Punjab - In Retrospect : Part II

When I ended up at the railway station I almost forgot my cell phone in the cab. I shook my head, gave myself a kick in the backside and pleaded my mind to stay with me for a little more time before I gave it some rest. I was mistaken. What was going to come my way was a barrage of verbal assault from the gang I was supposed to go with. Before all that happened though I spent a little time with the close friend (A) who had organized the trip and another gang member (V). (A) was looking tired, obviously because of all the travelling. Then all of a sudden out of nowhere the other gang members arrived and all hell broke loose.

I have always been amazed to see how each person reacts when they meet someone new. Everybody has his/her own special or rather unique way of meeting and greeting a stranger. What made this congregation even more interesting was the fact that we all had to be together for the next two days and so everyone started off showing their best self.

Punjab beckoned and as though some conspiracy was being unfolded the train that we had to board was getting delayed by the minute. When it finally arrived I thanked the heavens for my mind had had enough of introductions and pleasantries. I got into the coach and was getting ready to sleep when (A) quite surprisingly came off and made me realize how filthy and selfish I was acting. I knew that (A) was right and so I decided to spend a little more time with the gang. There were two people who hailed from a village in Punjab (CJ a.k.a. Devil 1) and (JS), two Tamilian twins (Devil 2) and (CHA) and one Bengali (SO a.k.a. Devil 3). All in all it was just the perfect mixture of stupidity and intelligence that makes a trip interesting. I spent as much time with those folks as I could. My mind had switched off a long time back but it was only when my body started giving signals that these folks relieved me and I gladly obliged.

I slept like a baby and the next thing I knew was that we were in Jullundur on our way to Amritsar. The events of the past few days had been playing on my mind. I decided to get off the train to just have a change of environment before the train started chugging off again. There are few things in life better than sipping hot tea on a strange looking platform with the winter chill biting you. What makes it even more special is if you have friends who share the same interests as you. Tea never tasted as good as it did on that platform in Jullundur city.

The next stop was Amritsar and when we finally got down the anticipation of it all had just drained the excitement out of us. We wanted to explore but our hearts and our minds were just not in sync. In a fit of helplessness we decided to book the return journey tickets back to Delhi and that later proved to be the single biggest mistake in my book. But a trip is incomplete without it's screw-ups. As travellers our first priority was lodging and we managed to find a decent hotel which was reasonably priced as well. The cost of living in the city had struck me as shockingly low, but I chose to ignore the first signals.

It was already late afternoon and we decided that our starved souls needed some respite. So we headed towards the "Brothers Dhaba" which sounds quite uncanny when the Punjabi name of the restaurant is translated in English. In the heat of the moment each of us ordered a full Punjabi meal and by the time the food arrived we had already started regretting the decision. The calorie scale would have to invent new units to measure the amount of fat that the meals contained but to all of our surprise we gobbled all of it up and even had space left for some Lassi. A trip to Punjab is incomplete if you dont have a glassful of Lassi right after the heaviest meal you will ever have in your lifetime.

Next destination was the Wagah Border and it just had to live up to its expectations. The place is utterly crowded and very poorly managed but the ordeal of reaching the destination is definitely not in your mind when you make that final rush to the Indo-Pak border. The entire ceremony is quite a marvel. It certainly got my, almost dead, patriotic juices flowing and that in itself justified the amount of chaos, energy and decibel levels that that place generated.

One piece of advice to all folks who love to travel. Always keep some time in your itinerary for shopping immaterial of which place you visit, since when you travel with the shopaholic sex you got to give in to their addiction. We all decided that in the best interest of us all, we have a rather sober dinner to quench the raging fire in our tummies. By the time we reached our rooms almost everyone had decided to call it a day and were about to retire. I had other plans though.

I knew that the "Harmandir Sahab" looked even more divine by the night and I knew that I just had to be there when it mattered. Luckily that enthusiasm rubbed off on all of the rest of the gang members and everyone decided to join me on the holy trip. (A), (Devil - 2), (CHA) and (SO) being the items that they are, happened to try on their shopping. I must admit that all of them were looking quite cute though.

That one night in that heavenly place is the stuff dreams are made of. If I ever was closer to God it was then and it was at that place sitting next to the "Sarovar" looking at that wonder structure standing majestically with the serene waters around it trying to soothe my restless soul. It was as if the silence was talking louder than ever, preaching us, telling us that true happiness lies only in selflessness.

It was only when (SO) caught cold that we decided to leave since we had plans of visiting the place the next morning and it was not worth risking it. I knew that none of us was going to make it. It was tough to leave that place and it was even tougher to understand how one can feel so connected to something having seen it only minutes back.