'Sit here please foreigner' was the blunt instruction that hit me, as soon as I set foot in the train heading from Jaipur to Ajmer on New Years Day. The words came from a twelve year old boy, sat with his family in a bay just inside the door of the carriage, and I was quite taken aback for a second but decided to oblige as he seemed good natured.
For the two hour journey this cheeky young lad, so curious, and so pleased about meeting a 'foreigner', asked me everything he could possibly think of, holding back nothing whilst the rest of his family sat deadly silent. His English was perfect, as he goes to an 'English medium school' as they call it. The questions flew like shells from a machine gun: 'What country are you from?', 'what state you from?', 'what is your state capital?', 'do you have tsunamis?', 'is it colder than India?', 'do you learn Hindi at school', 'are you married or unmarried?', 'do you have a girlfriend?', 'how old are you?', 'you're 30 and unmarried???!!!'. He quietened down for a while, and I spent time looking out the open window at the increasingly arid scenery. Every so often he'd think of another one: 'Are you veg or non-veg? (I.e.- do you eat meat), 'who is your god?', 'how much is a bottle of water in England?', 'what is your salary?'. As normal in our culture I'd never normally discuss the last one, but I'd heard that Indians openly talk about what they earn, so I saw no harm in making him more aware of the world outside India by answering honestly. As a guide, even a minimum wage salary in Britain will still earn you twice that of a doctor here, but of course living costs are considerably cheaper here so it's all relative.
I'm hoping to try out all seven classes of train whilst in India to see what they're like, and this was the bottom rung - '2nd class unreserved' - the firm-cushioned cattle-class, you associate with images of people hanging off the side and roof. Those are in fact rare occurrences and it was pretty quiet that day, so at £0.50 for a two hour, 135km journey it couldn't be more of a bargain. It was nowhere near as uncomfortable as I expected, in fact nothing can be anymore after those nasty bus journeys I did in the Himalayas! Once at Ajmer, I took a rickshaw to the bus station, and an hour later was in the small desert town of Pushkar.
The lake at Pushkar
Pushkar is one of the most sacred sites in India for Hindus, and it was quite noticeable, with many Indians visiting to worship in one of the 500 temples or go bathing in the holy waters; doing small ceremonies by its side, and dropping flower petals onto the surface. After finding a hotel amongst then narrow jumbled backstreets that make up the town, I went for a wander around the small lake. I took great care to tread between, and hop over all the goose and pigeon poo as I wandered around the paved lake edge in my socks - a rule for all Hindu and Muslim religious places means you had to remove your shoes, even outside. As the sun set I sat on a ghat (set of steps) in the sun, taking in this interesting scene.
Lakeside ghats
Vishnu temple
I looked round the rest of the town and started wandering the colourful, narrow and windy backstreets where the locals live. I've become more comfortable with exploring certain areas further afield, now I understand the people and country better, and it was fascinating seeing a glimpse of the humble but happy lives many people live. I've mentioned before that there are a lot of stray dogs on the streets in India, and I've found most of them to be quite placid until now, rarely even barking. Turning a corner in one of said streets, I glimpsed a couple of street dogs asleep on a step. As I passed one of them started barking quite loudly and aggressively without warning, so I walked on quickly. Then suddenly I felt a pain in my left calf. I was confused at first, then I realised the blighter had chased after me and bitten my leg.
In a bit of pain, as well as shock I sat down on some steps. A lady saw it all out of her window, and shouted to her friend who came over, asking in English what happened and could she see the bite. She said one word, one I didn't want to hear - 'hospital'. Her neighbour, a lad of my age arrived home on his motorbike at that moment and she told him the story and ushered me to hop on the bike. We weaved slowly around all the backstreets for a couple of minutes, and arrived at the hospital before I knew it. This kind chap spoke to the receptionist and then led me straight into a doctors consulting room. It wasn't the medical standards I'm used to, but at the same time wasn't at all bad. The doctor saw a tiny trace of blood where the dogs teeth had lightly pierced the skin, and said whilst it didn't look bad, I'd have to have the rabies vaccination as a precaution, as street dogs are sometimes infected - five jabs over the next month! Marvelous. At least his fee was painless at only £1 in cash! The hospital didn't hold the drugs, and I was then taken on the motorbike to a local pharmacy, who called a nurse out. Half an hour later the guy rocked up on his motorbike and gave me an injection in both arms. One of them actually left me with more pain than the dog bite itself! I also asked for something for my cold and was quickly handed a small foil of unidentifiable drugs without charge. Funnily enough I didn't take them. The owner of the hotel where I stayed told me that night that all the dogs in town have supposedly been collected, neutered and vaccinated against rabies in recent times which gives some comfort, but still, you never know.
Nature in harmony. It wasn't this dog, but it's similar looking mate around the corner
It was really great that night to spend a couple of hours on a video call via Skype, to my extended family who were all at my parents for New Years Day lunch, and for a change the quality was pretty clear.
The following morning I hiked to Savitri temple, set atop a single steep lump of a hill, all on its own. Anyone who's read my blogs of late would think I've gone through some religious transformation and become a Hindu. In actual fact they have temples everywhere so sometimes I visit by chance, sometimes cause its an interesting building, and sometimes they're just unavoidable when on top of a hill you want to hike! There was a fantastic view back down over the town, to the surrounding hills and far off into the distance in all directions, and it was quite noticeable here that the town was most definitely in the desert, with sand and scrub all around.
I was glad to visit the unique town of Pushkar, but knew beforehand that there wasn't that much to see. So less than a day after I arrived, I headed back to Ajmer on the bus with all the locals, and caught the next train to Jodhpur, feeling a little wiser and a little sorer!
Nature in harmony. Wasn't this dog either!
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