Camel fair in Pushkar November 2015 - part 1

Our first trip to the desert went to Pushkar in Rajasthan, one of the oldest existing towns in India.  Legend has it that Lord Shiva cried so much and for so long after the death of his wife Sati, that his tears created two holy ponds. One of them is in Pushkar and is one of five pilgrimage sites for devout hindus.
We got out of bed VERY early on a Saturday morning and arrived at the train station in Gurgaon at 6am.

Hurry! The train stops for 2 minutes only! And that was actually true!!

We had booked seats in the luxurious first class - neither goats nor chickens in sight! The service was superb - we got tea in a small red thermos flask, a bottle of fresh water and hot food that would put many an airline to shame.

 

The welcoming committee at our camp.

Outside our tent with the compulsory marigold necklace.

On the first evening we went to visit the horse fair.

 Goodies for horsies.

"The Pushkar Fair (Pushkar Camel Fair) or locally Pushkar ka Mela is an annual five-day camel and livestock fair held in the town of Pushkar in the state of Rajasthan, India. It is one of the world's largest camel fairs. Apart from the buying and selling of livestock, it has become an important tourist attraction. Competitions such as the "matka phod", "longest moustache", and "bridal competition" are the main draws for this fair, which attracts thousands of tourists."

 

Lots of people and lots of activity everywhere. Here some men sorting and selling sugar cane.

In the distance you can see the big ferris wheels - to be honest, a mobile ferris wheel that size (or any size) in India? Not today, thank you very much.

These three lovely boys gladly posed for the cameras with their beautiful turbans...

... then they followed for some time asking for baksheesh.

We had a lovely first day that ended with dinner and entertainment back at the camp.

The guys looking after the buffet were a little shy, but could, in the end, not resist a camera.

To be continued ...

Westin Sohna - a couple of days away from the city

We decided to get away from the worst of the Gurgaon noise and bad air and head south about an hour, which is where you will find Sohna village where Westin Sohna has a Spa and Resort. A nice place to relax, play games, swim and just be.

 The entrance to our room.

We met up with a Danish/British family there and had some fun and games with them.

 Naan in the making.

Breakfast on the terrace, which, even after almost 2 years in India still feels a little strange considering it is the beginning of November!

 Their pet emu joined us.

 And the local fowl.

Well, we tried, but it felt we risked life and limb on those bikes - pretty much nothing worked, but it was a good laugh.

Beautiful bougainvilleas in many colours everywhere.

 Where else? A quick visit in the Japanese restaurant.

A nice little getaway with lots of quality family time.

Bookaroo - Children's Literature Festival, Delhi Nov 28-29, 2015

Maia and I have had a very inspiring and exciting day - a day in the world of books!

"Thanks to book lovers BOOKAROO has grown from strength to strength over the years. While in 2011 it featured over 60 speakers participating in over 90 events. Speakers from 12 countries including India spread the joy of reading through their talks, readings, performances, music, craft… In 2012 we had 97 speakers.

Bookaroo is much more than just storytelling – although we have plenty of that!
The festival includes workshops on everything from mathematics to cartoons, from building alien worlds to recycling paper; as well as story sessions under the banyan tree, puppet shows, and a doodle wall to let your imagination take flight!"
On bookaroo's facebook page you can read more.

 

We walked around the area in Shankar's Centre for Children and the British School. There was a lot of activity - painting, arts and crafts, and an amazing list of guest speakers. Maia and I decided to go to "The Thetre" and listen to Roopa Pai talk about "By the Power of the BG" - the power of Bhagavad Gita - a part of an epic Hindu poem called Mahabharata's Bhishma Parva. It is a very important literary work in Indian history and tells stories of the Lord Krishna.

Roopa Pai has written a book called The Gita - the stories about Krishna written for children.

Looking to pass the time before the next workshop, we continued checking out what was on offer, and suddenly walked into ...

... Martin Widmark!! Here is his Swedish site. Maia has read several of his books about Jerry and Maya's detective agency (Lassemajas detektivbyrå) and looooooves them. And so do I!
It was of course a thrill to meet the author in person and have a chance to talk with him. Maia had brought one of the books from home for him to sign.

He had come to Delhi and the Bookaroo festival to promote his latest project together with 3 other authors. "The Sherlock Holmes Connection" Two Swedish and two Indian authors--Martin Widmark, Anushka Ravishankar, Katarina Genar and Bikram Ghosh--follow the journey of the magnifying glass of Sherlock Holmes in four gripping mystery stories. Here is a link to an interview with them about this project.

Yeah, well, worth a try at least.

 

It was interesting hearing the four of them talk about this project and of course we went to the book store afterwards and of course we got that book signed as well. Martin Widmark and Katarina Genar turn out to be very nice people.

 Stacking up!

 "So nice to meet you, Maia!!"

 Yes, we hope so too.