Travel Bug - Ajmer and Pushkar

NP Singh has friends in Pushkar. Denzil Solomon - originally from Ajmer and now settled in Jaipur, worked briefly in Hyderabad and was NP's neighbour. Denzil and NP love a drink, love good food and a good time, so pretty soon all of NP's friends became Denzil's friends and vice versa. Anyway since we were in Jaipur, NP wanted to meet Denzil and his friend Muskaan, a transport company owner, and another foodie. His original plan was to go and stay overnight but I scuttled it. 

Denzil, me, NP and Muskaan

Now NP is a very affectionate, straight from the heart person who enjoys his life. That's his life philosophy. Enjoy life. Live in the moment. Don't live for tomorrow. I love his philosophy. He also is very funny and always has something to say that makes you laugh. So I love taking his calls which come at any time of the day, stretching right up to 12 in the night. NP has devised his own vocabulary for things  - sports shop means a wine shop, matches means drinking, Jai Hind means finish, players means people concerned, heavy metal is heavy people. He enjoys his music, has a great capacity for food and drink, has a very strategic mind and can see things as they are without complicating them. Most people say that he is unemotional, but I think he has a very soft side which he covers up in his fun and laughter. He loves his family, dotes on his kids Naman and Nimisha, has friends in different circles, and generally enjoys the good life!

We had lost the Baroda game and for a while, all seemed lost and then we realised that if we beat Mumbai and Haryana we still have a chance to qualify. I have great faith in the Ajmer dargah and since my visit last year, things have gone very well. So I insisted we go the next day itself.

Muskaan, Zeeshan, NP and me

At 8 in the morning we got our cab, picked up Denzil enroute and drove to Ajmer which is about 150 odd kms. Denzil works in a masala company based in MP and is the Area Sales Manager for Rajasthan. He's an earnest and loveable person constantly going 'NP Bhaiyya this and that'. We reached Ajmer at 1130 or so perhaps and met Muskaan, a tall, lean, bearded, ruggedly handsome young man with the flourish of the Rajput. His friend Lala was there as was Denzil's mamaji, who had been an avid cricketer in his younger days and filled us in on those details. We all piled into Muskaan's new Scorpio for a trip to the dargah.

At the Pushkar ghat

Pushkar lake

Unlike the last time when we were on our own, this time, Denzil's friend Zeeshan who was his school mate and who is a chisti in the dargah was there to receive us and take us through the process. For the first time we bought a chadar. I did my usual tying and untying of strings and we came out feeling good about the visit to the dargah.

Malpua

Pushkar lake and the iconic hills

Long walk back to the car and then we headed off to Pushkar. We headed straight to the lake and they summoned a priest they knew. NP had lost his father recently and so they did a few rituals. I was asked to sit as well and I did. There were some foreigners who were doing the pujas themselves. 

Sand art near the desert

The artist Mr Ajay Rawat

Rituals done we went to eat a kachori and a malpua, bought a genuine leather belt for 200 bucks, headed to the desert and on the way back stopped at a sand art exhibition. Then we headed back to Ajmer, our religious and spiritual commitments completed.

At Muskaan's farmhouse I stretched out and slept under the blue sky while they cooked and cooked and drank while cooking. I woke up in time for dinner, ate some lovely bhati that Lala got from his dhaba which is apparently in the middle of the forest! 

We headed back and reached Jaipur by about 1130. The dinner being heavy we got a glass of butter milk on the way and a lassi in Jaipur which was frightfully expensive!

As NP would say after the completion of anything - Jai Hind.