How many of us have not gone on trips with the mission of sourcing something that we’ll remember beyond the trip? A relaxed yet global town north-west of Ajmer in Rajasthan, Pushkar is where you can find the most interesting clothes and other knick-knacks you can use to put together a look. 

If you believe in the philosophy of fashion, in the deep-seated desire for self-expression, you will truly find yourself in this town’s bustling marketplaces. We call Pushkaresque markets epic because they’re almost legendary, their names passed from one ear to another—between secret hippie gatherings in the younger parts of cities—and they thrive with little need of advertisement hundreds of kilometres from any metropolis. The markets sure are busy but they’re not overburdened—every shop-owner has the patience to let you try out between each of the two things you cannot decide between. 

Handmade never really goes out of fashion. Having the time and space to work with local artisans, these markets have mastered the balance between profound encounters between an article and its possessor and between the market and the artisans. The artisans of Pushkar are the invisible hands that transform the market, giving it at once a global and a local effect. Such markets are a source of joy to those of us who visit them to the extent that we almost don’t want them to become too popular a destination, which they inevitably become.