I arrived Tuesday morning in Amritsar, which is in the North of Punjab, some 27km from the Pakistan border. Again I took a night train, but ended up with an uncomfortabe bed, so I didn’t sleep well. When I did awaken, the train was already stopped in Amritsar. In a panic I grabbed my bags, put on my sandals and rushed from the train. Standing on the platform, I realized that all the change had fallen out of my pocket in the night, so I ran to retrieve it. Back on the platform again, I now realized that my water bottle was in my berth. Going back for the water, I also found the book I had been reading. In the end, I and all my belongings were safely in Amritsar.
Category: Amritsar
Frustration at the Border
I’m frustrated, and decided that my journal has had nothing but good things so far, so I’ll share something that didn’t work out. Let me start by saying that I’m mostly frustrated with myself.
I decided to go to the border today. Every day before sunset there is a big ceremony, for which hundreds of people come. On each side of the border there are large viewing stands. The is an elaborate ceremony to take down the flags with outrageous costumes for the soldiers. People yell and cheer as the flags of both countries are lowered, carried to the border gate and then folded.
Well, I knew that shared taxis go from the Golden Temple around 3:30, so there I headed. I had met a man who distributes free pamphlets there, and I thought I’d ask his advice. “Sit, have tea…there’s plenty of time he said.” I knew I should say no, and go look for a taxi, but being the overly social, trusting person I am, I agreed. After the tea, which I gulped down, he took me to an auto-rickshaw driver whom he knew. At this point I doubted I would find a taxi, and decided to accept the high price offered.
The driver then passed me to his brother in another auto. The auto was so amazingly slow, and I think most of it’s energy went into shaking and making noise. I watched taxis and other autos pass us. By the time we reached the border I had a headache and the ceremony was virtually over. I was very frustrated at having spent extra money to miss the ceremony. I found the driver and told him to find other passengers, and I gave him a portion of the money. In the end I went with him, but told him to take other passengers.
When I cooled off, I felt sorry for the poor driver. I wasn’t mean to him, but I wasn’t friendly either. He refused to take the remainder of the money, and I apologized.
Well, I still have time here, and perhaps I’ll get to see the border yet.
The Golden Temple
I already talked some about the Golden Temple, but I feel the need to make a few more observations. It is the most alive place of worship I have ever seen. I have been to many cathedrals in Europe, and a mosque or two, and when services aren’t going on, they are just impressive architecture. Service is going on 24 hours a day at the temple. It is also much more of a communal place. At any given time, hundreds of lay people are working to cook food, serve food, wash dishes, clean the sidewalks…their actions being worship. It is quite unlike the one-way, top-down approach of services in other large churches.
Eating in India
Jasdip asked me to write something about my gastronomic adventures here in India. When I first arrived I was extremely cautious. I was paranoid to eat something that would make me sick. My first venture away from hotel food was with the freshly prepared fried food one finds everywhere at small chaat shops. The somosas here are particularly good, and at about 7 cents each, I could eat myself sick on them. One day with a friend, I stopped at a chaat shop in Dehradun, and we ate our way through plates of somosas and pakoras.
Amritsar Again
On Monday night Sarah and I packed up our stuff and headed to New Delhi Railway station to catch the “Golden Temple Express” train to Amritsar (scheduled to leave at 7:35). When we arrived, we discovered that it was delayed by 3:15 minutes. After going out for a chai, we found that the delay had increased to 4:30 minutes. We decided to go back to Mark’s apartment to get away from the crowds of people, and loud announcements. We returned a bit after 11:00 P.M.