From 2,500 feet above the ground, Pushkar is a pretty sight. Not that it's any less picturesque from ground zero

From 2,500 feet above the ground, Pushkar is a pretty sight. Not that it's any less picturesque from ground zero

A Littile town tucked away in the corner of a large desert. I am almost always excited at the prospect of exploring the nuances of a non-touristy place.


(The first international hot air ballooning festival in Pushkar was organized
by Sky Waltz in association with the Government of Rajasthan)

And Pushkar had always been a must-visit-someday-to-mix-with-the-white trash kind of a holiday plan for me. The opportunity came in the form of the Pushkar Mela and the first international hot air ballooning event that was being organised there. So sure enough, we landed in Pushkar.

Vertical limits
While the ground reverberated with folk songs, cattle dressed up to make for interesting postcard options and a jolly mix of urban, rural and global junta, the skyline of Pushkar was dotted with
different hues of coloured balloons.

We had never cared to imagine ourselves 2,500 feet above the ground, in the sky, or maybe between both. But finally, when we got into one of those big brown baskets that took us up in the air in no time, touching the sky became a reality.

As we jumped into the basket after climbing a make-shift ladder and the pilot huddled us in, we almost got crushed under the giant frame of a rather expansive white woman. Besides us, the basket had four whites and two expats; all looked at each other with wide-eyed wonder.u00a0

As our yellow-green-red balloon took off with a big fire at the top, we waved at the innocent locals who had gathered in the large ground to see the unusual practice of people inside baskets on fire going up in the air to the heavens above. Must have been quite a spiritual sight!u00a0u00a0u00a0

Before taking off, our pilot, who seemed to be an expert on the task of lifting people off their feet, told us to remain calm and hold on to our expensive cameras with caution. The pilot, a white again, cheerful and confident, was a cutesy guy who introduced himself as Sam. I was almost the basket's height, so I tried hard to click a few pictures of the landscape below us.