Recently concluded a 4 day trip to the Bhangra land! WHAT a revelation it was!
We hired an Innova and took off by road last Saturday. For the first time in ages the entire family was going on a trip together!
The final destination was Amritsar, but we stopped over at Chandigarh for a night enroute. Chandigarh = Sector 17 Market in our family's psyche :D ... So that's the one and only place that we visited there before retiring for the day.
The next day we started off for Amritsar. It was Brilliant! I can't put it down to any one thing...but as you go Northwards in our country... the more cheerful people seem to become...there is a general enthusiasm in the air... the green fields... golden flowers... sun shine ... and most importantly lots and lots of Sardarjis! Their jovial spirit just shines through!
When we finally reached Amritsar around 3 in the afternoon, we started marking out our things to eat list... The deal is...in this city each delicacy is associated with one particular dhaba/konewaali dukaan. So while punjaabi food was awesome in Kaisar da Dhaba...Poori Aaloos and lassi were heavenly at Kanhaiyalal's. Then there was a hatti dedicated to jalebis, and a totally different one for gulaab jamuns! It was my own private heaven! Kaali daal was lost in pools of desi ghee, and lassi in chunks of white butter and malai. After ages, I forgot all about my sagging tummy and enjoyed each morsel of food. My extremely fat conscious family totally followed suit!
Apart from the food, the pace itself was amazing! The Golden temple is gorgeous and you feel totally at peace there. Then of course, there's Jallianwala Bagh .. a stark reminder of our days under the British rule... with the bullet holes marked out on each wall, and a shrine of sort made out of the historic well that claimed dozens of lives as people tried to save themselves from Dyer's bullets... The narrow pathway that Dyre used to enter the park ... the blood red roses that are today blossoming in the soil that had absorbed the blood of hundreds of Indians that fateful day in April 1919... it affects you in myriad ways...
We were lucky enough to be able to witness the evening ceremony at Wagah too..up close! The Indian crowds thronged "our side" of Wagah...patriotic songs blared from giant speakers... Shouts of "India Zindabad" and "Vande Mataram" rang in the air.
The Pakistani side hardly had any viewers compared to our massive turnout... And men and women were seated on opposite sides. Though soon the enthusiasm grew there too.. and shouts of "Jeevhe Jeevhe Pakistan" intermingled with "Vande Mataram" ... Their speakers blared their patriotic songs!
Then the soldiers started their march... the gates were thrown open...and I got my first glimpse of the place my heart calls my own! They were just like us...and I wished we could applaud Pakistan, and in return.. they would do the same for us... We were one country... we have a common language... my ancestors are from there... some of there's may have been from here... I saw an old lady sitting up front in their VIP section looking excitedly across the border... she reminded me of my own grandmom... who knows... maybe they know each other too from their youth...
Alas... didn't really get a chance to interact with them ... and just as the ceremony had started... it ended all too quickly (after some pompous display of marching and kicking sequences by soldiers on both sides) ... the flags were brought down at sunset... and the gates were shut again...
It was one helluva trip ... and not just because of the things we witnessed or ate! The spirit of Punjab is unlike anything I've seen in other parts of the country. You will never find a Sardar beggar... because they always work for their living... and go a million steps ahead of us .. because they take immense pride in what they do. So a labourer working on a building, a fruit seller or a businessman... they all will be fair and rosy ... looking like they own the place... and believing that they are doing the greatest work on earth ... That kind of inner satisfaction is so hard to find in our city!
A girl recently asked me why I remained happy all the time... told her the secret... A dash of Punjaabi genes can probably do your genetic make up a lot of good :))
