India/Pakistan Border Ceremony

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The final thing to do in Amritsar is to jump in a vehicle and head to the Pakistani/Indian boarder at Wagah and watch the sunset ceremony. Sarah and I arranged transport in a “jeep” with some agent on the street in front of the Golden Temple. I saw many jeeps on the highway to Wagah, but we were not in one of them as my fellow passengers, all 12 of us, crammed into a four wheel rickshaw. All part of the Indian experience as we enjoyed the wild ride to the border, hanging on for dear life as we weaved in and out of cars, horse and carts, cows and other animals and deep potholes. The ceremony itself has been going on since 1959, a good hearted display of nationalism with the Indian audience in bleachers on one side of the border gates and Pakistani on the other. The Indian crowd was much bigger, many more tourists in India than in Pakistan I guess. (Lahore is 30 km away). Before the ceremony there were rampant expressions of nationalism on either side of the gate, then a Bollywood style dance party took place on the parade route as loud music blared over the sound system and hundreds of women, including Sarah danced on the street. All good fun. Then the ceremony begins, a well choreographed affair as the soldiers from both sides high step, or march dramatically towards the gates and thump their chests while facing each other. Then the gates are flung open and they have a stare down and march off that reminded me of the Michael Jackson video “Beat It” Then they lower their respective flags and march back to their side of the border to riotous applause while a representative from each side quickly shake hands. The gates are closed, and will remain so until they do it all again tomorrow, and the crowds retreat to their so called jeeps for the return home. Crazy ritual to be sure, but it beats the heck out of having a war between two countries with nuclear weapons.

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