Pushkar in Chennai

Had been to the Pushkar fair in YMCA grounds, Chennai. It was a complete letdown. The fair was organized by the Rajastani folk in chennai. May be I had different expectations from it - the ethnic dress, jewels, crafts etc., Rs.200 for 5 people was the entry ticket. I had pulled in my Grandpa too, thought he would enjoy. At the entrance, there was a village setup with cows, horses, ducks, potter wheel, horse driven gaadis, krishna, arjun painted men (which I thought was cruel, they had to stand still. with people trying all sorts of ricks to make them move).

My grandpa had already started to give me a look of 'why-are-we-looking-at-cows’ for 200/-. Once, inside the vast expanse of YMCA grounds had numerous stalls. We couldn’t go anywhere near the stalls, there was huge crowd milling all around. A quick look at the stalls revealed that there weren’t any ethnic stuff, just the usual beads bag, cotton clothes & jewels (and not to mention the ridiculous price). There was one stall where you can get yourself dressed as a rajasthani boy & take photographs. The entry pass came with a food pass too and we found that free food pass stall was the one that had a serpentine crowd. We managed glasses of Jaljeera.
Oh..I forget, my dad & Grandpa had enough of it & left the fair midway. I had to put a brave face & act as though it was one of the finest things that could happen to chennai. The real saving grace was the cultural show - had some rocking dance shows.
We wanted to cheer ourselves up (the leftover party - mom, me & my friend Uma, so went to the Gangothri stall picked up pani puris & bhel puris. Gobbled it up as we gazed at the pretty sarees, the lovely ladies were wearing. It was actually a very good get together for the North Indian folks ..I guess, the children were enjoying the fair; they seemed to be very happy.

As we were rushing out, gave in to the temptation of mehindi. Man..what a shock, that female didn’t have a clue abt it. Unfortunately, I got to know this fact, after she started her 'training'. She simply squeezed mehindi out of the cone in a rather bizarre design.

Lesson of the day: Do not put mehindi in fairs. You cannot wish it away too ;-(
The rosy side of the fair