Pushkars got me in a fever

It's getting harder and harder to tell the travellers from the locals here... more and more prevalent, at certain times of the night or early morning, are those wispy western ghosts who've stretched their love affair with drugs too long... their hair turbanned or a mass of matted locks, I see them occasionally staring from corners, brandishing big sticks reminiscent of Shiva's trident and staring with big hollow eys...
All over town a certain graffiti is scrawled in English 'Jews! The comforter has come! AIDS is cured! www. the-comforter.com' I have yet to look this website up, but it seems in Pushkar it is easy to go off the rails a little - for a holy town with an apparent ban of meat, eggs, alcohol and drugs there sure are a lot of junkies... But then again, it is easy to miss this... I only know cause I was told and happened to stumble across a couple of staggering souls last year at 6 a.m when I went for an early breakfast...

Two years ago when I first came I swear this place rang with more innocence.. then again, perhaps it was just me as I'm told this change in tourism has been happening for more than five years now. That what was once a nice shanti town with a few clothing boutiques and jewellery stalls has now exploded into a mass of haggling, colour and sensory overload... so much that I am sure this is why I got sick as soon as I came here this year. I have spent the last two days pretty much in bed with a cough that has hacked at my chest, a cloudy head and no appetite. This has meant very little chance of spending time with Verma-ji, or Chandra (Chanu) and his family and I hope they will understand. After all, I have time to spend, I am easing slowly slowly into this India journey. Venturing out for my first proper, full meal in a few days I have just eaten to the sight of half a dozen Western ragamuffin children skip around in the sand and do yoga - so perhaps there is still innocence here after all...