is why I am feeling a bit of guilt. With all this it isn't surprising to me that one of those nicely dressed women who stand on the corner and beg found her way into my purse when I was passing by and stole my cell phone. Theft is something I haven't come any where near to in this country until I got here.

I am really glad to have had this experience though. I have learned so much about myself and have experienced many new insights about what I want to do and how I want to live when I return home. I leave for Rishikesh again on Sunday where I will continue my yoga studies for 3 and a half weeks. After that I will do a 10 day silent Vipassana meditation retreat. Then I will just have a week before I head on home!!

In a few hours I will be going on an overnight camel safari!!!!! These camels are huge! I'm so excited. So I best be off to prepare for that adventure. I will add some pictures another time.

Lots of love to all
:D