It was rush hour in Jaipur when I decided to jump on a bus to one of Pushkar's largest events of the year, the Camel Fair. This is the meeting place for merchants, live stock traders, religious pilgrims, tourists and of course the main spectacle- caravans of camel, all dolled-up in brightly coloured pom-pom's and jingle bells.
With no seats left in the bus, I took to the back and propped myself up on a few conveniently stacked sacks of rice, this would be my assigned seat for the next foreseeable 6 hours; it's all about the journey right.
I'm two hours into this bus ride and I've must have sang the verse "sita...sita" on repeat since we embarked. Who is Sita? are we looking for them? do they even know how famous they are on this bus at the moment?
The singing dies down abruptly.
The row infront of me turns to face me, the man spoke, "alright, your turn".
"My turn"? I thought, turn for what?
"you teach us one of your songs now".
I was clueless, as if suddenly I forgot the lyrics to all and any music I've ever known.
Do I teach them a religious song? do I even know any religious songs? is that even appropriate? I debated quietly amongst rows of curious eye balls.
Suddenly, it came to me. I would be teaching this bus filled with religious pilgrims 'we will rock you', by none other than, Queen.
I started banging on the back of the seat, "bang bang, clap. bang bang, clap".
The whole bus, now facing me began to mimic my beat.
Almost every single person, was out of sync. I guess 4/4 isn't popular in India, but the show must go on.
"buddy your a boy make a... " something something, I'm mumbling now, I don't know the words at all.
oh well, here we go!
"WE WILL WE WILL ROCK YOU"
"bang bang, clap"!
the whole bus now following the rhythm, is as much apart of this song as I am, we are singing at the top of our lungs, laughing hysterically in between beats.
After what felt like an eternity of 5 minutes. Everyone quieted down again, and faced the front of the bus, just as we were when we had left the city...
You can't make this kind of stuff up.
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