Amritsar trip

Nothing was unusual about that Thursday (16.12.10) till I agreed to (completely unaware of the bodings) Lings request for dinner, while we were discussing about upcoming Dalhousie trip we thought of doing some good for this weekend. After some cerebration we settled for Amritsar as our weekend destination. I was mystified with Jagaedeesh’s vetrikuri, which prefaced endgame of the usual dinner when you move out with friends. I was today’s stooge.

Day-1 :

Involuntarily driven by premonitions, Lings decided to take a nap after his exhaustive morning chores. I took metro from Noida and reached Red fort around 7.00 PM to avoid last minute hurry burry. I was perturbed by the reply of our travel agent after hearing his actual time schedule. Before my chronometer marked 8.00 Lings joined me and I explained the situation to Lings. We discussed on efficient ways to waste our time and we decided to fill our bellies in Karims before our bus journey. After taking turns like pinball for seating space in Karims, we were lucky enough to curb a table and ordered chicken soup for the soul and briyani for the body.

Even after our leisure dinner we had more than an hour to spare. We decided to cover the distance to Redfort by foot redressing for missed out jogging and workout enjoying meek breeze of Delhi’s harsh winter. We lost our way enquired rickshawalas for the way, their directions and fares charges were as diametric as the Delhi’s climate. We decided to go by our instincts thinking how it would feel to miss the bus in spite of reaching the boarding point 3 hrs earlier. Finally we reached Redfort and we waited on and on for our bus. After our short query we were sent to a bus. Mercedez benz (atleast that’s what the bus name says). We were allotted a sleeper without windowpane!!! (Though we knew it’s the excitement which makes tours memorable, travelling without a windowpane in this climate is definitely an overdose). Finally we ended up in a better (of the worst) sleeper. Even Ilayaraja’s tonal pattern was unable to salvage us from the bus’ ambience. Occasional roaring of the engine failed to incite the tires but our sleep was not spared. Starter pistol was shot at 11.45 after last few seats were filled by hapless passengers.

Day-2:

Scheduled arrival at Amritsar was by 6 AM, we were crawling and covering ourselves in our jackets against early morning cold snap till 8.00AM in the bus, after which Lings woke up with a thrust from inside(Don’t mistake this for some spiritual enlightenment from within). It’s unfortunate that our body can’t act like a proletariat even for a day to accumulate at least water. His body’s irrepressible feelings too increased with every inch our bus moved and finally he managed till 10.30 AM. As we hadn’t planned for overnight stay in Amritsar our need for hotel was to fresh up after some dickering we ended in a hotel for 350 ` in a nearby hotel. Had morning coffee and got a coffee waiver from hotel staff with some plausible arguments. Since we were delayed by our bus journey we squeezed our schedule to must see places.

Golden Temple: Took a rickshaw to golden temple and explored some interior roads of Amritsar, it was more like fight sequel sets in a Tamil movie. Rickshaw guy dropped us in front of Golden temple (Harmandir Sahib), the holiest shrine of Sikhs. This place also holds the record number of NRI visitors round the year. Irrespective of your perspective on god you feel some peace and harmony inside call it god or noetic science. After few photos around the lake (fed by an underground spring) during circumambulation we went to the main structure. It’s is a piece of marvel with a mix of Hindu and Muslim architecture and no restriction on cast, creed and religion. Even this shrine place couldn’t hold us we were joshing a nipper from Canada and Lings parallel executing his own bave bave with Punjabi fillies. After visiting the main structure, Har Ki paure (steps of god) the clock ticked two and I thought of moving to Jallian walah bagh as we had to reach Sukhdev travels by 3.00 PM (our 50 ` was at stake). But Lings was reluctant and he was not ready to miss the main must do activity at Amritsar, free lunch at Gurudwara. We decided to give a try though we were let down by the way they served considering their service mind and the quantum of work they do, we were happy for those who are benefitted by this free kitchen scheme.

Jallianwalah Bagh and Wagah Border: We had quick lunch in Gurudwara and we proceeded for Jallianwalah bagh memorial, a place that is marked with great reverence in India’s independence struggle. Bullet marks were visible on preserved walls. After few snaps we proceeded to Sukhdev travels to board for Wagah border. We were short of change and the guy refused to give change for 500 `.We even checked nearby platform shops as per GAIL’s foreign opportunity analyst’s ideas, but the results were futile as usual. Finally our very own Sardar emerged out of nowhere to help us and we boarded an Omni along with 4 students and a couple for our jaunt. All the more I was concerned about my change, and I was not ready to re-establish myself as a no-hoper after yesterday’s bus travel. Lings secured a strategic position in the Omni and our Sardar driver flagged off to Wagah border. After an hour of cramped journey followed by a guava treat we moved for the retreat ceremony in our desi Berlin wall. Lings was awestruck by our cavalry’s way to maintain order among public, to explain in terms of road rules, it’s like driving a fast moving truck in opposite direction of traffic for establishing a lane (Sounds impressive???? definitely not to experience). Some feeling of oneness satiated our hearts. The ceremony was gaining momentum, with every step of our BSF men and our vociferous cry from vandhe matharam to Bharat Matha ki Jai grew exponentially. As usual, any party contains spoilers, an energetic, to say over energetic lad tested (luckily non-destructive) Lings ear drums with some out of synch war cries. Though we hadn’t experienced pumping iron in our gym we experienced pumping patriotism at the border. With loads of feelings we rejoined our Sardar driver waiting for remaining 6 co-passengers. The couple started complaining about one another to us and this made Lings question their credibility.

We planned to revisit Golden temple to experience it in illuminated condition, But our decision was short lived, we got down near railway station and were roving for a decent hotel. After perambulation of one kilometer on either side we settled exactly at the point where we started and had our dinner at crystals, I would strongly recommend anyone to try crispy threaded chicken in this restaurant. Thinking of our bus journey we dragged ourselves towards railway station (our departure point). Though we had a sizeable response from our travel agent we were skeptic about our return journey we enquired him frequently about the condition of our bus and we explained him our nightlong sufferings we had in onward journey he assured us a better service in our return journey. Lings was pleased by our travel agent’s mellifluous dialects, but unfortunately it was short lived and we were directed to other agent and we continued our complaining spree to the new guy questioning a dozen times on bus condition. We boarded a tempo (share auto) along with our co-passengers, Lings and I occupied seats on either side of driver, around 4 in the middle seat and a foreigner in the rear seat (Amy). Our mind voice echoed one more gonna glean the fruit of online booking. To our dismay it was the same bus in which we had our onward journey. We knew that there’s no point in questioning about bus’ departure schedule. So I retired for the day and Lings too followed after some time.

As the bus’ engine came to life our windowpane slowly gave way for winter breeze as a function of vibration and time. Lings tried every dressing tips he heard over his 24 years as one layer over another, hoping they would spare him from the chillness. Intermittent resetting of windowpane and customized masks (from yesterday’s T-shirt) came as handy rescue. Though we faced difficulty I won’t say our return trip was full of unfortunate things, we were lucky enough that our break in the nap coincided with bus’ intermittent stop, which ensured at least internal trouble free journey in the morning unlike our onward journey. After our break around 5.30 AM Lings fought and succeeded against delhi winter with 3 hrs non-stop sleep in our Mercedez. We were roused by the cleaner in delhi around 8.30 AM and only to find the bus in desolated state But Lings was lucky enough to get his shoes which were unattended (may be due to special aroma it rendered).

We felt a sense of achievement as we came out of the bus. We searched for the directions and a rickshawala came at our service, while I took a snap for my memory about our Benz, Lings casually looked his finger (I envied Lings at least for this- The bus gave him a scar to Lings in its memory).

Though we had some mixed feelings all day, we never felt bad for our experience it’s the unexpected incidents that gives us moments to cherish and our Amritsar trip was never short of excitement.