4-2 Trip - Part 1

Wing trips from BITS, Pilani are so beautiful. When a group of like-minded, fun-loving girls get together to explore the beauty of nature and cultural heritage, you can not expect less than a mind-blowing experience for them. When, in the final sem, 12 of Beau Monde planned to take a trip to Amritsar, Wagah and Dalhousie, the excitement was palpable for almost two weeks before the trip.

Planning was the usual itinerary making and route making.
23rd: leave Pilani after dinner [8 pm]
24th: reach amritsar for breakfast [8 am]. See jallianwala bagh and golden temple. Late lunch. Leave to wagah border at 3pm and reach by 4pm. Leave wagah border by 7pm. travel to Dalhousie via pathankot and reach by 11pm [but could take till breakfast time next day, depending on weather conditions].
25th: have breakfast. Sightseeing at Dalhousie between 10 am and 1 pm [local taxi]. Have lunch. Go to Khajjiar between 3 pm and 5 pm [local taxi]. Spend the evening and night gen sitting and sleeping at hotel room.
26th: Leave to Dharamshala at 5 am. Sightseeing at dharamshala till late lunch [3 pm]. Leave to pathankot and reach by 6 pm. Leave pathankot after dinner and reach Pilani on 27th morn for breakfast.

Since it became obvious that it was too much of traveling in a short span, Dharamshala was gussed even before we left.

Well, we had signed up for a cartloads of snacks for the journey. Needless to say, all of it got over that first night itself. We started at 9, after the usual delays in packing and arranging. The 12 hour journey on NH1 was as usual interspersed with stops at Reliance petrol bunks ;) and a sexy dhaba

Taking turns to sit in the front with the drivers and making horrible conversations in Hindi to prevent them from dropping off to sleep, we managed to complete the journey within reasonable levels of discomfort, what with 6 to a qualis, as opposed to the quashing we undergo on our journeys between Pilani and Delhi.

Well, we reached Amritsar at 9 am on 23rd, and wham! - we had just one room at the LIC guest house that Shru's dad had kindly managed to arrange! So Porn talked to some virtually unknown relatives of hers, who insisted that we board and lodge at their house.

So, lady-luck that accompanies us when ever we travel smiled on us once again, and we had some sexy pastry and dokhlas at their house for breakfast at 12. After changing into fresh clothes and leaving behind the mound of luggage in the middle of their drawing room, we left to see the wonders of Amritsar. First stop at Jallianwala Bagh. The narrow single entrance to the Bagh, epitaphs at spots where General Dyer stood ordering his troops to fie, where people tried scaling walls, where people jumped into the well to escape the deadly firing, liberally set up boards with explanations and history, Attenborough's Gandhi & Rang De Basanti all helped us visualize the massacre that happened 60 years ago.

We next visited the Golden Temple, which is on the same street as the Bagh. The temple is a huge edifice in marble and parallels our own Madurai Meenakshi temple in size. It has a sexy system for people to wash feet - there is a small moat-like thing at the entrance with flowing water. So people have to step into it to go inside and hence maintain cleanliness.

Once you enter the impressive outer wall that actually has rooms for pilgrims and monks [it's like an outer agraharam, if you know what I mean], you can see the huge tank and the actual temple is right in the middle of the tank. We walked around clicking snaps. There are a lot of trees and platforms of significance. There is a platform from where Guru Gobind Singh used the water from the tank to heal a poor woman's sick husband, a tree to mark the spot where someonebeheadedeaded for using the holy temple as a dancing hall [I don't remember names, sorry], etc.

Well, we bulbed for sometime about all this and the normal rules of conduct and all the stuff. Then we decided to ask the women around, who answered in Punjabi, then in a mix of Punjabi and Hindi, which we managed to figure out, with the Shru's, Preetu's and Shus' help. Next we had to walk into the gold-plated sanctum sanctorum, which is three-storey high. People were let in in batches, but it wasn't greatly crowded. The ground floor has the Holy book in print, covered with a mega pink and gold cloth. People sat around singing and a man was fanning it. We climbed up to the first floor, where the original granth, in the Guru's handwriting, is located, covered in a red and gold-embroidered cloth. Here people sat reading different holy books. We climbed to the next storey where a man sat reading the granth [in print again] and which had a lamp at one corner. Meanwhile I was once chided by the people there to not let my dupatta fall off my head. The walls of the temple are covered in beautiful floral designs.

As we left the sanctorum, it became 'cleaning time'. Metal buckets were being handed out and people randomly started picking up the buckets, filling them up in the tank and pouring the water along the walkways. This exercise was a mighty one - there were hundreds of buckets, and people around, people entering, people leaving, all kept passing the buckets to help clean up. Apparently this exercise is carried out every three hours. We were all very impressed by the cleanliness of the temple and the sincerity shown by the people in keeping it clean.

We next had sexy parattas and curd at a nearby dhaba and left for Wagah. It is a 45-minute drive from Amritsar. The parade started at 5.30 sharp. First civilians were allowed to walk up to the gate on the border on both sides [India and Pakistan] and wave flags. This was followed by a parade by 6 soldiers of the Border security Force.

All the while, a silly man jumped around and urged the crowd to scream things like 'Vande Matharam' and 'Hindusthan Zindabad' on a loud public address system. Then flags [which are normally hoisted at dawn] were lowered with band music. This lasted half-an-hour. We walked back along the electrified security fences which marked the border line and a small piece of land that is neither Pakistan's nor India's.