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Gita and Sita pose impulsively, fingers swirling, feet tapping, eyes smiling. No lens could resist the frame. As the shutter closes, the sisters cease to be exotic gypsy dancers. "Das-panch dena," the models ask for their remuneration. A picture costs at least Rs 5 in the desert.

Dance of the desert

Don Sebastian
2007-03-08 19:37:20

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here. Nagin, the legendary snake woman that inspired scores of Hindi movies, comes alive in a makeshift tent at the fairground. Local boys wrestle to get inside the tent, where three girls seduce them before turning into snakes and skeletons with the help of an innovative light arrangement.

Giant wheels, circus, motor sports...rural families are on an annual outing. A bit of shopping for agricultural tools, homeware, ornaments, sugarcane, ice candy. Deafening music is blaring from all the stalls. Advertising announcements add to it. Amid the cacophony and dust, Rajasthan reveals itself. Pushkar becomes a meeting point of cattle traders, villagers, tribals and gypsies.

On previous days, the fairground witnessed funny events. Camel races, moustache competitions, turban-tying competitions etc. Some of the events were exclusively for the foreigners and they did not let the organisers down. Down the lane magnificent horses graze. A white stallion among them has been chosen the best of the lot. Gulzar is costlier than a fancy car.

Livestock traders and gypsies have been living in tents at the fairground for over a week. Every farmer who owns a camel will bring it to the Pushkar fair. The creature of burden, which fetches Rs 100 for a day's agricultural work, earns up to Rs 200 for a ride in Pushkar. Women collect camel dung to fuel their hearths.

Haunting tunes of the desert flow from ravanatha. Ramlal and Rajeev are looking for customers. They make the instrument themselves, learn to play it themselves and sell it to anyone interested. In the meantime, they give soul to the marketplace through their music. Gypsy girls passing by tap to their music. Men on horses frighten away girls. Music soothes tired camels and edgy horses.

Liquor, meat and egg are out of bounds in this holy town. Almost all the buildings have turned its roof to a restaurant that have paratha-chapathi-dal-gopi north Indian food and bread toast-corn flakes European food on their menu. Wayside eateries cater to the foreign exchange-challenged. Sometimes, everything plays round the Angrez (the English), a local generic term for any Westerner. "Which country?" the local boys would ask if you are wearing anything alien.

Many gypsy tribes -- Kalbela, Bopa -- time their itinerary to the Pushkar fair. Their strange dress, jovial attitude and exotic dance are sure to attract the foreigners. Kalbeliya, gypsy girls, dance to their heart's content when they are not carrying their infants in a cloth cradle hung on a shoulder. They decorate visitors' palms with henna filled in a cone. The fair is a workplace for them.

On a stadium plodded by camels carrying tourists, artistes and acrobats are on the job. They do tricks and trapeze amid small crowds. Small girls walk on tight ropes, bend their bodies to pass through a metal ring and dance before the audience. Boys enact dramas with their chained monkeys. Monkeys somersault like Akshay Kumar and dance like Rani Mukherjee on their master's command.

As dusk falls gypsy tribes pack up to leave the venue. The show is over for them. Truckloads of villagers go home after the trading. Camels and horses are led away. But pilgrims persist. They sleep on the wayside amid camels. Night doesn't reduce the flow of men. They wait for tomorrow to bathe in the holy lake. Giant wheels keep running.