One night in Amritsa

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It was hard to leave Mcleod Ganj, but I soon realised that this is life, people come and go, and that i must embrace each moment, rather than dwell on things that have past.

Amritsar

The stench of poverty offends all the senses.

We visited the Golden Temple which is the Sikhs most important site of worship. Though beautiful, the city surrounding is filthy, over-crowded, and poverty-ridden. I will give you an example, that paints this picture appropriately. Outside our hotel, despite the thousands of people out on the street, we noticed one old and frail man who, in the morning was curled up to the side of the street. By evening we had noticed that his trousers had been removed and his very very skinny behind was showing, with diorrhoea flooding his spot. After some time, we became concerned with this guy, we thought he was dead, and not sure why no-one had moved him, or tried to help. Me and Ross decided that we would go down stairs, equipped with some water, food and the phrase 'do you need a doctor' in Hindi. When we got there, though he was breathing, he was unconscious and we spoke to some passer-byers that said that no doctor would come to help and it was best to leave him to die. We returned to the hotel, to sit on the steps, after leaving him some water and oranges. It was just then i saw an Autorickshaw, turn the corner and run over the very old man we had just tried to help. I screamed as i saw his body twist from the impact of the wheels.
The girls also saw this moment from the window. We went up stairs to talk in our room. - We talked of how we felt so incapable of helping, that medling with this one mans fate, prolonged his inevitable death, and the realisation that this is life, India has problems that we can only help in small ways. But the biggest understanding came again, from my new realisation of acceptance. The remainder of the night, I read the Lonely Planet, learing about environmental, political, economical and the social organisation of India.

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