46 ~ “Wall to wall” crowd : Deogarh to Pushkar

Breakfast then another foggy misty day was waiting us as we drove out of Deogarh towards Pushkar. Not many people were up yet. Besides the odd cattle, the shops and streets were kind of deserted.

Rubbish was being collected. The truck goes around with music blaring just like a "Mr Whippy" ice cream van and out came the householders with their rubbish.

Got to Ajmer at 1pm / 13:00 and first stop was the Soniji Ki Nasiya Jain Temple. Not being Jain, we were not allowed into the temple itself but next door was something that I had not expected.

Ajmer is a green oasis on the shore of Ana Sagar Lake, hemmed in by barren hills.

Historically, It was founded in 7th century by Ajaipal Chauhan. He named it Ajaimeru the ‘invincible hill’. The Persian saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti who came with Muhammad Ghori from Persia in 1192 settled here. Thus, the place where he was buried is today known as the Dargah Sharif. Construction of the shrine was completed by Humayun and the gates were added by the Nizam of Hyderabad. Later Shahjehan constructed a mosque of white marble, it has 11 arches and a Persian inscription running the full length of the building.

The Dargah Sharif is Ajmer’s main attraction, the most sacred of all Muslim places of pilgrimage in India.

So, it was out of the car and with the “wall to wall” crowd, walked along the streets plus knowing that no camera was allowed inside. Nothing was in my pockets. Took nothing except my i phone.

Next asked Ashok to stop just below a lookout to see back over the lake and Ajmer itself, then onto Pushkar.