Ajmer & Pushkar

The last phase of trip was just Diksha and me, as Dhruva had to head back to college. We headed out from Jodhpur early in the morning, and got to Ajmer by lunch. Ajmer is such a pretty city, with Ana Sagar, a lovely lake in center and surrounded by the Aravallis. Ajmer has apparently been given status of a heritage city.

As we drove next to the lake, it was so brimming full, we just had to get off 

And then imagine our excitement when we saw so many pelicans in the lake

We first headed to the well known Ajmer Sharif, the dargah of Sufi saint Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishty. 

                                          

That's the entrance to the dargah

We did the full ritual of 'chaadar chadana', as I'd really liked the experience from my last visit a few years back. Diksha, in the midst of the new experience

That embarrassed smile at the newness of the experience

The dupatta on the head is mandatory, and the red dupatta they put on us after the chaadar chadana ritual at the inner shrine

Dargah Sharif done, we headed onto Pushkar. Some Saunf fields on the way, with such pretty yellow flowers that it brought to mind Wordsworth and his Daffodils 

The Pushkar lake

The pushkar lake, or pushkar sarovar as it's locally called has 52 ghats and is called 'Tirth Raj',  the king of pilgrimage sites. According to hindu theology, story goes that Shiva cried so much, and for so long at the death of his wife Sati, that it formed this lake. 

Pushkar is also one of oldest existing cities of India. This picture is courtesy Google, just to show what a pretty city it is, again lake in center and surrounded by the Aravallis

Pushkar has some really interesting and quaint shops. And strangely enough we landed in the same shop from which I had bought a souvenir (replica of Shiva's sandals), on my previous visit, and this time round Diksha bought a Tibetan singing bowl which she's learning how to do.

We asked these women for directions, and it was interesting how she spoke through the veil

The Brahma temple. unique for more reasons than one......... known to be over two thousand years old, and described in the Mahabharata, as the most auspicious temple to start ones life pilgrimage from....plus stated to be the only Brahma temple in existence. That's the whole of the temple. Don't know if it's a feature of temples in the north, but it brings to mind how even the most well known kasi vishwanath temple of varanasi is just this small temple, which is such a difference after the sprawling pillared temples of the south.

Matka lassi after a long long day, before we headed out to Jaipur for our flight home

And this ends the chronicles of a visit to the fascinating state of Rajasthan. A few phrases I learnt there...... khamma ghani saa (namasthe),  and pachaa mi laa laa ( see you again) and tharaa ghana ghana shukariya (thank you very very much) . 

Tharaa ghana ghana shukariya Rajasthan !!