Stamping out the Golden Temple.

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After Mccleod, we decided to go to Amritsar via Pathankot. At the time this seemed like a good idea as it was on our way and held the fabled Golden Temple but in hindsight i wish we hadn't gone there...

It all started out really well with our journey going smoothly and our accommodation was nice(even if the ever reliable rickshaw driver dropped us off far from where we asked) and the hoteliers were welcoming and friendly(when we finally found one). That's roughly where the fun stopped.

At this time i feel i should point out that the instances here are my experiences only and are in no way, shape or form an exact representation of the people or religious values of the place(nice... my first disclaimer...).

Anyway... We went to the border closing ceremony at Wagha and watched a lot of Indian and Pakistani soldiers doing a lot of stamping and shouting which in itself was quite fun and interesting. On the way in there were two rows of double barbed wire fences in-between which was a massive area of what looked like freshly laid sand. This really seamed to stand out as it was sandwiched between soil on both sides(could it have been a mine field?! I think so...). Lining the road in were quite literally dozens of pillbox machine gun posts so we were feeling really safe. The Indian army soldiers in their khaki uniforms actually looked like soldiers if i ignored there big red plumes for hats but the Pakistani soldiers in their black and gild, to me, didn't look like military personnel at all... They looked like a crossed between Che Guevara and Andy Warhol. Black with gold trim and lots of it isn't particularly camouflaged or smart when you see it in the flesh, not on a soldier. On a gangster in the ghetto, maybe, but not a soldier. After a half hour of the stomping around and Ministry of Silly Walks renditions my chest was feeling exercised due to all the testosterone in the air and we made our way back out of the compound waving our little plastic Indian flags.

The next day we decided to go see Jallianwalla Bagh, scene of a massive atrocity performed by British troops and the famous golden temple, most sacred and holy place of the Sikh religion which in my opinion was somewhat of a mistake. Jallianwalla Bagh was a really nice and humbling place(as nice as the scene of a massacre can be) which seemed to be well maintained by the people. In this country its quite a rarity for the people to take good care of anything! The buildings, the surroundings, the animals or even each other but the site at Jallianwalla Bagh was nice and well kept. We walked round the site, took photos of the place and chatted to a few of the other visitors who found it quite amusing when they asked where i was from and i told them that i was British and added that i had nothing at all to do with this(one guy laughed so hard he almost gave birth!). The Indian authorities claim that some 2000+ people were killed by the British machine guns and also that only 1400 or so bullets were fired, now, I'm not a mathematician but for that to be the case, it means that every single bullet had to have killed 1.5 people(ish) so either the British gun or gunner was ridiculously accurate or someone somewhere is exaggerating the numbers somewhat... At the back of the compound is a new building that houses a museum about what the British did to the Indian during the colonial times. OK... Thinking about it logically... what would you be less likely to be allowed to take photo's of? Bullet holes in a wall above blood stained ground at the site of a massacre? Or really badly photocopied and blown up newspaper articles and pictures that had very little connection to the place in which they sat? To my surprise, its perfectly fine to photograph the site of a couple of thousand murders but not a newspaper article as i was shouted at by both the guy in the little museum and Jill because i hadn't seen the 'no photography' sign. To me that's like saying "you can take pictures of that dead body there but your not allowed a copy of this article that tells about the body you have just photographed... Does that seem silly to anybody else? I was in two minds to go back in with a pen and paper and write down every scrap of information in the place and sketch all the pictures in protest but by the way the guy was glaring at me for just being there i decided to take my leave and take my insulting Britishness away with me.

Just down the road from the Bagh is the Golden Temple, the Sikh holy place. The building itself is magnificent(even if a little garish) and the grounds are nice and well ordered. Around the exterior walls on the outside is a rather large shopping centre built into the temple itself which sort of took something away from the holiness of the place. The inside walls of the exterior are covered in plaques of white marble with inscriptions of persons who contributed to the building and subsequent rebuilding of the temple with either capital or man power. Around a third of these have been chiseled off as it seems the people after putting in their money must have lost favor with the guru's and had their names and epitaphs removed from the walls with aggression by the looks. On the way in, a guy with a shiny new spear and a waist that said "this is an ornament, i cannot use it" stopped me and demanded to know where my shoes were, i pointed out to him that our shoes were in the shoe store as is customary in the temple to remove ones shoes before entering. he then searched me to check that i wasn't carrying any tobacco products or a lighter and eventually and reluctantly let me pass. All this while ignoring the hordes of Indians entering around him and concentrating on the two foreigners in his sights. Walking around the temple complex was a nice to be immersed in the culture and religious identity of the Sikhs. We took a few pictures of the temple itself across the man made coy pond and had got round to the other side when another guy with a spear approached and barked something in Punjabi then in English: "No Picture" while pointing at a sign saying 'no photography' and trying to move us on. Upon turning around, i noticed that i was surrounded by three or four Indian guys, all taking photo's. When i pointed this out to the guy with the weapon he just smirked, shook his head and moved us on a little more forcibly. I feel i should point out here that i did not have a camera in my hand, my batteries were dead in my camera anyway and the guys who were taking pictures around me were completely ignored and even smiled at! Now i was annoyed and after doing a quick lap of the temple itself and exiting the premises i came to the conclusion that i and my kind were not wanted or welcome there and that the deity of that place, if once there was one, was now long dead leaving only greed and violence behind him.

Feeling extremely insulted and discriminated against we walked away from the 'temple' and went for food. The meal was lovely(Mmm pizza!!! thank the gods for pizza!!!) and feeling a little more relaxed about the whole hellish failure of a day, we took a slow walk back to the hotel and watched TV till we fell asleep. The next day we thanked our hosts for being so good to us and went for the train to Jaipur. Good F*cking Bye Amritsar.

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