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Pushkar-II/Camels/--Rajasthan Tripolia-Exploring India-Arun Gaur’s Indian Landscape Images |
Encountering Camels in the Pushkar Fair in November--2008 |
It is a totally different war game encountering camels of Pushkar. The sand is brown. Can it be of any other color? Yes, perhaps of sand color. Camels are brown. They are sandy too. There are no more wondrous beings in the sand than these creatures. Thousands of them gathered on the sands. They were literally ogling me tilting their crany necks. I was afraid. One fine morning there emanated a burst of loud shouts warning to keep yourself away. A camel was running amuck. So furiously it could run with that swinging gate. Quite away from me, I saw it bounding and covering hundreds of feet of stretch of sand. It could squash me or at least break my neck and legs quite easily if I ever happened to come within its creepy, crazy range. Closely, hundreds of other shapes squatted round me. They lounged around me gnashing and grunting their white rough giant sets of teeth, exuding a lot of foam. Then some of them opened their mouths skywards and started pumping out those furious sounds. And then all of them. In an instant all of them Hundreds. It appeared thousands. Thousands of them started belching the same horrendous guttural sounds. But some were sweet and delicate; their red decorative tufts perching delicately and precariously over the tip of their nostrils. The nostrils were still uplifted obliquely but devoid of any legendary trace of vanity that is so often associated with such a stance. As the evening drew they became, though tied to their respective tethered pegs, more and more restive, preparing to uproot their pegs, preparing to bite their neighbors; their long legs hovered around me in increasing commotion. Even their keepers aroused them to pester me if I do not offer them some monetary gains. Another day, I went with my better half and son to another part of the big sandy stretch. There the composed kid-camels were gently resting their chins on the curls of the mother camels. For quite some time. Not stirring a bit. However again the commotion sprang up there too a host of camels ran past me rushing with their necks horizontal and crooked teeth gnashing. The numerous roars of the lions. Hundreds of them roared together. There was no stopping for them. It was terrific and curious. When the sun set, oh, it set so quickly, it filtered through the black wooly humps and masses. They became black and there was no stopping to them. Hundreds of lions roared there and the night fell. |
Pushkar Camels -I: Is it vanity-that sneer of cold command? No, it is red delicacy on the nostril tip. He or she peered at me from close quarters! |
 Pushkar Camels - II: Unadorned. Yet how alive, sharp and conscious. Perhaps wary too of my close presence. She wanted to ignore but could not! |
 Pushkar Camels - III: How gentle! Safe through a long lens I had exchanged with her the mutual gazes. Those deep dark eyes and fair snout. Ah me! |
 Pushkar Camels - IV: Now that you are stirring. With a little open mouth, what you want to say baby? I am all ears like you fat one. |
Pushkar Camels - V: Far away in a corner of undulating sands, the baby sat--its chin resting on the mother's back. Its mouth lost into the wooly embrace. Where else would I find such a comfort? |
 Pushkar Camels - VI: With eyes still half-closed it moved its head a bit. It is a different smile--the one executed by the jocular half-eched mouth line. I rest in the sea of long legs. Drunk and dazed! |
 Pushkar Camels - VII: There is a stirring. They prepare for aggression, They are racial. Of different colors! Those snub-nosed ones, the thick skinned ones. Rearing to fight. I found anger. I found annoyance. I was the ridiculous one. Out of place! |
 Pushkar Camels - VIII: He saw there would be a commotion. I would rest no more. I have to get up to come upto the world affairs. Gone is the well crafted perfect resting place. |
 Pushkar Camels - IX: As I, my wife and son got ready for the feast they picked up the formations. In symmetry, their body contours moved-- their neck lines their ear flaps, ther mouths. We sensed--something was coming, in the air. |
 Pushkar Camels - X: I ask: "Rano, Akash, run for the covers." They are in frenzy. They are lurching their bodies. Swinging them along with the undulating sands. Brown over brown! There is no stopping them! It is a grand feast. Let's have it. |
 Pushkar Camels - XI: There is no stopping now! Trumpets! They planted their dark bodies in the verticality of stiff air. White of their eyes becomes visible. Hair is dark and eerie. Snout is contorted. It is a tremendous, determined effort. Air is big with the roar of lions. |
 Pushkar Camels - XII: Ah me! It is coming. The sky is suffused with the orange of the setting sun. Has it made me devil of myself? Now who would recognize the goodness of me? I am all a black shape, sharp and etched against the rich glow of sky! |
 Pushkar Camels - XIII: Ah me! Ah me! It has to come. The sun is me and I am the sun. We are blurred. Who is more powerful? Not me, not even the sun! We looked at the melting, respecting it, awe-struck. It was a bulk, a shadowy bulk little moving like the moving of the sun. |
 Pushkar Camels - XIV: Ah me! Is it the last blazing? Has the sun blazed once more? For the last time? Just a flicker. Just a flicker. Shakespeare has said: "Fear no more the hear of the sun". The sun is brighter. I am darker. The hump of the camel is blacker. All are flickers. Fear no more. It is the grand feast. |
 Pushkar Camels - XV: Ah me! Ah me! I celebrate with Whitman the Song of Myself. I am the dark one. Nay, we are the dark ones. The sun is dark. I am dark. I am the mystical one. The camel is dark. Its snout is dark. The light of the sun is dark. All are flickers. Fear no more the heat of the sun! |
 Pushkar Camels -XVI; Ah me! Ah me! My shapes are myriad. I am the dark ones. The entire cosmos is dark. Pleasant is the fading glow of the dark sun. I saw the bulk of camels becoming softer and softer. The roars of the lions died. Come on Rano. Come on Akash. Let us turn back to hotel and sleep. |