All this weird shit.....

Pushkar, 18-03-1995. The closer I get to my departure time and subsequent arrival back home, the stranger the world seems to become, the weirder everyting that has happened to me during this GRAND TRIP seems to be!!! I walk through Pushkar with a woman on my arm, Rona from Scotland, a great woman who loves to chat which means that I know everything there is to know about her and, still, she is a complete stranger to me. I feel as though I`m the stranger who walks around with the living without them knowing I`m not really there anymore. Cows in the street that look at me with their big bulging eyes, fighting stray dogs and docile donkeys, big and bulky bulls full of hard muscle with their male equipment hanging out of its hairy sheath, follow cows in heat. Thieving monkeys and dark green Bangh Lassies....Nothing of all this can possibly be real. A one-eyed sadhu preparing his morning ganja sigarette is surrounded by french dope heads that are so broke they even lack the money for a morning chai. Soon I`ll be back home and far away from all this weird shit.....

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Pushkar, 17-03-1995. Most of Rona`s amigos left Pushkar today - good riddance to bad rubbish - either to do a new Vipasana meditation course in Jaipur or they just shallowed off to God knows where. This, in effect, means that Rona has started to neglect her twice a day meditation. One hour early morning and another hour late afternoon. Usually I lay around in her hammock while she does her aftrennoon meditation, smoke a joint and read her Tintin comics. The temperature is on the rise, I can literally feel it getting warmer each new day. This feeling reminds me of my departure for Amsterdam that is slowly but by each passing day getting more prominent. The drum and stick dancing in Pushkar has stopped untill next year, untill the next festival of Holi. These stick and drum dancers were preparing for Holi.

Datura in my Bangh Lassie.

Pushkar, 16-03-1995. Festival of Holi today celebrating the beginning of summer in North India. Naturally all the locals are out en masse carrying buckets and colored powder they throw at and over each other, their main victims are of course all the foreign western freaks, dope heads and strage alternatives from Europe. Throwing colored water and powder all over you is their way to celebrate Holi. Tomorrow the local news papers will be full again with complain stories by the more conservative and middle class - like us the westerners, they are a prime target - of India, about the woes and evils of getting your best clothes spoiled on the way to work. Most of the people I hang out with in Pushkar had a Bangh Lassie last night, one of them flipped out on his lassie, paranoid beyond belief...I myself experienced the best Bangh Lassie ever, even started to halucinate. Maybe they put something else in their lassies last night, i saw dried Datura leaves lying around in the chai shop`s kitchen.

Lord Shiva and his steel iron lungs.

Pushkar, same day night time. Staying at Rona`s hotel means I`ve to cross half the village to get to the Brahma temple for my morning chai and early chat with my friend, the Brahma sadhu who takes care of the temple. With Rona being busy in the morning with her Vipasana meditation together with her israeli friends I can safely get myself out of the way. The chai at the Brahma temple is still hot and sweet, his charas gets me high even before my first Bangh Lassie of the day and his stories still fascinate me......ONCE UPON A TIME LORD SHIVA SPENT TWO THOUSEND YEARS MEDITATING ON TOP OF HIS HOLY MOUNTAIN, MOUNT KAILASH, HIS HIMALAYA RETREAT. AFTER THESE TWO THOUSAND YEARS OF HEAVY MEDITATION, LORD SHIVA CAME DOWN MOUNT KAISLASH LONG RASTA HAIR AND UNKEPT BEARD AND 2000 YEARS OF DIRT COVERING HIS BODY. WHEN HE REACHED THE FOOT HILLS OF MOUNT KAILASH HE DECIDED TO SPEND THE NEXT 165 YEARS SMOKING CHILAM!!! Trying desperately to make notes of his story and smoke his chilam at the same time i try to figure out the - no doubt - hidden meaning of his story but that is obviously way beyond me like it has been with most other stories he has been telling me.....only one thing is cristal clear to me, this bloke, Lord Shiva, must have steel iron lungs!!!

armed locals, and in a frenzy.

Pushkar, 15-03-1995. The last couple of nights I`ve been watching these groups of young local males dancing around in circles every night. The percusionist with a big drum in the middle of the group banging away at his drum like there is no tomorrow while his mates dance around him armed with two wooden sticks. They work themselves into a frency banging their sticks together on the rythm of the drum wallahs percusion, it is hopelessy out of tune but who cares.....? They beat their sticks against those of the guy in front and behind. I`ve no idea about the meaning of this weird phenomenon. Never seen it before in this strange and chaotic country but here in holy Pushkar they have been doing this every night and at several places around the village for the past two weeks or so. Naturally the sight of a lot of locals armed with two sticks each and in a mental frenzy is not a secure feeling in my opinion!!! Wonder if it might have anything to do with the festival of Holi that is a-coming soon.

A lone dionkey and crazy stray dogs.

Pushkar, 14-03-1995. I wake up at 04.00 h. in the early morning because of the mad barking of the street`s population of stray dogs. I look out of my window to see five of them surrounding a lone donkey. Two of the cowardly dogs in front opf the donkey making mock attacks while the other three attack for real from the back. When the poor donkey finally manages to make his escape with the darned dogs in hot pursuit, I can still hear its frantic barking - ia, iaaaaa, iaaaaaaaa - for quite a while.

You and me together in my room.

Pushkar, 13-03-1995. Rona arrived today. She sat down next to me outside the chai shop for a full 10 min. before nudging my ribs and saying "hello my dear". I pay her a bangh lassie and a sweet indian cup of chai and listen to her excited stories about her Vipasana course in Jaipur and the new israeli friends she made. It takes a while but eventually the bangh lassie kicks in and I can see clearly how her pupils start to dilate, her voice starts to waver, her conversation becomes incoherent. As a matter of fact I`ve no longer any idea what she is on about, innocuity rules now in her head, all of it pretty harmless really. She`s still trying hard to make her stories come across but with the bangh lassie taking over her mental capacities and my left hand that is stroking her tighs under the cover of the table, feeling the close proximity of her warm private parts, she starts to give in and wispers in my ear "I love what you`re doing to me, I feel ready to trot, I feel like you and me together in my room". That it is actually my room makes no difference. We get up and I help her with her pack, both of us rushing over to my room......

Still no Rona.

Pushkar, 12-03-1995. Still no Rona around and with my miss New Sealand out of the way as well, I have returned to my easy life style of getting up late with a bangh lassie after my morning chai. My breakfast banana pancakes taste just so GOOD after my first bangh lassie of the day. I watch the funeral processions that go on all day and spend my afternoons at the holy lake or I walk out of Pushkar to the tower where I have discovered a quail population nearby, nice to observe how they get about their quail daily business, not bothered much by my presence at only a few mere meters away. When I return to my hotel for an early evening shower before dinner, I have made it a habit to play a bit with the hotel family`s children and others from the neighborhood. My portret drawings are mightily popular among these kids and even their parents come outside to get their portrets done.

Lathi wielding police men.

Pushkar, 10-03-1995. An important hindu swami or guru is in the village to read some holy hindu scriptures aloud at the main Shiva temple. His presence in Pushkar is drawing lots of devotees and cool babas to the village, locals and foreigners alike. The drawback of this "festival" is that it also draws lots of cops to Pushkar as well. I usually give them a wary look before they can give me one and keep my charas hidden in my underwear, a place where an indian police man will never look for drugs out of pure principle.....Lots of the sadhus that have come to Pushkar for the fetival are obviously on a real religious quest, others have just donned the orange robes to make the Rp. come in a bit faster. A colorful sadhu has got his greedy eyes on my change when I pay for my chai. I try to ignore him but India is not a country where the locals are easily ignored and when he keeps hassling me for a free bangh lassie I call for the assistance of two passing cops. Both of them carry a lathi, a one meter long piece of sugar cane and when I explain my problem assisted by the owner of the chai shop, their joy knows no bounds and, wielding their lathis in anticipation they tell the sadhu to move on giving him a few well aimed knocks over the head for good measure. My colorfull sadhu gets the message real fast and disappears in the crowd.

No more worries.

Pushkar, 09-03-1995. Out of the blue and after a night full with King Fisher, spliffs and passion, Christine told me she would leave at first light for Dehli. That was last night and since I`m a gentleman I helped her with her backpack and brought her to the bus terminal. A few wed kisses, a tear wiped away from the corner of her eye and a last wave with her hand when the bus departed and that was it.....Miss New Sealand, Christine, her stay in my life was short but powerfull, wed kisses and yoga, let`s not forget her claim `"I`m an expert at fellatio". Chances are I`ll never see her agian, yeah these chances are in an elevator and going up sky high, higher with every km. her bus gets closer to New Dehli. To hell and beyond with it...at least I don`t need to worry now about Rona`s imminenet arrival.

Potential disaster.

Pushkar, 08-03-1995. My days in Pushkar pass slowly and peacefully. Early morning chai in the Brahma temple across the road, a bangh lassie after breakfast on the main square with my sketchbook and yoga and sex later in the day with Christine in my room, and good dinner with King Fisher beer at one of the numerous roof top restaurants later at night. Still....potential disaster is looming over me and I`m well awate of it. Rona will be arriving in Pushkar in two days time and I`ve a nagging suspicion in the back of my head she`ll not be very amused when she finds out about my little fling with Christine.