Bedlam at The Border

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Friday we set off on our road trip to Amritsar. As the Vengaboys sing “Whoa, we’re going to Amritsar!!” Mohan was driving us so Vengaboys were a regular occurrence on our banging sound system, not to mention the super cool “Everybody on Dancefloor 4” (which you’ll all be glad to know I’ve bought so you will be subjected to it at some stage! It’s so bad it’s good!!) as we cruised along the open highway. Well cruised really isn’t the word… at times the road was like a quarry. I felt like I’d signed up for an ultimate off roading experience. There were lots of traffic calming measures - HUGE piles of boulders placed in the middle of the already narrow road every so often but at times it was relatively flat allowing us to actually reach 5th gear. There was however the obligatory “near misses” with cows, dogs, donkeys and cars and trucks hurtling towards you. No drive in India is complete without the thrill of your entire life passing before your eyes.

As we descended from the hills of Himachal towards the Punjabi plains it got steadily hotter and hotter. It was just a wall of sticky heat and it extremely uncomfortable. It wasn’t too bad whilst driving as we could have the windows open though we literally stepped out of the jeep black from head to toe from the dirt. Something I still haven’t got used to. Compared to the cities, Palampur is relatively clean.

It was a shock being back in a big city… haven’t really been in a city since Jaipur a good few weeks ago. The crazy traffic, the noise, the pollution, the dirt and the constant hassle take lots of getting used to. We decided to visit the market first off not really to buy anything more just for a wander around. It was a maze of little alleyways choc a bloc with anything and everything you could think of except for bottles of water. We searched for hours until finally it stood there glistening like a diamond in the sun, our little Oasis right in the middle of Amritsar - a wee guy selling bottles of water from what looked like his living room. Sheer bliss!

Keri decided she wanted to buy some more shawls so we were humoured by a little guy who insisted on trying to tell Carly, who only wanted to buy a brown shawl, that a pink shawl was “brown”. Then that a red shawl was “brown” and so it went on. He didn’t have any brown ones but really wanted to sell, it was funny. Poor guy was trying his hardest aswell. Carly didn’t end up buying one but the rest of us made up for that buying 7 between us. Like we didn’t already have enough.

Friday night was time for our first visit to the Golden Temple, something I’ve been looking forward to for soooooooooooo long! And it really didn’t disappoint me one little bit. The area around the temple was full of hustle and bustle with the “tourist tack”-wallahs doing their best to offload headscarves & postcards. When entering the temple though, the noise and pollution just disappeared and it was utterly breathtaking. We covered our heads, walked through the pools of water to clean our feet and down the marble steps to see it in all its glory, lit up and floating serenely above the glassy surface of the Amrit Sarovar. It was utterly breathtaking!!! We made a few boo boos though by turning our backs to the temple not realizing that this was a disrespectful as well as putting our feet on the steps down to the lake, again disrespectful. Luckily though, two young Indian guys reminded us of our blunders and went on to explain a lot about Sikhism and the temple. We watched the closing ceremony where the Guru Granth Sahib (Holy Book) was paraded from the Harmandir (the temple itself) to the Akal Takht, the second most sacred shrine in the temple complex, where the holy book is stored for the night. There is live music being played all night and it makes for a very spiritual atmosphere. The temple was a great place to while away the hours watching the Sikh pilgrims pray or bathe in the holy waters. As the story goes, the water in the Amrit Sarovar has healing properties and a blind woman once came to the temple, bathed in the waters and got her sight back. Whether this is true or not is unknown but it makes for a nice wee story.

It was an early start Saturday morning. 4am to be precise, much to Mohan’s dismay - he didn’t say a single word there and back lol. We stumbled bleary eyed into the temple complex and watched in silence as the sun rose. Unluckily for us it was cloudy and pretty miserable so no spectacular pictures of the sunrise over the temple but on the plus side it meant it was nice and cool. A nice break from the stifling heat of the day. The temple was always busy. Every Sikh tries to make at least one pilgrimage here to listen to the music, readings from the holy book and to bathe in the waters. We attracted attention at the temple as per usual, every 2 minutes someone was asking for a photo with us. It was kinda weird actually… there we were in front of this amazing building and people wanted to take pictures of the white girls. The people were extremely friendly though with lots of men, women and children asking us about where we were from or just wanting to shake hands with us. Some of the others started to get annoying with the constant stares but to be honest I though it was really cool. Most of these people have never been out of India and probably never met a westerner before, no wonder they were curious. Most people just wanted to say hello and practice their English. I, oddly, was asked my fathers name on several occaisions. On telling one lady I was met with lots of laughter - don’t know why as it couldn’t have meant much to her!! We learned a lot about Indian culture, particularly Sikhism through the random chat with strangers. It was nice to hear about things from a personal point of view instead of reading the guidebook blurb.

After the temple we visited the Jallianwalla Bagh Memorial park, the site of one of the bloodiest atrocities committed by the British Raj. It was odd being there, kind of reminded me of how I felt when I visited the Austwich/Birkenau ceoncentration camp in Poland a couple of years ago. When we entered there was a sign saying that over 2000 Indians had been murdered there when General Dyer opened fire in 1919. I think it’s a definite sore spot for Indians, I remember Anupam (one of the project executives) telling us, when we asked him what our computer girls knew about Britain, that most Indians just remember that the British killed a lot of Indian people. What a way to be remembered eh?? No one actually knows how many people were killed - the official figure was put at around 379 but it was estimated that at least 2000 people were killed, mainly being shot in the back as they tried to escape over the walls. The saddest part about the whole atrocity though is that it was kept hush hush in Britain until about 6 months later.

The memorial was busy, mainly with Indians and I felt a pang of guilt at the fact that I was British. Don’t really know why as none of it had anything to do with me but I couldn’t help but feel guilty. Some of the wall had been preserved complete with bullet holes and all. It was definitely worth a visit and I found it to be a really interesting part of Indian history.

Next on the itinerary was the much anticipated trip to the Wagha border to see the closing of the Indian-Pakistani border. Again, this was another thing I’ve wanted to see for months and months. It was very surreal to actually be there. We queued outside the border for hours along with thousands of others who’d made their way westwards to Wagha (and the Pakistanis eastwards). Males and females were split up as the crowds surged forward into the specially erected stands to accommodate the thousands of people who show up to watch the spectacle every day.

Indian guards sporting outrageous moustaches and outlandish hats perform synchronized speed marching along a 100m walkway to the gate where they perform a few super high kicks (waaaaay above their heads - impressive!!) then stomp back. Raucous cheering, clapping, blowing of horns, waving of flags accompanies the spectacle. Guards on the Pakistani side then try to emulate their Indians’ efforts. Several times the guards strut their military catwalk then vanish into the guardhouse. The flags are simultaneously lowered, the gates slammed shut then the crowds all disappear off into the distance, back to business as usual. It was a fantastic experience!!

We managed one last jaunt to the Golden Temple before heading home, to see it during the heat of the day with the sun shining. It was fab - the same building can look so different at different points during the day dependant on the light. And no matter how hard we tried no picture could ever capture the most spectuacular building I think I’ve ever seen.

The trip to Amritsar was brilliant in every aspect (Even the hotel - Idex managed to book a decent place for us this time round. It was even clean!!) The Golden Temple is phenomenal. It’s certainly highlight of my trip so far and possible one of my favouritist places I’ve ever visited.

It was back to business as usual yesterday though, no computer class as the school is still closed due the death of the owners father. We don’t think he’ll be back before we leave which is a shame as we’ve been told that our computers a finally fixed. Won’t believe it until I see it but I guess we’ll never know now eh? At least we’re able to use the computers at camp and most of the week we’d just planned to have a wee goodbye party and go to the internet café. It’s gonna be hard to say goodbye to the girls. A couple of them have just started Uni so can’t come anymore. They came down to camp looking for us the other day but we were out so they left a little note complete with utterly cheesy poems that they all seem to love. It was really sweet though, I hope they can make our party on Wednesday. It is Teachers Day on Wednesday so a big cause for celebration. It’s a really bi deal over here - presents and cards are the norm. It seems to be a week of holidays though. Today is Lord Krishna’s birthday so yet another cause for celebration. There has been at least one holiday a week since I’ve been here. Wish it was like that at home. Then work would be a 4 day week ;-).

I visited the local Orphanage today. It was built by the rotary and I think is home to about 50 or 60 boys and girls. It’s very strange though, when we visit only the boys are allowed to come out and play with us while the girls are made to stay indoors and do their homework or whatever. We have to bring lots of thins with us like badminton racquets, cricket bats, balls etc as they literally have nothing at the orphanage. I don’t understand it at all. People donate money all the time. Mind you they tend to do so through Idex so I guess that’s why the Orphanage has nothing. It’s really sad. Before we leave we’re gonna pay a visit to the local sports shop and buy a load of stuff for the kids. Badminton is a favourite and some of the boys are really good. I got my ass whipped several times and Rohit, probably the best player there, took pleasure in smashing the shuttle straight at me which means I’ll most likely be covered in bruises tomorrow.

It’s coming towards the end of my time here in Palampur and it’s about time to move on. 8 weeks has certainly been enough here. We leave here on Saturday traveling to Agra to see the Taj Mahal which is quite exciting!! Then Keri and I fly to Goa on Tuesday. So so so so so sooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited!! It’s better in Goa baby!! I just hope the monsoon rains have died down slightly!!

Over and out,

Ali xxxxxxxx

Ps - Happy Birthday Evie and

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