My new friend at the Pushkar Camel Fair, India

The Fair is a sight to behold...a PNE on steroids, with perhaps 1000 camels being traded....camels as far as the eye can see.  The fair has the usual rides, but also a large arena for shows, miles of roadways where colourful tack for horses and camels are sold... bells, Pom-poems, fringe, coloured ropes and swags... all to make your horse or Camel look fabulous in the Indian fashion.  We rode through the fair in carts pulled by camels, a bumpy ride, with the Camel behind your cart trying to thrust his nose into your cart...perhaps take a bite!

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Thousands of families, women in saris, men in turbans, and darling bright-eyed children in tow, all vie for space on the fairs byways with motor bikes, camels, carts, cars, families of wild pigs, and beautiful horses being ridden by hand some young men.  Then there are the begging children with unwashed matted hair and dusty bare feet swarming around us for lotions, shampoo, and course money.

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The noise of camels bellowing, horses neighing, cars and motor bikes honking, vendors calling out for customers, and speakers amplifying the singers in the arena, it is all an excited roar of a country fair.

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The horses are stunning, glistening black, and then surprisingly white, some seemingly albino....vendors with six or seven of these beauties in tented stalls, and then there are the stud farms with magnificent stallions, quite dramatic in their maleness!

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The Indian people all want to say hello, clasp hands in the 'namaste"blessing, that we all know from our yoga class. The children smile and say hello, giggling in the folds of their mother's sari, and then the mothers grin, and urge their little ones to wave and smile...quite charming.  It makes us feel special!

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An unexpected twist to our visit is the Indian Government's freeze on the 500and 1000 rupee note. (50 rupees is 1 CAD). This has been instituted to halt the introduction of millions of counterfeit rupees from Pakistan.  However, it has also halted spending, especially to small vendors who survive in their cash economy.  The banks will remain open all weekend in order for folk to exchange these two notes for newly printed ones, but the lineups are five hours long!

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We've all said "It's India!"

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Today being November 11th, we stopped the bus at 11:00 for a brief few words about the Canadians and the wars of the last century and this one.  Brian, who led the small service, asked if any of us would like to add personal notes.  I felt compelled to share a brief reflection on the visit to Vimy that John and I took in 2012, and how we felt walking through the trenches and seeing the conditions of those young soldiers in 1917.  Then Jane Mortimer sang 'Where have all the flowers gone" and we all sung the choruses. Quite moving, a few tears, all sitting in our crazy orange tourist bus.

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This evening, on returning to the hotel, we grouped chairs around in a circle on the hotel patio, and Jane spoke a few words about Leonard Cohen, and then sang His "Hallelujah".  Again we joined her for the choruses.

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An excitingly tumultuous time at the fair.....A very reflective day for this small group of Canadians!