My Delhi-belly and many holi

And then it happened – Katya got sick. It had to happen, didn’t it? I was almost waiting for it to happen.

As J already mentioned, we hired a car with a driver on that day and went to Ajmer - a little town that is nevertheless the second most important pilgrimage place for Muslims in the world (after Mecca of course). In spite of the car being so cool and calming inside, the moment we got out I knew this wouldn’t be an ‘easy’ town (as if there are ‘easy’ towns in India!). We walked up the main street: an incredible mix of well-off Indians, people with unbelievable disabilities and holy men; and stopped by the bright blue gate to the Dargah (Sufi Muslim shrine), or to be more precise it was a big complex with the shrine inside. Of course we had to take off the shoes and cover our heads (J kept nervously looking around, as he only had his sun hat on – no one seemed to mind though).

Unfortunately, we couldn’t take any photos inside, and trying to describe what we saw and experienced is a thankless job I think (in a blog anyway). This is one picture I took in Ajmer, but not in the shrine. These are ruins of an ancient Sanskrit college that was given a facade by a Muslim ruler to turn it into a mosque, which was allegedly built in 2 and a half days. Don't know about that, but it had the most amazing carvings in Arabic on the walls.

All I can say now is that we bought a bowl of roses that we then gave as an offering inside the shrine. We didn’t get inside straight away though. People were only let in at regular intervals (a LOT of people, believe me…). We sat next to a few prettily dressed girls, who started chatting to us straight away. They turned out to speak really good English: one of them was actually finishing a degree in Psychology (!) and the other was coming to London to do her MBA soon. They were in Ajmer with their families, for the first time in their lives I think. It seemed like it was a really big deal for them. They told us a little about what to expect inside (‘do not give any money to anyone! They claim they’ll give it to the poor, but it is not true!’) and we went in…


…a couple of hours later we were going down the same street, shakingly. The image of a cool car was the only thing that kept me going at that stage. We got in and I was already feeling not quite myself. Both me and J had been having short spells of the Delhi-belly, but at that point it wasn’t too bad.

We arrived at our next destination – the holy town Pushkar – when it was getting dark. I was tired, but quite pleased with the hotel we had managed to book (all the ‘ mid-range’ places had been booked, so we had to go for a cheaper option). The hotel was a dusty, soulless affair, but had incredible views and a beauuuutiful rose garden.

We decided to take a stroll into the town center, but the moment we got out of the hotel we saw lightning! Can you imagine – lightning and thunderstorm in India in the middle of the dry season?!! And, for those who’ve never experienced this sort of thing in this part of the world (like I had never done), this was the most breathtaking lightning I had ever seen: the wind started to take up the speed, the trees began to shake violently and large, peanut size, drops of rain started to fall…

The rain continued all night, but nothing like a real monsoon, so we did manage to have our dinner in the town center (on this you may see a separate report from J later. It’s a story of its own…), but on the way back I was like a tree in the wind myself. Later on that night I woke up shaking so badly and feeling so cold that I knew immediately – fever, at least 3 days in bed…

It has now been 3 days and I’m glad to say that, firstly, my illness only lasted for a day, and, secondly, I’m now absolutely fine (well, at least I hope so *she said, superstitiously looking around*). More than that, since that bad night in Pushkar we have stayed in an incredible Rohet Garh:

(there is also a link on the right) and are now preparing for the Holi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi …bring on the Indian New Year’s eve (well, I like calling it like that for a better effect!;)