Emily in India

I didn’t know about Amritsar before I came to India but as soon as I heard that the city sits at the India-Pakistan border, is a relic of the 1947 Partition, and hosts a daily military ceremony by India’s border patrol and Pakistan’s equivalent, I knew I had to go.

Two UKers who were about to head home had planned a weekend to Amritsar and it happened to be a free weekend of mine. UK Anna signed up, I signed up and a couple days before, US Anna also decided to join. I wouldn’t recommend sharing an Amritsar hotel room with two other women but we didn’t know any better. The room was tiny and I was glad we were only there for one night.

We got to the hotel and had lunch – hilariously bad except for the French fries and pizza. All sufficiently disappointed but full, we had naps before starting out for the border ceremony. Thousands of people gather at the military border every day for this ceremony. A huge semi-circle building with INDIA along the top welcomed us on this side of the border and we entered an outdoor arena filled with people. At the front of the arena were gates, one after another, dividing India and Pakistan. I could hardly see what was happening on the Pakistan side but I heard the chants and saw one man, with only one leg, waving a Pakistan flag and jumping to spin in super fast circles.

The ceremony was eccentric to say the least and quite funny if I’m being honest. One main Indian border patrol man lead the crowd in chants and screams of Hindu-Indian pride; Pakistan returned with their own. To start the ceremony, women were invited on the track to dance with Indian flags. Music played, women and girls danced, and one by one or in pairs, carried Indian flags away from the group in parade fashion before turning back around to the group to hand the flags off. Indian border patrol troops marched down the track in spartan-like head wear (picture tall red and yellow Mohawks). They high-kicked and stomped, turning abruptly, swinging their arms, and met Pakistan’s troops near the gates. The India and Pakistan flags were lowered on their own flag poles at a diagonal angle so that they met in the middle. The gates opened for a quick greeting of two military members, and closed before any shenanigans could take place.

It was hot hot hot even as the sun went down later. On the way out, I bought an I Love My India hat and lots of water. We were completely exhausted but needed to see the Sikh’s golden temple by night. We drove to the temple parking and walked through huge crowds of people through a little town to get to the temple. This was the first time I’ve had to cover my head or walk through a shallow pool of water to “clean” my feet before entering a temple. The temple grounds were huge and people were everywhere. The temple sits in the middle of a pool which is surrounded by a wall-like building where 200,000 people are fed 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week/ 365 days a year without fail. And entirely at the hands of volunteers. Since it was late we didn’t see the kitchen operations but walked around the temple grounds to see everything lit up.

We melted to sleep that night and woke up ready to go back to the temple. First we stopped at gardens (Jallianwala Bagh) where a horrible massacre of Indians took place by the British. A boy present at the time of the mass killing grew up to assassinate the British general who started the massacre. It was somber seeing bullet holes in the stone walls and wells that women jumped into to kill themselves before they could be raped and killed by the British.

We went back to the golden temple to observe lunch time. As with many things, it is hard for me to find the right words. There were people everywhere. Sitting, standing, eating, cooking, cleaning, bringing ingredients, picking up after people, talking, serving. The largest cookware I’ve ever seen in my life and some of the most efficient operations I’ve ever seen in my life. I guess feeding hundreds of thousands of people every day requires giant equipment and revolutionary efficiency. Knowing that every person helping was there asa volunteer, that no one really “runs” the show, and that anyone can come to eat was humbling. Can you imagine if even half the churches in America did this? It was a spectacular sight to see.

From there we walked to the Partition museum. Talk about sombering. The partition was done in 1947, a couple of days after Britain granted India its freedom back and handed the Hindus and Muslims a map to show where India was now Pakistan. Hindus had to move south and Muslims had to move north; millions died along the way. A couple of things that struck me besides the cruelty and scale of it was the little things that had to be separated. Like currency and sports teams and the military. WOW.

And just like that, our trip to Amritsar was over. Thank god for late checkout and showers before flying back to Bangalore.