Cairo, the 12th April, 2010


Agra, Jaipur, Pushkar - India PART IV

I've often heard that the north of India was special in many ways. I had no idea of the divisions within this enormous country and how much the northen identity of India was connected with the maharajas and all they left behind when they lost most of their power (although some of their most relevant descendants still live in family palaces and enjoy the status of royalty in the country).

What enchanted me the most in these northen cities I visited was their natural beauty and the luxurious palaces recently transformed into hotels full of history, wonders and an exotic flavour I never found in Egypt where everything seems too familiar to me.
I also felt amazed with the contrast between materialism - often extreme - and spirituality. This is a country where people know, for sure, we are made of flesh and bones as well as SPIRIT!


AGRA:
Agra can easily be defined by the TAJ MAHAL, considered one of the Modern 7 Wonders of the World and rightfully so, I must say. Never in my life did I see such opulent, perfect, simetric beauty and never did I feel such a sense of ETERNAL LOVE just by staring at this monument dedicated to Love.
Describing Taj Mahal will not do the trick, you just have to see it yourself to understand hat I mean. Being there reminded me that there were romantic fools (like me!) who truly believe in eternal love and total devotion to a person that occupies our heart.

There was a smooth breeze that morning we visited the TAJ MAHAL and not even the thousands of tourists and erratic, rebel, out of control monkeys which hanged aroung the crowds could distract me from the gift of BEING THERE, taking in so much BEAUTY and LIGHT!


JAIPUR:
Oh, we saw some incredible hystorical treats in Jaipur and I even climbed (with a very small group of fearless adventurers like me) till the top of a lonely monastery where we chatted and were blessed by a Bhramin (like a priest from the highest caste). At the top of an altar where several hindu deities were laying around in colourful manner, there was a kitchen, plastic clock doing a heavy tick-tock that made me laugh. No matter how highly evoluted you are as a human being, you cannot escape the fact that you're still living in this material dimension where time counts...
That clock did not manage to put me out of my spiritual mood as well as it didn't blind me to the point that I would fall in the common error of thinking about India as a salvation-guru-that- changed-my-life kind of place.
No matter how many spiritual titles one may have, if you're still on Earth, you're still human and vulnerable to all our incongruences.
In a land of Gurus by the meter, I confirmed that there are no TRUE gurus, except the ones who do not accept that title and are able to orient you towards yourself.
I will not do the description of all the gorgeous monuments I saw but simply say I had a blast enjoying the sensual beauty of it all and having chai, chats and laughs with local merchants, watching them move their head side to side while talking and repeating in so many manners: NAMASTE for you!

PUSHKAR:

Oh...this was one of my favourite places in the whole treap and I still don't know why, exactly.
Pushkar seems to be a simple village with a local market and an opulent, once again GORGEOUS hotel recovered from a maharaja palace.
I had my ayurvedic massage, I invited myself to a local wedding and wandered around the markets of the village as if I had lived there forever.
I even met KIKASSO, an indian painter by this name who was a character worth knowing!
Pushkar is a simple place full of magic.
One of the best moments of the whole treap also happened in this village and that might contribute for my preference:
After visiting a Sikh temple, I waited at a coffee-shop for some friends who were travelling with us. I ordered my chai and started to talk with the owner of the place as well as the cook who was congratulated for selling me the best chai I ever tasted.
In Bombaim, the chai usually came with buffalo milk that has a sour, funky taste to it (not good!). At this Pushkar's coffee-shop, the chai came with the famous Sacred Cow milk, lots of sugar and so much love...(the secret ingredient to anything tasty!).

As we talked about life in Pushkar, I watched the people coming and going, entering the Sikh temple and buying offering of flowers and incense to offer to their own, varied gods.

Some cows also passed by, slowly and with the pace of the Queen of England!
Very cute and disturbing as no one is allowed to touch or harm the cows (enough harm all the garbadge they eat from the streets).
I found some dancing treats in Pushkar and dreamt of not leaving this place...ever!
The hotel was a paradise and the wedding me and my friend Guida attended was pure magic!

I am dreaming about coming back there...