Pushkar Fair : A story of 10 Rs note

Evening 5 me and my travel buddy for the trip Photographer Ankita Shrivastava started our journey to Pushkar from the capital of Indian state Madhya Pradesh “Bhopal”.

We started our journey with a question, What is travelling for us?

As this is the most common question asked by our freinds and relatives. So I asked Ankita , What makes her travel to new places??

She smiled and said for me to travel is to capture the moments in my camera. I said, it was but obvious for the photographer DNA in you and I laughed back.

Then she asked me to answer the same question.

I usually give a lame answer to all, that traveling makes me happy.

But trust me it is more than the happiness factor. Actually, I believe there are two ways of living life or rather enriching our lives. One to continue what you do in your daily life and just be yourself OR everyday experience yourself as a new human being as a better person than before. So while traveling I become the later one.

Whenever I travel to any place I meet so many people, an encounter their culture, language, practices, food habits and much more. Whenever I travel, I add some traits in my personality.

It’s always like, Ek adha khud ko main chor ata hu or ek adha pura main saath le aata hu.

With this line, Ankita said I got it Abhijeet, you gave a detail explanation which I will remember for life , so ab bas kar dude and then we both started laughing.

Why Pushkar ?

1. This city has the only temple of Lord shri Bramha Ji
2. Pushkar fest

I have been keep sharing in many of my blogs about the diversity of Indian Culture and religion. If we just keep following the religion significance of the place, we can explore almost each and every part of our country and its incredible legacy.

travelandfoodstories on Pushkar Mela :

Whenever we hear the word mela a colorful picture of joy comes to our mind. Food, games, amusement, lights, camera and many smiling faces.

But the story behind the #colours are not the same like what it looks to us. You might have read 100’s of articles on Pushkar fest or you might have seen news reports on the Pushkar Mela, from 15 crores bull to Kailash Kher’s performance.

But in this post, I would like to flip the coin. Let’s see the stories behind the color. Let’s see the shades of grey lies between the colors.

So, imagine you are in mela, what will be the value of Rs. 10 for you ?

May be a bottle of water or a plate of chaat (indian snack) or a ice cream candy, right?

But in mela for me the value of Rs. 10 note was the cost of a photo of a lost childhood.

Rs. 10 was the cost of a child education

Rs. 10 was the cost of an old man who is searching for peace and food for his life.

In my 2 days of stay at Pushkar I have met many localities, captured hundreds of moments, now here I want to share story of Bhawarlal Singh and Jr. Shiva.

So on 9th November 2019 morning, we reached Pushkar. Thereafter we took an auto and asked him to take us to Mela ground.

While in transit from our resort to Mela ground, I asked my auto-rickshaw friend about the city and places to explore. There he gave me a rough idea about the Mela and other places to visit. After then he dropped us at Mela ground.

So finally we landed at the place, we looked at each other and smiled back, deep inside our heart we both said the same line, “one more wish fulfilled from our Bucket list”. #pushkarmela done 😁😁

So now we were on, we were moving our eyes in all the direction. And all I could see is people, camel, and horses. It was like the whole world has gathered at a single place. (it sare janwar eksath )

We saw horses and camel which were kept for display. People were taking camel rides. Many of them were eating food. But most of them were clicking the photographs.

Basically, Pushkar mela is an attraction for photographers and bloggers from each part of the world. They come and capture the mela and the city and create their stories.

We too were one of them. So Ankita took out her gadgets and I took out my pen and we both were ready to create our story.

On one side, we saw the stalls and on the other side, we saw the desert area where we saw a few locals sitting near their tents.

So before entering me, I said to Ankita, that let us talk to the local people on the other side and try and know about the place. She agreed and we both went towards a man and women sitting in the desert.

While reaching towards them, the man sitting there, said to us Beta (dear) please give us 10 rs we both are hungry then you can click our picture.

We both could not understand anything, but then they were hungry so we agreed to pay money to them.

Then I tried to have a conversation with the couple and Ankita was trying to take some shots of faces of Pushkar.

The name of the man was Bhawarlal Singh and name of the lady was Savita . After knowing each other’s name, I tried to know them more about the place and Mela.

Thereafter Bhawarlal, had an outburst of his emotion, maybe his hunger or anger but he gave me a real truth and question.

He said Mela is all about people coming from all across the globe and making stories. Like you people came to us and asked us to click the picture. It is a business, we were hungry so we asked for money and you want to take our picture to exhibit to the world. But what you want to exhibit our poverty and helplessness?

His words made us numb and we both turned off our gadgets. Seeing this, Bhawarlal said my dear don’t feel bad, i got little emotional from my hunger so I said it. So you people please do your job as nothing can change.

Yes, Bhawarlal Ji was right at that time we could not do anything except helping them with some cash.

After a reality check for Bhawarlal, we both decided to spend some time with the couple, so as to share some happy moments with them.

After spending some time with them, and creating some trell we decided to enter the Mela ground.

After crossing the road we entered the Mela ground. There all we could see where thousands of heads walking down the street.

We also saw many photographers and bloggers clicking the photo and creating stories for their blogs.

Guys, now I want to share few images with you all and a question which came in our minds (which was also triggered by Bhawarlal Ji)

Guys what you felt after watching the above portraits or rather what caption will you give to these images

Faces of India! , Vibrant Rajasthan! Or Pushkar Stories 2019, Right?

But, guys I have a different story to Share. I would like to caption “the grey shades of India”.

You might be thinking why this travel and food blog is taking an off-track negative turn.

But friends I can’t stop myself to highlight the fact. Indeed Pushkar mela is one of the biggest mela in India attracting lakhs and crores of tourists, generating crores of Income and employment for the locals.

But is this a real employment, kids are walking in the street with makeup on their face attracting people like us for Rs. 10.

Yes for a 10 rs note, which will fill their empty stomach at night.

But the same 10 rs note is motivating them to continue the same work.

The same 10 rs note made them away from their childhood.

And yes the same 10 rs note made them away from their right to education.

We just shared a few images, there were hundreds of people who were dressed fancy and hundreds of us taking and talking for our blogs.

When I and my travel buddy Ankita Shrivastava planned our trip to Pushkar, we both wanted to take such shots, we both wanted colorful stories which we could share with you all, but today we are not happy.

We ended up our journey with a question, whether these were the vibrant colors of Pushkar or Grey shade story?

And then I came out of the story of 10 rs note.

This time I am also leaving you all with a question, Is this is a legacy of our country?

Please do share your views! Mail us at travelandfood.logs@gmail.com