Street vendor scenes during at Pushkar during the Mela or Festival

Vendor with kids selling Camel decorations at Pushkar Mela Fair, it comes alive with vibrant folk music and dances, horse and camel races, religious bathing and a carnivals and entertainment competitions. Pushkar town bordering Thar Desert, set on a Lake, sacred site with 52 ghats with hundreds of temple where Hindu pilgrims bathe. Pushkar Mela or Fair, where religious activities dominate the scenario and devotees take dips in the holy "Sarovar" lake, as the sacred water is known to bestow salvation. Countless people in their colourful attire gather to take a dip in the Holy Lake and pray to the deities. Mela is a Sanskrit word meaning 'gathering' or 'to meet' or a fair and is used in the Indian subcontinent for all sizes of gatherings and can be religious, commercial, cultural or sport-related. In rural traditions melas or village fairs are of great importance.