Flowers, for me? You shouldn't have.

Almost every day in Pushkar, a man will try to give me a flower, a carnation, and direct me to the lake.

It makes me think of that commercial I hated in the late 1980's, for that aerosol spray perfume called 'Impulse' - of all things. The commercial had a guy running to a flower stand to buy flowers for a woman who had just walked past him, after he had caught a whiff of her incredibly cheap but supposedly irresistable eau de toilet. The tag line for the product was when a complete stranger suddenly gives you flowers, that's Impulse.

As if. I'd call it stalking, but then let's remember, I have at times been accused of being unromantic. By several different people. That sort of thing gets me right here, y'know?(Image to go with this sentiment: see me hitting my chest, where my heart is, with my fist)

But here in Pushkar, it's somewhere between stalking and 'there's a sucker born in the West every minute'.

Rich and I kept avoiding the offer, with Rich one day saying "Yes, the lake's that way, you go. Go to the lake."

The man responded "you should be going, not me."

It's easy to have your suspicions aroused when they're so adamant that one should carry this flower down to the lake and that it's so vital, or one really isn't immersed in a Pushkar vibe, is not really into progressing spiritually. The first day, the fellow who gave us flowers popped up 3 times from 3 different ghat entrances to say "Hello, Lake this way," and "Excuse me, this way is going to the lake."

I had it happen again on my second day when I was off to find the yoga class. I left the hotel, and said hello to the hotel manager. A fellow on the street noticed me, said something to the manager, whose reply was very short, and the next thing I knew, a flower was thrust into my hand.

My Hindi is really not improving at all (I'd just like to point out the phrasebook's a bust. There's no record of "good morning" or "good night" but there is "Do you have a sister?" Uhm, why would I care to know that? Rich would, but I don't) but I still guessed that the exchange was something like:

"Is she new in town?"

"Yes"

This gentleman popped up at the next ghat entrance I passed, saying "Madam, lake is this way." (You can't really miss Pushkar Lake, 'the lake that emerged when Buddha dropped a lotus flower', the town is built around it. You can only walk towards it, or away from it, usually, you are walking around it.)

I said "Yes, dhanyavad, I can't go now."

He insisted I go, there was a festival on (if so, it was the quietest festival India has ever put on) "Now is best time going, you know what festival means Madam?"

Gosh, no, I better check that phrasebook. Could it mean "let's herd the foreigners down to the lake and put another one over on them?" Just a wild guess, hang on, this darn phrasebook, it's not even worth the $2.

I try again to explain, I really can't now, I've got to find this class. "Sir, I don't understand why I have to go down to..."

"Look here, there are three Gods," he starts, "Brahma,"

In my impatience I say "I know this, and there's Shiva and Vishnu, but why do I have to go to the lake? I don't mean any disrespect but I don't understand the custom -" and perhaps you've noticed, dear readers, I noted the signs from Day 1 and took them very seriously. There will be no photographing, no shoes within 30 steps of the ghats, no inappropriate displays of affection, etc.

The man says "Okay, give me," and takes the flower back.

Fine by me. Easy come, easy go. When a complete stranger suddenly gives you flowers, that's weird.

Later, I asked a fellow Canadian who was also at the Ashram and who Rich and I re-connected to in town "What's the deal with the flowers? Is that happening to you too?"

Sure was. In fact, she referred to it as "being Puja'd".

Puja means offering. So you go down to the lake, where some priest will find you. In fact, he's been waiting for you. He asks you to "repeat after me", which our friend did, up until the part that went "I will make a donation."

Then she walked away.

"Bad karma for you," said the helpful priest.

My dad's right, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Or a free carnation.