So there we were at the ghat. I can't remember this in very much detail or in the correct order but the never to be a priest ex Brahmin monk took me though a ritual involving asking me to think about certain things, in particular family. He would ask questions and I would supply the answers and I would then have to have water from the lake poured over my hands and then I had to gently throw things into the lake. These things were the somethings that the dispatched person had got. I am sure there was some grain (rice?), sugar, milk, flowers, thread, coloured powders(?) and maybe some other things.
During all of the "ceremony" I am sure I was not kneeling or sitting. I couldn't have been standing. I must have been crouched in the Indian style. I was getting thinner. The diet and the exercise was having a beneficial effect. The camel safari had certainly improved fitness and suppleness so almost without thinking I could adopt the squatting pose.
My host was giving me all the patter explaining about all the ghats and how much they cost to maintain on a daily basis. I was trying to take it all in but to cap everything when I threw the grains into the lake out of the early morning mist swirling on the surface came this enormous fish. This was very distracting.
It soon began to dawn on me that this was not going to be free. I could see that it was a variation on my audience with a Guru in Delhi.
There was in fact quite a complicated formula for calculating exactly how much the puja cost based on the number of members of my family on behalf of whom I had said a prayer and made an offering. Then, of course, there was all the stuff I had thrown into the lake and the thread tied around my wrist which was my Pushkar passport (allegedly guaranteeing no further hassle to make puja).
The Parvati Chars (from Himanchal Pradesh) was excellent but the intense high was now subsiding and I was coming a little to my senses. I realised that this could be costly. Having spent money in Jaisalmer on items that I still have to this day and that are very dear to me even now, I had hoped that I would be able to spend a relaxing couple of days in Pushkar and get the budget back on track.
Nahin! No. Not a chance of it. I did haggle and I did try to ensure that if what I was giving was to be used for maintenance of the ghats it should at least be donated to someone who worked on the ghats, or was in a position of responsibility regarding them.
It did seem like quite a lot of money then, but even in 1990 terms Rs180 (about £5.50 then) was excellent value for an hour that included some of the most intense and mystical experiences I have ever known. I can't complain because, of course, depending on the exact date and the phases of the moon, I could also have quite accidentally passported myself to heaven without having to be reborn ever again.
Having initiated me at the lakeside and extracted the price I was taken back to the Sai Baba guest house. It was about 9.00am and I had the whole day ahead of me!
