Amristsar!

Amritsar! But a few words first...

Where has the time gone?! The past month and a half has gone by much faster than I expected. Now I only have one month left - what a weird thought. Three weeks of work - two more weekend trips, and if all goes as planned, I will go to Mumbai for a few days with Dennis and Allie for my final week.

And after one month and a half how do I feel... well, I no longer want to go home. Three weeks doesn't seem like enough time left here to do all of the things I still want to do. India is HUGE and you need 3 months alone of just traveling to even begin to see it all. I also feel very well-versed in Indian culture and current politics - even a bit of history. To be honest, I knew nothing about India before I came. I knew where it was on a map and that is about it. Now I know almost all of its geography - and if you name a city I can tell whether it is in the north or the south. And I feel so much more comfortable talking about Hinduism. I can identify about 6 gods (not much considering there are over 330,000,000) but before everything sounded foreign. I also know about the politics thanks to the book I bought before I came (In Spite of the Gods) which I recommend. I have also read White Tiger, The 3 Mistakes of My Life and Holy Cow!. All of which i strongly recommend to anyone who is interested in learning about India. Especially White Tiger. Definitely one of the top ten best books I have read in my life. Almost every intern has read it here and a ton of Indians im sure as well.

The second book I mentioned is an easy read, a fiction novel about three cricket-loving boys living in Gujarat (a state here). But it included political and religious elements as well that I was proud to understand thanks to reading In Spite of the Gods. Im so glad I enjoy the politics as well because my hope was to come to India as a jump-start for expanding my expertise from the Middle East to include Pakistan and India. A bit ambitious, but I like options. The last book, Holy Cow!, was written by a woman from Australia who travels through India when she is 21, hates it, then returns and has countless religioius experiences as she tries to find her spiritual self. Very good as well.
I realized just how much I have learned when Maria, Kylie and I were watching Slumdog Millionaire after we returned from Amritsar in the afternoon. I felt so cool knowing some of the Hindi! And for those of you who live and breathe that movie, remember back to the beginning when the two boys' mother dies due to a mob of people coming in and killing almost everyone. During this part the two boys see a young child painted blue in a sort-of dream like state, which the Millionaire host lets us know is Ram (a Hindu god), when he asks "What is Ram holding in his right hand?" Before I didn't even question why the boys saw a child version of Ram in the first place as they were running for their lives.

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but I believe I understand now. The angry mob was an agry mob of extremeist Hindu men who were incredibly mad due to there being a mosque on what they argue to be the birthplace of Ram. Now my details are a bit fuzzy on who started what, but essentially there was some act of violence done by Muslims against Hindu people, so the Hindu extremeists retaliated by bringing down the mosque in Ayodhya and subsequently killing mass amounts of Muslims, women and children included, in terrible terrible ways. This happened in 1992, but plans to burn down the mosque were probably in circulation since 1984. So it makes sense that the boys, who were Muslim along with their mother, would see Ram because it was this controversy that caused the killings in the first place. Phew.

Sadly, this entire controversy is still a very important political point and goal of the BJP (previous ruling political party in India), who still wishes to create a Ram temple on the mosque ruins. But the construction has yet to happen and remains incredibly controversal since the Congress party, a secular party, is currently in power (and for many other reasons of course). Sorry for the excess writing - but I really haven't blogged in a while so I have a lot to say! Now onto Amritsar...

Amritsar is known for primarily one thing: the Golden Temple. It is the mecca for the Sikh religion, and a significant number of Sikh people live in India. It is also the most visited sight in India for Indian tourists. So it is basically busy all day long, all year round.

So the North American four, Maria, Kylie, Allie and I, all boarded the train for our third trip as a group. After the sleeper train there, I somehow have the ability to sleep the entire time, something the rest of the girls are quite jealous of, we arrived in Amritsar. So we headed straight for the temple. And here it is in all its glory.

Beautiful, no? And it is entirely painted in gold! The temple sits at the center of a huge lake (man-made) and is surrounded by a rectangular marble pathway with guest rooms on the sides and an entire cafeteria. The best part is, you can sleep and eat for free! Since so many people travel here, it makes sense. But its not just the Golden Temple that is so hospitable, this is true for all Sikh temples. Although we didn't get a chance to, you can go to the cafeteria and get your basic chapatti and some sort of bean-ish food with it. As much as you want.

So we took a few pictures -

Just me!

Oh and I forgot to mention, you do have to cover your head - both guys and girls. In the lake surrounding the temple men can also bathe. So you will often see men undressing (they leave some sort of long underwear on) and bathing in the water. So the women have to bathe in a separate area - which seemed a bit small to me from the outside although we didn't go in... again, not sure why not haha. Here are the women:

So after walking around for a bit, barefoot of course, we waited for 45 minutes in the long line to enter the temple. We gave about 10 rupees donation each (you give as you can) and we received a banana leaf full of this brown stuff. Then once you make it to the front of the line and you can enter the temple, the men there take half of the brown food as an offering to God. Then you get to eat the rest! It was terribly greasy but so delicious and sweet. So we ate that and walked around the temple which had similar marble and stone designs as the Taj Mahal. Oh and the gold.

Outside the temple you could see all the carp in the water as well. They were the most beautful orange fish.

And on our way out to get our shoes, Allie and Maria were stopped by a family who wanted their picture with them. I wanted to show this because this happened about 234872047 times on this trip. It's quite funny actually when Kylie is in a bad mood because when men ask her for a picture they really wish they hadn't. But for the most part, we say yes to women and families, and absolutely no to any men. As for the families, we're not sure whether our faces will end up on the mantle in a frame or just in a family album. Mom with the Golden Temple, Mom with the white people, Mom with the kids... just normal.

So after that we went to the Jallianwala Bagh memorial. Basically when India was fighting for independence, the British were often unruly with their response. So a group of Indians in Amritsar were holding a peaceful protest, and the British general ordered in troops to stop them, and the troops just fired at the people who had no way to defend themselves. So many died on the spot and many died trying to save themselves by jumping into a huge well (all of these people died as well). So they made the area a beautiful park and you can see the well which is still there. So we spent some time in the park and layed in the grass and read a bit.

Then at about 4PM we got a rickshaw driver to take us to the border closing ceremony. This is a huge ceremony that happens every night at around 5:30 or 6, where the border closes between India and Pakistan. That's right, I was about 100 meters away from Pakistan!

So the entire place is packed and filled with screaming Indians who are brimming with nationalism. Then there are also men or should i say guards, who a dressed in a bizarre and hilarious costume.

So the ceremony begins with a man screaming into a microphone "HINDUSTAN!" (ie, India) and then the crowd responds with something in Hindu. I was cheering it with them, but Im still not sure what I was saying - oh well. And from where we were sitting you could see a huge crowd on the Pakistan side as well doing the same thing. Although Im pretty sure India had more people and was much louder.

Then they have countless numbers of people alternate running to the gate at the border and back with two Indian flags. After that, they played about 8 upbeat songs (which im sure were patriotic) and there was a huge dance party on the street with about 50-100 people. Man those Indians can dance - and they are good!!

Then the actual ceremony began. A picture would not do it justice. First, one of the men in "uniform" screams into a microphone for what seems like an entire minute without taking a breath. Amazing. This happens a few times. Then simultaneously, different Indian men stamp up to the gate while Pakistan's men do the same (similarly dressed in an absurd costume). This stamping march includes high kicks and screaming. Then they thrust the gates open, stamp some more, shake hands, and throw the gates closed. This happens a few times. Each side stamps louder and with more energy each time to show how strong they are. So bizarre but incredibly entertaining.

It is at this point that I love India the most. They are so patriotic and such good dancers!! After this we head back on the one hour drive to the golden temple. At dinner, we have two types of Paneer, Malia Kofta (my favorite!) and Aloo Govi (my other favorite). We all share and dig in with our chapattis. Best Indian food I think I've eaten all summer. And the lassi in Punjab are twice their normal size - delicious!!

Then when we get back to the Golden Temple around 11PM, we set up our spot on the marble floor where we will be sleeping. The temple was so beautiful at night. We also captured some men holding hands (very Indian) so I thought I would share.

Its a little difficult to see, but you get the picture. The night was a little annoying because we had a stalker who wouldnt leave us alone, and about a crowd of 20 guys staring at us. Thankfully, one of the Sikh guards working there yelled at them to get away from us at one point, although new ones came back.

After about 3 hours of sleep, we were kicked and woken up with water splashed on us. They needed to clean the floors. We could have found a new place and slept some more, but we decided just to head for the train station to wait a bit before our 5:30AM train. Overall, I would say the trip was a success.

Its funny how some times I love India so much and at other times I hate it. It is a constant feeling of ambivalence. I loved India so much at the border closing ceremony when you see how wonderfly patriotic the country is. But then, when we are followed and watched by creepy men, even in the most sacred of Sikh temples, India can be very annoying. I guess that's the price you have to pay though. I'll reevaluate in 3 weeks.