Travellers not tourists in India

[Guest post by Chloe Finn in Jaipur and Pushkar, India]

  My friend and I decided to stay in Jaipur, the pink city, for four days. It is a fascinating but overcrowded city where the eye is called to digest cultural information, colours and movement.

On our second day in Jaipur, an old man asked us on the street, “What is not possible in India?” He smiled, looking at our troubled faces and said, “Nothing!”

We decided then on to avoid big cities so that we could really be travellers and not tourists, to have the chance and serenity to speak to the villagers and find out more about their places, their stories and their arts and crafts. We took off spontaneously to a much smaller town. To our big surprise Pushkar, our next stop, was jam-packed with farmers, travellers, villagers and camels! We had just arrived in the heart of Pushkar’s Camel Fair.

People from all over Rajasthan were visiting the village to buy and sell camels, sheep, horses, fabric, jewellery and to celebrate for five days long, until the full moon signifies its end. Pushkar’s sacred Lake Sarovar stands gloriously in the middle of the town. With its 52 bathing ghats, people are invited to bathe in it, cleansing their sins and curing skin diseases as it is believed by the Hindus.

The site was breathtaking as countless people with the most beautiful coloured garments dived into the sacred waters. Everything was decorated. The whole town was radiating festivity.

After wandering around the alleys of Pushkar, we found ourselves in a tiny, astonishing coffee place hidden on the first floor of a building.

Τravelling through India, I felt the urge of sketching almost constantly, wanting to capture the stories of the people, the colours they live in, the nature they are surrounded by.

And finally, a fisherman gliding peacefully in the Narmada River by Shivapuri Island.

Chloe Finn is a designer, illustrator and artist based in Thessaloniki, Greece. You can find more of Chloe’s sketches here: www.behance.net/chloefinn