AMRITSAR

Again goose bumps in my belly to choose a new place.. a new road... a new direction to break the jinx of my daily routine of my SO CALLED office routine. This time, I planned to visit Amritsar in Punjab. As soon as the plan stuck my mind, I opened the invitation for all my friends and this time TOO only one responded. We looked all the travelling sites to get the information about all the areas to visit, how to visit and things to take care in this trip and decided that we will leave on 28th March 2013 to Amritsar.

Reason for Choosing Amritsar:
1. Amritsar refers to Amrit + Sar which means “Pool of Nectar". It was said that earlier this place was not ploughable and one of the Sikh guru made this pool to help the local people. Later his disciples named this place "AMRITSAR" as it bring good luck for the natives and mark it as pilgrimage - THE GOLDEN TEMPLE.

2. To see the Bagha border. Bagha border or Ataari border is part of one of the most tense border between India and Pakistan. Still every evening, soldiers of both sides perform a flag lowering ceremony which is open for both sides citizens. It is the only road border crossing between Lahore(Pakistan) and Amritsar (India). The village was divided by independence in 1947. Today, the eastern half remains in the India while the western side is in Pakistan.

3. PUNJAB: one of the most juvilant state of india. Reason: PUNJABIYYAN di battery CHARGE rehndi hai!! Till this time, I have been to lot many places but always wants to roam in the heart of Punjab and got my chance via this Journey.

Plan: Board the train on 28th night, get down in amritsar on next morning. To roam Golden temple in morning, Jaliawala Bagh in afternoon and Bagha border in evening. Catch the night bus to come back to my BASE i.e. Delhi :)

Start of story:
A story is not a story until it gets a THRILLING turn in between. In this trip, we had a THRILL in start of the story. We have to board a train from Delhi to amritsar at 2015 hours and that evening, SUDDENLY RAIN STARTED. God was yelling at us " YOUR FIRST TEST". It started by 1600 and didn't stop till 1830 hours. I was waiting that even if it gets dimmer by a fraction i will jump on road, to go to railway station. Bust as i said God was in mood to give us a favor, not even a small portion. Finally by 1845 hours, i jumped out and was under the rain... ON my way to railway station. I asked my brother to walk with me till nearest metro station as he also wants to enjoy rain. By the time, i reached to metro station, we were fully drenched. I changed my clothes in common area of metro station and gave them to my brother. rest everything was quite fine. Thanks to my Water proof bag! From there, i boarded metro to reach Hazrat nizamuddin metro station. By the time, i reached there, it was 1945 in my watch! I called my friend who was on the way and was stuck in the jam because of rain. Finally train came. After few minutes, my frined also arrived. We had our dinner and went to sleep on our berths.

FIRST TEST OVER!!! ;-)

Got up the next morning in train, got fresh and got down on Amritsar railway station by 0830 hours. GOLDEN TEMPLE SHRINE runs a free of cost bus service in between temple and railway station to help the devotees. There was a long queue so we waited for a long 1 hour to get into that bus. Once started, bus took only 15 minutes to reach the temple. From outside, we saw a big market and big white walls of temple's shrine. As soon as we entered inside, someone told us to cover our heads. As per Sikh religion, everyone has to cover their head in temple premises. We bought 2 long handkerchiefs to do the same. we submitted our foot wears near the entrance, washed our hands and legs and entered in the temple from main entrance.

As soon as I entered in the main campus, I was surprised by the beauty inside the temple. In the center, there was the golden temple. With the term GOLDEN, I mean G O L D E N. It was sparkling YELLOW in the light of sun. Around it, was a big pond. There was one pathway which was joining the golden temple with the temple floor. all the devotees are queued on that pathway. Around the pool, White gurudwaara building are giving a royal look to this place.

I took bath in the pond. It was very cold and after a quick bath, we were ready to enter in the main temple. As we move near to the pathway. we saw a long queue and long means LOOOOOONG queue which was in shape of 6 fold snake near the entrance gate. at first, i thought of leaving my plan but my friend insisted and we move in the queue. It took 3 hours for us to reach inside the main temple where "GURU GRANTH SAHIB JEE" was worshiped. some devotees are chanting inside the temple, around the Granth Sahib jee. Finally we came out and got the prasad. It was hot but YUMMY. I went in the prasad queue thrice. :)

After that, I waited for my friend as he was still in that LOONG queue. Till then, i snapped few pics around the campus. As soon as my friend arrived we move out as it was already 1400 hours. We head towards the marked and had our BUTTER dipped lunch. reason for highlighting butter was that whatever we ordered, dal, paneer our chapatis... everything was dipped in butter and we are eating all those with our butter drenched fingers!! huf!!!! :D

After that we headed towards Jallaiwala bagh which was at 5 minutes distance from Golden temple. Jallianwala Bagh was a milestone in Indian independence movement. It was the evidence of the cruel British empire and their psychic mindset towards the Indians, at that time. It was the place where on 13 April 1919, around 20000 Indian were protesting peacefully against British government. It was a non-violent "Satyagrah Andolan", in which people of all age groups and religion were present. General Dawyer ordered his 150 men platoon to fire on these people. Soldiers shot for next 6 minutes continuously which caused a casualty or over 1000 people and left other wounded. Holes of the bullets on the sidewalls of the bagh are still there.
After paying our tributes to those unknown freedom fighters who shed their flood so that we can breathe in an independent air and can roam in this country without any worry. After this we headed to see the retreat ceremony at Bagha border. This ceremony takes place every evening before sunset at the Wagah border, which as part of the Grand Trunk Road was the only road link between these two countries before the opening of the "Aman Setu" in Kashmir in 1999. The ceremony starts with a blustering parade by the soldiers from both the sides, and ends up in the perfectly coordinated lowering of the two nations' flags.[2] It is called the beating retreat border ceremony on the international level. One infantryman stands at attention on each side of the gate. As the sun sets, the iron gates at the border are opened and the two flags are lowered simultaneously. The flags are folded and the ceremony ends with a retreat that involves a brusque handshake between soldiers from either side, followed by the closing of the gates again. The spectacle of the ceremony attracts many visitors from both sides of the border, as well as international tourists.

On the way to border, we saw a huge line of trucks carrying onions. Driver told us that all these trucks are meant for trade with Pakistan and in return we will get sugar. As soon as we reached the border. It was a delightful scene to watch. Patriotic songs in the background, Army peopel in their sparkling dresses and loud voice of the commander - it was giving a look of war front. But of course, presence of so many civilians around the post was the biggest catch. People from all part of counry were present to see the ceremony. everybody wants the best seat for him/her-self to see this ceremony. Since there are only few seats available in the stands so people choose trees, poles and othe possible places from where they can see the events. Even I fought for that and later found a center stand(not seat- but a stand) from where I can see the things clearly. Event started and army officer invited the girls in the crowd to come in the center of road and dance. It was a open house DJ invitation for them, which they joyfully expected. Even some foreigners joined them. After that 15 minutes DJ session, commander asked the people to evacuate and within next 5 minute the army proceedings for retreat ceremony got started.

At first two lady officers walked briskly towards the gate. Later, two infantry men followed them. At this moment, both sides opened the gate. It was the time when one can see the extension of G.T. road across the border. Just seeing the people across the wall, I thought even they walk on the same road as we do.
Even they eat the same food which we do. We give them our onions to enrich the taste of their vegetables in dinner and in return they provide us sugar bowls to make our sweets more sweeter. Just like a good neighbor.

As soon as the gate opened,Six men from each side, with high voices, reached the center. After that they started showing their brisk walk, high leg salutation in "I CAN YELL HIGHER THAN YOU" voice, to each other. It was continued for next 15 minutes. After that soldiers started lowering their flags and closed the door. Again the looks of our neighbor was barred by the walls which were raised by Britishers and now being watered by our politicians!

After the ceremony got over, everybody turned to head back to the city. This was the time when we have to go through the painful "yes sir"-"no sir" to convince the auto people to drop us to the golden temple. Although we had booked one while coming but due to ALMIGHTY AUTOWALA, he didnt came back to take us. So we are on the mercy of other autos to reach back. Finally we managed to get one and reached the Golden temple by 2030 hours.

Our return journey was quite peacefula s we had booked two sleeper seats in bus. We reached the bus station at right time. I felt asleep as soon as I sat on my seat. The next thing which i remember was .. conductor and my friend were yelling at me to get down on kashmiri gate bus stop in Delhi. My friend was amused by the way I was sleeping for those 8 hours.

With this, we came to an end of the amazing journey which start with a GODLY challange... meets with certain UP and DOWN (as expected ) and finally ended with lots of memories and click-clicks!! The warming nature of Pinjabis and taste of food was an EXTRA add-on on this trip which was most amazing part on this trip. The land of farmers has treasured us with lots of good experiences which will remain with us in all our trip... till our LAST trip!! See you again in the next trip ... till then, KEEP :) ;) !!