Rajasthani Bedouin Princesses at Pushkar
Sarah and I had set an alarm for 5am in order to do our big Rajastani Princess photoshoot at dawn. We had to get all dressed up and do hair and make up in a dark tent. Sarah and I have always done a shoot like this on every trip and as I sat there I thought of the amazing collection of photos we have together from around the world. We basically had been planning it and buying the bangles and props etc. We had enlisted all of the photographers we met from Dubai and planned a joint “family outing” together in the morning. They arranged a camel cart to pick all 6 of us up at 6am and then we were off to take photos like a huge Canon photographer army.
Sarah and I posed with herds of camels, paid 100 rupees to have this boy take us out to a less crowded place and pose his cart and camel for us. We smoked together on the cart ride out and it was quiet and surreal laying on our stomachs in full Indian bridal garb, being wheeled out like we were brides about to be given away in an arranged marriage. The ironic thing about this whole trip is that EVERYTHING has been wedding themed on this trip. When we were on the plane from Delhi to Jaipur, the magazines in the back of the seat were all Indian Wedding themed. Then the actual dates that we were there at Pushkar and Jaipur are apparently auspicious dates for Indian weddings (probably because we were here during the full moon of a holy festival) but there were tons of weddings going on every day and music, singing, and dancing were going on every night until 5am. It was like Burning Man where NO ONE seemed to sleep and there was music pumping at all hours. Then of course I brought my purple Sarii and the jewels and henna that we got made us not just look Indian, but like Indian brides…I couldn’t escape it and I was wondering why in a world full of omens that this kept on coming up.
After a couple of hours of being treated like celebrities and having a thousand photos taken of us not only by locals but all of the foreign photographers ( I mean we were asking for it dressing like princesses), we all went back to our tented camp to relax and have breakfast. There were Rajasthani musicians there and I sat and sang with them and tried to learn how to play their instruments. I have it on video, it’s completely ridiculous!
