News from Pushkar!

– By Malika 

So much going on everyday, we didn´t find the time to write about our adventures! We met so many people, from litteraly everywhere! We have many friends now here. We are doing workshops almost every mornings, and we organize parties in hostels in the evenings! Actualy we can´t really call this “organizing” cause we have almost nothing to do. Just ask an hostel the very same day, and call everyone!

We dance everyday but we still havn´t find our kalbeliya dance teacher yet. Raki is nice but too expansive for our budget, but I got the contact from another local drum master who knows all the gypsies! Apparently he knows the dancer I am looking for. Apart from dance, Romane and Sacha started to learn jewelry, they work on silver and they crafted amazing things already!

But it is hard to write about what is going on here! Smiles and colors and friendships and surprising ways and… I leave you with some photos taken by the talented painter of our group: Sir Emiliano del Mexíco !

“Not spicy” they say !

Bathing ceremony in the holy lake of Pushkar

On the way to Papmochani Mata-Gayatri temple

View from Kali Mata temple

Rama Vaikunth temple (“Foreigners not allowed to enter the temple” – the Manager)

The Camel Fair

Feding the camels

View from Aloo Baba Temple (The baba who eats nothing but potatoes)

Indian Showbiz

– by Malika, with Jeanne and Romane

Things are going very fast here! Yesterday Romane and Jeanne went early hoping to fix a sim card problem, while I met Nathu Ji, from a famous musician family. We had met before in France at Dosta festival in Lille, with Raki and others. He offered us to give shows with him and his band. The same evening was one at the camel fair and he asked me to dance there. I asked for Jeanne but as he wanted to meet her first, he said “next time tomorrow, we go to a wedding!”. Alright!
So I joined the girls in town to find some costumes. We made very good deals, ate something and ran to the fair, leaded by our dear friend Farouk. There was the stage: huge, so so huge! Big like a stage from an AC/DC concert! Oh my… I went backstage and Nathu asked me for Jeanne! So I called her, and she had to sneak in as the policemen garding around were kind of not understanding anything… Nathu wanted her to play contact ball, even if the audience could barely see it. He also told us that politicians and military were there so we should absolutely not dance with our belly, hips, and breast. Oye, hard time for belly dancers! We didn’t know when exactly we were performing, and had no idea about the music. All we knew was that it would be difficult to resist bumping our asses on those great drums!
We thought the concert would last an hour so we were joking about being nervous for an undefined time when Nathu called us on stage. I was so focused on not moving what I’m always moving, I guess I had a weird face all along! We won’t know as Romane’s camera choosed that moment to run out of space.
Then we were like “oh they said we have to wait for the final” but actually the concert was over, as programmation had too much delay.
So we went home to have a good sleep for the wedding the day after.
Nathu came to pick us up this morning with his friend. We are pretty used to drive with 3 people on each bike now. We joined the rest of the band, in their small bus, full of white people. I guess having white people performing at one’s wedding is a sign of wealth.
We ride 3h30 instead of 2h, and stopped to change clothes. We asked them how much time we had and they said “no problem, drink chai, musicians go when back you ready”. Of course I only had the time to put my dress on that we had to go!
The place was big and decorated in pink and white. We were with 2 women doing Kalbeliya dance. It felt quite awkward, apparently our outfits were not ok (belly out) so we had to change and the guys from the band were not giving us any infos about what and when. They made me sing and play zills, not giving me the choice. I felt milked. We agreed with the girls to find our own band, which would feel like family and not to do that again unless the pay is good and the infos clear.

We decided to give more workshops as well. They give us motivation to practice and exchange our knowledge.

Cracking the code

16/11/2018

– By Malika, with Jeanne, Romane, Sacha et Farouk   

This day have been happily crazy!

We started with our first workshop, at Sacha’s guest house, the Old Moon Cafe, near to Sunset view. We met there nice travelers, and some joined us for the “tribal bellydance and ATS introduction” class. As always I was quite shy (although people are often telling me I don’t seem at all), but the class went smoothly and I was really proud to see we could actualy dance some ATS at the end! ❤

After eating at Sacha’s guest house, we’ve been to Farouk’s place and quickly adopted the place and the man. Or maybe it was the opposite? Farouk is really nice, and he is helping us a lot here! As he knows everyone, we feel protected, and he can introduce us to many people.

The place is really nice, it’s peaceful here, green, and close to the gypsy camp and the fair, away from the town. I set my tent under the trees, facing the big garden, and I was happy.

Shadu, Rika’s husband, whom you can see in many documentaries on the kalbeliya (he showed us all of them since we met him), came to pick us up at Farouk’s. We went with him and his friend to the camel fair, riding 2 bikes for 6 people. I was feeling so free on this gypsy bike, riding between the camel carts! Sadly when we arrived to the camel fair, all the fun had gone. The camels are quite mistreated, their reindeer were hold by a huge piercing through their nose or in the skin of their throath, many had various wounds, they seemed to be really unhappy camels… Also all the gypsy kids asking for money were tearing my heart. I still don’t really know how to deal with this yet. I know if I give to one I will never get away with the others but aaarg… Maybe volonteering in the Gypsy School will be a good other way to help. It’s a beautiful project Raki and Shadu built there, for all the gypsy kids willing. They get basic instruction, art classes, and they are assured to get one meal everyday. You can see there website here. If you also feel touched by this beautiful project, donations are helping them a lot, and 2€ is already something in India.

So we went to meet Raki and her beautiful family at the gypsy camp. We spoke a bit, and Raki started cooking. Shadu and his friend were offering us alcool and bidis. A bit to much, his friend was drunk and really insisting. We were kind of forced to accept those gifts, but as we were sharing the glasses I could just act like drinking. Shadu’s friend was clearly hitting on me, which were kind of unconfortable. Many people, mainly the youngs, came to see us, and spend some time around. So nice! Jeanne have a very nice feeling with the kids, she makes them play and laugth so nicely with no word! Really cute moments! Then Raki brought the meal and it was really the best we ate since we arrived. Although it was sooo spicy! Shiva party in da mouth!

Then Sacha went back to his hostel while Shadu and his friend (I never got his name right) brought us home. There we had some akward moments – like his friend asking me for marriage, and as I was saying no, asking me if Jeanne was maried… But Farouk knew Don Juan, so when he met Sacha in town, he decided to directly come back home. The guys went away and we had the quiet terrasse to nicely chill out.

We thought to wait a bit before choosing a teacher, as there are many here, and as Raki’s prices seemed to be too high for us now. Farouk said during the camel fair everybody is doing harder business. We will take our time, and dance a bit around to show we’re in da place. Here we can dance easily in the street at the sunset view and in many concerts. I thought bellydance was not ok here but actualy it is very appreciated and if you keep your outfits in the indian pudic standards you are not misunderstood.

Then I went to sleep in my tent, already smiling about wakening up quietly, staring at the nature. But soon one of Farouk’s dog started to try to cundle me… through my tent! I couldn’t make her stop, she was just too happy to find me here. I finaly had to go to sleep in the girls’s room, not able to stand before so much enthousiasm and love. Mmgn…

 

First step in Pushkar

15/10/2018

– By Jeanne, with Malika, Romane and Sacha

After a long train trip we ended up in pushkar, not without a new challenge as the guest house we booked online was a fake one, the real one being too expensive for us… At that time in pushkar, it’s day one for the biggest Camel fair of India, so the guest houses are full and the prices are higher. So we went out, walked five steps and an old woman told us she had rooms and good price. After some discussion, she offered us to put mattresses and blankets in the rooftop… The place was beautiful, clean, and the woman was running the place, called the White House, with her family. We really liked her, to us she was the perfect balance between clever, strong and nice.

Then we went to meet Sacha, at the sunset view near the lake. Before joining him we weren’t able to avoid the religious people who didn’t let us the choice whether or not to make a prayer to the multiples gods of the lake. We were once again trap without having the time to say no, and after the little individual ceremony, with flowers, spice, sugar,… We obviously were proposed/pressured to pay (and not just few roupies). Once again you know: people just arriving in town are the best preys. But then everything seemed to happend so easily!

We joined Sacha to the beautiful sunset view, people were playing music and watching the sun going down behind the mountains in the other side of the lake. There I had the pleasure to meet Mae (not sure about how to write neither how to pronounce it, as her father kept calling her by her nickname, Mayou). The 2yo girl could barely speak few words, only in Hindi, but played with, our hands and our eyes. She left and said “Bye djidji” which means “sister”, I felt so honoured! Moment of bliss… We also met a rajasthani rainbow brother, Farouk, who offered us to come to his place: Suleman’s Mango Garden.

Later we were sitting around a fire in the Sunset view hotel, with amazing Indian drum players and musicians, when Malika started to talk to the man sitting next to her. She told him that we were looking for a very good kalbelyia Gypsy dancer named Raki. Guess what: he happened to be her husband. I don’t know if the lake gods have something to do with it but I will definitely thanks them… Just in case! And for now I can say that after all the difficulties we’ve been through, pushkar is a breath of air. Now I’m going to sleep under the stars, with the feeling that everything is about to start! Tomorrow is a new day, and we will begin it with the first Aeolian tribe training: initiation to Tribal fusion bellydance and ATS basics!

India: First impressions

By Malika, an episode with Jeanne and Romane –

Here we are, the incredible India! People were telling me so many stories about it! Some scary, some funny, some sad, some really amazing… I got so many spoilers that I felt not really surprised in this country where they say everything can happen. And indeed, everything happens, all at once, all at the same time!

Care for the landing !

Although I was not so surprised, there is a huge difference between having a vague idea and having it all in live! “Intense” is THE word for India. People told me they came from love to hate and the other way around few times a day here, as India is the country of all contrasts. I have to say, when you know about the bad sides of India, it is quite a relief to actually be there: as always the described picture is nothing but one particular focus on reality. After all what people said,  I was expecting to be scamed all day long, harassed as a woman, asked for money by 15 kids with tearful eyes, walking on a ground made of trashes, seeing dogs being beatten in the streets etc etc.. well, I am here just for one day but I already can say to my family: “stop worrying it is really not as bad as you think!” And I totally get India’s lovers : here you feel life with all your senses, and sure there are more than 5!

The first scam:

After a long trip with Jeanne, we almost got scammed at our very arrival at the airport! Of course, it’s the best moment to scam people: they are happy, they are new, they don’t know anything, they are often lost and tired… And so we were going for the metro when a guy came with a beautiful smile and a “namaste!”, willing to help us finding our way (although we didn’t think we were lost). He was saying that there were no metro at this time (we landed in the early morning) and that he was assigned by the metro company to bring us to the “metro cab”. Hmhm… The situation was not feeling so right, the guy was speaking everytime we were trying to speak to each other and we were kind of forced to follow him as he had taken our metro tokens (they use tokens instead of tickets in Delhi) but recalling quickly Chandra’s advises we stopped being nice and polite, we ask our tokens back, refused to leave our bags in the trunk, and when the guy and his friend started to say  they had to call our hostel to make sure the place was reachable, we started being more aggressive and they brought us back to the Airport. We decided to wait for Romane’s landing 4 hours later, as she wasn’t speaking English we thought she may have difficulties to get to the hostel without troubles. To resume: yes some people will try to scam and white people are the best targets, but don’t worry, they are not mean and they will rather find another pigeon than get in a fight with you.

Reassured by this experience where we stood up and got out with all of our feathers, we started to have a nice dynamic, taking care of each others so no one gets in the trap of being too nice for her own good!

The first walk into Delhi:

Being surrounded by cars and rickshaws and scooters and bycicles, honking crazy all around you, sellers trying to get your attention by every mean, smells of amazing food and stinky trashes, the stray dogs and the cows, for me it was kind of super exciting! But we were all exhausted by the trip. We found a cheap hostel in the main Bazar (Hindustan international Dx   350rs/pers in a 6 beds-dorm), had some good how-my-god-this-is-spicy food, and went to shop some of the things we would need for the rest of the trip before taking a nice nap. As our train to Pushkar was at 4 am, and we were afraid to take too much time to get to the railway station (also afraid not to go to the right one!) we went to miss the last metro at midnight. We were not afraid at all in Delhi’s streets despise the night. The railway station were far so we decided to take a rickshaw.

Rickshaws are everywhere, so numerous and cheap when shared. It is really funny if you’re not too afraid of the trendy anarchistic circulation in India! As it was late, traffic was clearer and we got very quickly to the train station. There was crowded of people sleeping on the floor. As everywhere here, some people were staring at us with great curiosity, and so were we. Sometimes we even were taking pictures of each others, as it seems to be some kind of compliment rather than an offense here. When the train arrived we got completely lost: it was so big! At the end we couldn’t find the seats we booked so hardly, and landed in a sleeper.

And here we are! 7 more hours to go to reach the bus which will bring us to Pushkar where we will meet the Kalbeliya gypsies, enjoy the camel fair and join all the lovely people of our brand new tribe! ❤