Tourist Scams in Pushkar - 5 Tips to avoid them - To travel is to live! 

5 Tips to avoid tourist scams in Pushkar

Pushkar lake is one of the holiest sites in India, owing to the legendary Brahma temple there. Traditionally, when you visit Pushkar, you take a dip in the holy lake, visit the Brahma temple and then visit other temples. So, yes, Pushkar is a big deal in Hinduism. However, lately, the holy Pushkar lake has been quite infamous for tourist scams. Being an Indian, I sometimes take it personally when many foreigners tell me that they loved Rajasthan but soon wanted to leave after they got scammed at the Pushkar lake. From my personal experience, I have listed some tips below to avoid tourist scams in Pushkar.

How I escaped the tourist scam

Pushkar is quite touristic but has a laid-back vibe of its own. I had visited Pushkar soon after the pandemic was pretending to be normal, and thus, the town was not crowded like usual. After visiting the major temples, I and my husband visited the Brahma Ghat a little before sunset for the evening aarti (prayer). We went down the stairs to reserve our place on the fourth stair from the lake. The sun was about to set in a few in about 15 minutes when a middle-aged man, who I would address as scammer 1 in this post, came up to us.

"You are welcome to the tirtha-raj (king of pilgrim sites) Pushkar", he told us.

We simply nodded our heads thinking he must be a tour guide or something. Before we could guess other professions for him, he presented another question.

"Is it only two of you in the holy town?"

Okay. We did not expect a question like that from a stranger, but, our head impulsively nodded with a yes.

"There is still some time in the aarti. You should perform a small puja till then. Come, I will help you."

#TIP 1 - Do not be a yes man - say no to the scammers at the first instance they approach you

This is the first instance where you should politely decline the puja offered by the scammers. The scammers do not give you the chance to refuse, even to react. They are trained enough to pull you into a puja even without you knowing if you want to perform one.

Scammer 1 called another man (scammer 2) to perform the puja and asked us to follow them. I asked him how much he will charge to which he said that they charge only INR 10. We did not believe him. We walked towards the lake thinking that we will say no later if he suggests a hawan (a holy ritual in Hinduism).

The first thing scammer 1 did was to hand over my husband to scammer 2 to perform the puja meant for men. Yes, that's what he said.

#TIP 2 - Do not let the scammers separate you from your companion

Have you ever heard of the divide and rule strategy? The scammers do the same. They do not mean harm to you. They probably do it so that there is only one person they need to convince to pay money while your companions are busy performing the puja at the lakeshore.

Tell them politely that you wish to perform the puja together or else you are not interested. I cannot guarantee if they will leave you on your own after that, but they will surely think of some other tactics through which they can get money from you.

Scammer 1 sat me at the lakeshore and proceeded with the puja. He first briefed me about the history of Pushkar, the significance of the Pushkar lake, and put a flower in my hands. He chanted some basic Hindu mantras (most of which I knew) and asked me to repeat them after him. There were some more mantras for my parents, my husband, my wisdom, etc.

It took about 10 minutes to complete the puja. By the time it got over, I already had that feeling that he cannot be happy in only 10 bucks. This surely involved a little more than 10 bucks. And I am not going to pay a single penny.

#TIP 3 - Maintain confident body language throughout the conversation

Be confident in your body language even you feel doubtful from the inside. Be assertive and stern in whatever you say and the way you react. The moment you lose the aura of self-confidence, you will become an easy bait for the scammers.

Also, men usually are the easy baits in such scams as most of them carry the wallet.

I could not give this tip to my husband, and therefore, he became an easy bait for the scammers. His puja got over before mine (as planned by the scammers), and scammer 2 took him upstairs near a counter.

Scammer 1 kept asking me to chant mantras after him and throw the flower in the lake, which I did. However, I kept looking back to see what my husband was doing. But, scammer 1 prevented me from doing that as much as he could. He also gave a lame excuse that the mantras will not be effective if not chanted while facing the lake.

#TIP 4 - Don't be superstitious bait for the scammers - Tourist scams business thrives primarily because of the existence of mythical beliefs

You being superstitious is what the scammers would want. I have no offense to any religion in the world, but any belief that makes someone loot your hard-earned money is futile. Moreover, you are giving such scammers the courage to do the same to other devotees in the name of religion.

Just because you won't perform puja facing the lake does not mean that you disrespect the almighty.

It was clear that they wanted to take out money from my husband, and they got scared that I will spoil their scam. As scammer 1 prevented me from keeping a watch on my husband the third time, I looked at scammer 1 with displeasure and turned back. I quickly climbed the stairs up to the counter. I asked my husband and scammer 2 what is happening. Scammer 2 informed me that we should make a minimum donation of INR 5000 so that the puja, which we just did, gives desirable results.

I bluntly told him that we would return to the donation counter if we decide to donate any money. However, They started asking us for a minimum of INR 1000 to ensure that our marital life is successful. Now, this made me angry. I guess my annoying look did not seem to affect the scammers much.

This time, my husband politely told them that we would come back after the aarti. Their reaction to this was not quite polite, though. They warned us that we would be cursed by God if we do not pay the minimum amount.

It was now a stern no from our end, and we left from there. The scammers kept on shouting and started cursing us. I wondered who they think they were, that they felt powerful enough to curse us. Anyway, without looking back, we went down the stairs and took our pre-decided place on the fourth stair. The priest (the real one this time) had taken his position at the front (facing the lake), and the aarti was about to start. We attended the aarti with a good conscience.

As the aarti got over, we went back to the ghat entrance, wore our footwear, and saw both the scammers for the last time. They looked at us but didn't gather the courage to approach us again. While we were leaving from there, we could see them looking around the ghat for their next bait.

#TIP 5 - Wear a Raksha potli (a red and yellow colored string) on your wrist - a preventive tip to avoid tourist scams

This tip is the simplest and can prove to be the most effective too. Just buy half a meter of Raksha potli, and tie it on your wrist before visiting any ghat in Pushkar. The red string would indicate that you have already performed the puja. In such instances, it is the easiest to keep the scammers away.

I do understand that tourist scams can be off-putting and leave you low-spirited. In the end, it is not about the money - it is about getting scammed.

Unfortunately, Such scammers would keep attempting to fool us all across the world. However, take this as a learning, and be more alert from the next time. The best we can do is take this with a pinch of salt and keep enjoying the other gems at the destination.

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