In some ways, we repeated ourselves today, going to much the same places, + following the same routes. First, however, we walked down to the railway stn to book our tickets out, to Ajmer, the town close to Pushgar, on Friday. The big annual cattle fair is on at Pushgar from the 4th to the 8th, so we plan to see at least some of it. Our business done, we set off to see the town again.
We went first to the Palace Museum, + spent about an hour wandering around. It was, however, disappointing. Nothing in the museum interested me very much, but worse, we weren’t even allowed to enjoy the building itself, because of the noisy crowds. The tours were inescapable – if one rushed ahead, one ran into the back of the next tour; if one hung back to let one pass, there was another one pounding thro’ close on its heels. And they all seemed to have children fascinated by the sound of their own screams, + parents who didn’t hear, or didn’t care. It was a relief to escape to the bustle of the street – at least the noise there didn’t hurtle back at one as an echo.
By now it was quite late in the afternoon, too late to go off to see any of the sites out of town, but we did visit the Folk Art museum. This was better, not really because of the museum itself, which, by way of a change, had too much writing, too much explanation, while the things themselves weren’t interesting in themselves. However, there was a brief, an all-too brief, demonstration of the art of puppetry. The display was very funny, with a good variety of puppets, all of which, however, are freely available, + at a reasonable price, in the ordinary tourist shops around town. We had in fact bought a puppet this morning for Jennifer, my niece, + we were delighted to see one almost identical being put thro’ its paces, to wonderful effect. It is a double puppet – at one end is a glamorous Rajasthani lady, but pull fiercely on the other string, + the puppet flips upside down + becomes a fierce moustachioed gentleman.
We returned for tea + cake, to relax + to write, + then went out to have a thali, a South Indian vegetarian dish, of rice, chapattis. + 4 or 5 curries, where they will keep on topping up your plate until the stuff begins to come out of your ears. We staggered home feeling very fat indeed.
And a thali is still my meal of choice when visiting an Indian restaurant. Otherwise, slightly disappointing.
