Since we shifted to Delhi about a month ago, my wife had this excellent opportunity to go to her mayka with her brother and what husband, in his proper sense, would say no to this God send equally excellent opportunity. I was just upset over the fact that she was leaving on a Saturday and returning on next Sunday so I didn't had even two full days to go for a ride. Since I had just joined my new company & it was a not-so-good idea to take a leave, so I was just planning to spend whatever weekends I had, doing what I think I was send on this earth for - sleep. But one fine day, speaking to my brother-in-law on phone, I realised that I had a long weekend (2-5 Oct) when my wife was in myka. I was never so excited over Gandhiji's birthday and what a coincidence that Ram should kill Ravan the very next day this year thus bestowing us with yet another consecutive holiday, which combined with Saturday and Sunday, gave us mortals, 4 straight days off. Its a dream for us, who work long hours on weekdays (9 to 5 job is an illusion created by HR to lure unsuspecting candidates into their organisation.)
As you would have already guessed by the title, I picked Amritsar for this trip. The Cramster saddle bag took care of 90% of my luggage, remaining 10% like, chocolates, fruit juice, towels, DSLR camera etc and a small laptop bag to keep things that I would buy while visiting different places (learning from my last trip to Udaipur, it not a pleasant experience to put your shopping bags on the bike handle and roam the city) went into my backpack. Since there was some problem in wearing my wrist watch, I taped it to my fuel tank.
This time, the only detailed map study I did was about how to get on the main road from where I live, for rest of the place I was ready to get lost. I got this confidence from the fact that I had a GPS enabled smart phone. It also recorded coordinates in pictures I clicked with it, which I have mentioned below for some places.. :). My planned route was Delhi-Bathinda-Amritsar-Nangal-Patiala-Delhi.
So on 2nd Oct 2014 morning I kicked my bullet to life and left for Bhatinda. Skipping Rohtak I went for Hisar. The roads are good. The atmosphere was pleasant and what eyes could see were predominantly green colour at this time of the year, rice fields, as far as you could see in Punjab and Haryana, part of India's grain bowls. It was a pleasant sight but I decided it was more sensible to concentrate on black colour, the road. Some pics
Elections in Haryana
There was Vidhansabha election in Haryana and I encountered many creatures in white overalls, also known as politicians, campaigning around requesting (read demanding) for vote. You could hear adjectives used in campaining, for these creatures, which didn't exist in their vocublary, ofcourse written by some more sensible person who was supposedly forced by uncivilised goons of these creatures. The loudpeakers blared, "Aapke pratyashi, karmath, imaandar, garibon ke sevak....; is baar chunav me khade hain aapke yuva neta, jo appke hak ke liye ladenge...etc etc... (I have difficulty in translating in English but there is no harm in assuming these statements as outright lies). There was one candidate who was literally riding on the Narendra Modi wave that swept the Loksabha 2014 elections resulting in a clear single party majority. The slogan in the below pic says it all.
Hukkah
Going towards Hisar, at a market in a place called Meham/Maham, I stopped to admire traditional hukkahs on sale. The shop keeper had a big one in his shop (Rs 12000/-) which he told me was lighted in the morning and customers, potential customers, friends, friends of friends, someone who would just drop to chat, or some one looking for a free smoke would use it and the hukkah burned continuously till his shop closed in evening. They would take a puff and pass it to the next person which reminded me of puff-and-roll we did in hostel in our student life, so that even one cigarette was evenly smoked by every smoker present, but the hidden agenda was that no one smoked more than what should be his rightful share. I too took one puff from the hukkah. Since it has been a long time I quit smoking, the tobacco smoke almost scrapped my throat forcing me to cough involuntarily.
I had some more chat with these guys about elections. They didn't think BJP will win, but INLD was a strong party there. I just took their view and didn't speculate much, not a good idea to oppose the locals whom you have just met. I left for Hisar.
Half of the women I saw in Haryana were moving around with their face completely covered with dupatta, even the ones who were driving bullock carts in market. The other thing I noticed that there are more buffalos than cows. There is even an Institute of Research on Buffalos in Haryana. These guys are serious about their cattle!
Just before Hisar I had some late breakfast which turned out to be the all time hit and humble aalo paratha. What else when you are in north India? It was coated with butter which, as per my estimate, formed at least 5 mm thick layer on paratha and I could see black particles of paratha swimming in it. On enquiring, the owner said that butter was by default (of course charged extra), only if some one instructed then it was not applied.
Gandhi Jayanti
From Hisar I rode towards Sirsa, but skipped and, for the fun of it, took route which went through some village as per the map on my Nokia - which actually turned out to be a road through some village - so I can now trust the map on Nokia more. It was 2nd Oct, Gandhi Jayanti, and this year the schools were open so that students would actually understand the values of celebrating Gandhi Jayanti. Our Prime minster has initiated a Swachh Bharat (Clean India) campaign and schools and other institutions all across India followed it. I came across one such school.
Amritsar
I reached Bathinda at 01:45 pm. Since there was so much of daylight left and Amritsar was like 200 km, I decided to skip Bathinda and reach Amritsar today itself. This way I could get more time in Amritsar where I had number of things to do on my list, eating local food being most important on it. It was lunch time already but since I was so bent on having lunch only on a dhaba, I skipped many good looking restaurants on the road. As with all my trips, I try to eat at local places to get the authentic taste of the food. I found one (Lat: 30.18.41; Long:74.55.48) just as I left Bathinda. The dhaba only served 4-5 vegetables, 1 daal and rotis. No paratha, no rice. I ordered daal and roti and it was so tasty, I can swear by it. I could taste sweetness in roti and daal was really spicy and tangy and the ambience was tranquilizing. Sitting on an almost proper khaat, with a patri on it, It was the best lunch I had had in few days.
Crossing Sutlej river on the way, and by-passing Tarn Taran, I reached Amritsar by evening about 6 pm. It is pretty straight road from Bathinda to Amritsar, not as in a straight line, but just follow the road. Took up a room in hotel Sagar, outside Hall market gate. After freshening up, went to Golden temple through the markets of Amritsar. There is a dargah near the market which one of the guys, who was distributing prasad outside the dargah, told me is revered by the locals.
Golden Temple
The Golden temple, as I came to know, was open 24 hours a day. Also I came to know that there are government run parking areas in Amritsar in the vicinity of Golden Temple, which are open 24 hours. Since there was a long queue for visiting the temple I decided to go back for the much needed rest and come back next morning, but not before clicking some pictures.
I had dinner of Amritsari Kulcha and chole at Bharawan da Dhaba. It was like okay-okay. I have decided not to eat at places which is frequented by tourists. It think authenticity of the local food is lost, as the restaurants for tourists try to cater to taste of everyone coming there. I had forgot visiting card of the hotel and got lost while returning and wasted one hour searching for hotel, and next morning, I got up an hour late than planned. Rushed up all my morning chores and went straight to Golden Temple. Deposited my bag and footwear and queued up for Darshan. You can take your camera up to entrance of Sanctum sanctorum of the temple, so got to click some pics near the temple too. Inside the temple, you were just asked to switch off your mobile and camera.
Getting darshan is itself an spiritual experience which I felt. After coming out from the temple, I went for Guru ka langar. I was amazed by their speed of serving as I was amazed by many other things I observed.
You were not charged to keep your belongings at the cloak room, there was no one selling flowers, garlands, chaddars or any kind of offering to god, there was no pandit asking you to come with them for special darshan or some special puja in lieu of dakshina (fees), no one was there selling raw wheat flour balls to feed to fishes in the tank in the temple complex, people in the queue did not push each other, there was no frisking as you entered the temple, you were not asked (read pushed) to move quickly so that others can have darshan, the temple itself never closed. I was so impressed, I had a passing thought of getting converted to Sikhism, but as I had already come across Bhagvad Gita shlok "swadharme nidhanam shreyah paradharmo bhayaavahah", it remained a passing thought.
After that I visited Jallianwala bagh near the Golden temple. Some of the bullet holes can still be seen on the preserved walls.
Wagah Border
Outside the Jallianwala bagh, you can find touts and drivers offering rode to Wagah border and back to see the lowering down of flag ceremony for Rs 100. I realised I could fall short of time if I went to find the "All India Famous Amritsari Kulcha" restaurant for lunch, where as per some information on the internet, you get the best kulchas in Amritsar. Nevertheless, I decided to go for it. The map showed that it was located near by the route which would take me to Wagah border. On they way, I had lassi at a busy shop in the city. Somehow, I found that kulcha restaurant (Lat: 31.38.58; Long:74.52.10) and had two kulchas with chole. It was very satisfying and far far better than those I had previous night at Bharawan da Dhaba.
A question was lingering in my mind from previous night, which had the potential to keep me awake the whole night, but since I was tired physically, I felt asleep as soon as I hit the bed. The question was: what is the difference between paratha and kulcha since both appeared similar in shape, size and stuffing? Answer to this was revealed next day at this "All India Famous Amritsari Kulcha" restaurant by a learned man disguised as waiter. When you fry it on pan, its paratha and when you cook it in tandoor, its kulcha. Satisfied both with my hunger and with my quest, I moved towards Wagah border riding on the Grand Trunk road.
Since it was a holiday due to Dussehra festival, lots of people came to watch the ceremony. There we so many people that if there was any panic or rumour, a stampede would have occurred and few people would have been martyred. And also, there were so many people that, if we just walked into Lahore,we would have conquered it.
If you are a common man, as most of the Indians are, you should reach by 4 p.m. (October time. Actually you should reach full 2 hrs before sunset) latest to get a seat with proper view of the ceremony. The more late you reach, chances of watching the ceremony sufficiently clear with your naked eyes go down, unless ofcourse you have a special pass. You can only take your camera and clear plastic water bottle inside. Nothing else is allowed. No bags, not even for camera, no eatables, nothing. There are people selling packets of chips and water bottles inside.
The atmosphere inside was electrifying. Loud speakers with songs like "Yeh desh hai veer jawano ka...." were on full blast. Some ladies, girls, aunties and a foreigner were allowed to run towards the border gate carrying India's flag and were allowed to dance to the tunes of patriotic songs for some time. There was excitement all over the place. The sky reverberated with the calls of "Bharat Mata ki Jai, Hindustan Jindabad and Vande Mataram". The sound of people shouting slogans together was so powerful, if there was a machine built for the purpose of converting sound energy to electricity, it could have powered Amritsar city for a month atleast. Ok, for a week. Not less than that, I was there to hear it. People were so excited they would stand at their place and the ones sitting behind would throw water on them in hope that they will sit down, only to give up and get up from their seats so that they too can watch the ceremony. Compared to crowd on Indian side, there was no one on the Paksitan side. The crowd on Pakistan side was only made up of a group of schoolchildren who came to watch the ceremony and few more people. (Total about 150 people I guess, including the soldiers posted at the border.)
I returned to Amritsar and bought some Punjabi juttis. As with every tourist and shopkeeper relationship in India, as a thumb rule, the shopkeeper will quote you atleast 2 times normal sale price of an item. So you know how to bargain. The shopkeeper guided me to a dining place, Indrapuri Bhojnalay, which is a nice place with good food. Only a local would know about it. Since it is not on a main road, I have recorded its coordinates (Lat: 31.635, Long: 74.876). I was hoping to get sarson da saag and makke di roti for dinner but was disappointed due to preset crop cycle which meant that it was not yet the season for this delicacy. I had to do with Punjabi thali.
Not Nangal, not Patiala, but Delhi
While leaving for trip I demonstrated extra intelligence and reasoned that I should not disturb my neighbour in early morning, so I did not give the key to the main door interlock to my neighbour, contrary to what my wife and I had decided. Due to some miscommunications, I assumed that my wife would return on Sunday evening but actually she was to return on Sunday morning. I realised my mistake when I spoke to my wife from Amritsar and had to cancel trip to Nangal and overnight stay to Patiala. Instead next day, I had to take the route Amritsar-Jalandhar-Patiala-Delhi and return to Delhi the same day for obvious reason.
I came across a war museum just outside Jalandhar but could not visit it because the museum was not open yet in the morning. There was a huge robot structure made by using Maruti 800 at Lovely Professional University, reminding me of Transformers.
I took rest on roadside during returning. There were some dhabas, but I didn't took lunch, just some snacks on the way. Some pics of my bullet resting.
In Patiala I saw a sign board mentioning Shimla 260 km and there was an intense desire to take the turn and go to Shimla, but was terribly disappointed that I had to go to Delhi and cursed my use of extra intelligence on the morning I left for trip from Delhi. I said to myself, "Don't worry, one fine day...."
Route I took
I reached Delhi by 5 pm. I am waiting for next such weekend....
As you would have already guessed by the title, I picked Amritsar for this trip. The Cramster saddle bag took care of 90% of my luggage, remaining 10% like, chocolates, fruit juice, towels, DSLR camera etc and a small laptop bag to keep things that I would buy while visiting different places (learning from my last trip to Udaipur, it not a pleasant experience to put your shopping bags on the bike handle and roam the city) went into my backpack. Since there was some problem in wearing my wrist watch, I taped it to my fuel tank.
This time, the only detailed map study I did was about how to get on the main road from where I live, for rest of the place I was ready to get lost. I got this confidence from the fact that I had a GPS enabled smart phone. It also recorded coordinates in pictures I clicked with it, which I have mentioned below for some places.. :). My planned route was Delhi-Bathinda-Amritsar-Nangal-Patiala-Delhi.
So on 2nd Oct 2014 morning I kicked my bullet to life and left for Bhatinda. Skipping Rohtak I went for Hisar. The roads are good. The atmosphere was pleasant and what eyes could see were predominantly green colour at this time of the year, rice fields, as far as you could see in Punjab and Haryana, part of India's grain bowls. It was a pleasant sight but I decided it was more sensible to concentrate on black colour, the road. Some pics
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| Clicked at Haryana Punjab border. The houses you see are in Punjab |
Elections in Haryana
There was Vidhansabha election in Haryana and I encountered many creatures in white overalls, also known as politicians, campaigning around requesting (read demanding) for vote. You could hear adjectives used in campaining, for these creatures, which didn't exist in their vocublary, ofcourse written by some more sensible person who was supposedly forced by uncivilised goons of these creatures. The loudpeakers blared, "Aapke pratyashi, karmath, imaandar, garibon ke sevak....; is baar chunav me khade hain aapke yuva neta, jo appke hak ke liye ladenge...etc etc... (I have difficulty in translating in English but there is no harm in assuming these statements as outright lies). There was one candidate who was literally riding on the Narendra Modi wave that swept the Loksabha 2014 elections resulting in a clear single party majority. The slogan in the below pic says it all.
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| Riding on Modi wave |
Going towards Hisar, at a market in a place called Meham/Maham, I stopped to admire traditional hukkahs on sale. The shop keeper had a big one in his shop (Rs 12000/-) which he told me was lighted in the morning and customers, potential customers, friends, friends of friends, someone who would just drop to chat, or some one looking for a free smoke would use it and the hukkah burned continuously till his shop closed in evening. They would take a puff and pass it to the next person which reminded me of puff-and-roll we did in hostel in our student life, so that even one cigarette was evenly smoked by every smoker present, but the hidden agenda was that no one smoked more than what should be his rightful share. I too took one puff from the hukkah. Since it has been a long time I quit smoking, the tobacco smoke almost scrapped my throat forcing me to cough involuntarily.
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| The common hukkah. Cost Rs 12000/-. The guy is white is shopowner, not politician. |
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| Smoking it. |
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| Hukkahs on sale. |
Half of the women I saw in Haryana were moving around with their face completely covered with dupatta, even the ones who were driving bullock carts in market. The other thing I noticed that there are more buffalos than cows. There is even an Institute of Research on Buffalos in Haryana. These guys are serious about their cattle!
Just before Hisar I had some late breakfast which turned out to be the all time hit and humble aalo paratha. What else when you are in north India? It was coated with butter which, as per my estimate, formed at least 5 mm thick layer on paratha and I could see black particles of paratha swimming in it. On enquiring, the owner said that butter was by default (of course charged extra), only if some one instructed then it was not applied.
Gandhi Jayanti
From Hisar I rode towards Sirsa, but skipped and, for the fun of it, took route which went through some village as per the map on my Nokia - which actually turned out to be a road through some village - so I can now trust the map on Nokia more. It was 2nd Oct, Gandhi Jayanti, and this year the schools were open so that students would actually understand the values of celebrating Gandhi Jayanti. Our Prime minster has initiated a Swachh Bharat (Clean India) campaign and schools and other institutions all across India followed it. I came across one such school.
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| Celebrating Gandhi Jayanti by cleaning premises, DAV Public school, Khaira Khurd, Sardulgarh |
Amritsar
I reached Bathinda at 01:45 pm. Since there was so much of daylight left and Amritsar was like 200 km, I decided to skip Bathinda and reach Amritsar today itself. This way I could get more time in Amritsar where I had number of things to do on my list, eating local food being most important on it. It was lunch time already but since I was so bent on having lunch only on a dhaba, I skipped many good looking restaurants on the road. As with all my trips, I try to eat at local places to get the authentic taste of the food. I found one (Lat: 30.18.41; Long:74.55.48) just as I left Bathinda. The dhaba only served 4-5 vegetables, 1 daal and rotis. No paratha, no rice. I ordered daal and roti and it was so tasty, I can swear by it. I could taste sweetness in roti and daal was really spicy and tangy and the ambience was tranquilizing. Sitting on an almost proper khaat, with a patri on it, It was the best lunch I had had in few days.
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| The dhaba and my bullet. |
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| Daal and roti. The bed on which I seem to be sitting is khaat, and the wooden plank is the patri. Typical arrangement in dhabas. Sorry, no tables, no chairs. |
Crossing Sutlej river on the way, and by-passing Tarn Taran, I reached Amritsar by evening about 6 pm. It is pretty straight road from Bathinda to Amritsar, not as in a straight line, but just follow the road. Took up a room in hotel Sagar, outside Hall market gate. After freshening up, went to Golden temple through the markets of Amritsar. There is a dargah near the market which one of the guys, who was distributing prasad outside the dargah, told me is revered by the locals.
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| Dargah |
The Golden temple, as I came to know, was open 24 hours a day. Also I came to know that there are government run parking areas in Amritsar in the vicinity of Golden Temple, which are open 24 hours. Since there was a long queue for visiting the temple I decided to go back for the much needed rest and come back next morning, but not before clicking some pictures.
I had dinner of Amritsari Kulcha and chole at Bharawan da Dhaba. It was like okay-okay. I have decided not to eat at places which is frequented by tourists. It think authenticity of the local food is lost, as the restaurants for tourists try to cater to taste of everyone coming there. I had forgot visiting card of the hotel and got lost while returning and wasted one hour searching for hotel, and next morning, I got up an hour late than planned. Rushed up all my morning chores and went straight to Golden Temple. Deposited my bag and footwear and queued up for Darshan. You can take your camera up to entrance of Sanctum sanctorum of the temple, so got to click some pics near the temple too. Inside the temple, you were just asked to switch off your mobile and camera.
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| At then entrance, using self timer |
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| Golden Temple |
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| Queue for Darsham |
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| Plates getting ready for langar |
You were not charged to keep your belongings at the cloak room, there was no one selling flowers, garlands, chaddars or any kind of offering to god, there was no pandit asking you to come with them for special darshan or some special puja in lieu of dakshina (fees), no one was there selling raw wheat flour balls to feed to fishes in the tank in the temple complex, people in the queue did not push each other, there was no frisking as you entered the temple, you were not asked (read pushed) to move quickly so that others can have darshan, the temple itself never closed. I was so impressed, I had a passing thought of getting converted to Sikhism, but as I had already come across Bhagvad Gita shlok "swadharme nidhanam shreyah paradharmo bhayaavahah", it remained a passing thought.
After that I visited Jallianwala bagh near the Golden temple. Some of the bullet holes can still be seen on the preserved walls.
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| Bullet marks |
Wagah Border
Outside the Jallianwala bagh, you can find touts and drivers offering rode to Wagah border and back to see the lowering down of flag ceremony for Rs 100. I realised I could fall short of time if I went to find the "All India Famous Amritsari Kulcha" restaurant for lunch, where as per some information on the internet, you get the best kulchas in Amritsar. Nevertheless, I decided to go for it. The map showed that it was located near by the route which would take me to Wagah border. On they way, I had lassi at a busy shop in the city. Somehow, I found that kulcha restaurant (Lat: 31.38.58; Long:74.52.10) and had two kulchas with chole. It was very satisfying and far far better than those I had previous night at Bharawan da Dhaba.
A question was lingering in my mind from previous night, which had the potential to keep me awake the whole night, but since I was tired physically, I felt asleep as soon as I hit the bed. The question was: what is the difference between paratha and kulcha since both appeared similar in shape, size and stuffing? Answer to this was revealed next day at this "All India Famous Amritsari Kulcha" restaurant by a learned man disguised as waiter. When you fry it on pan, its paratha and when you cook it in tandoor, its kulcha. Satisfied both with my hunger and with my quest, I moved towards Wagah border riding on the Grand Trunk road.
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| These guys are going for a play. Its the day of Dussehra. |
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| Sign board on road to Wagah border from Amritsar |
If you are a common man, as most of the Indians are, you should reach by 4 p.m. (October time. Actually you should reach full 2 hrs before sunset) latest to get a seat with proper view of the ceremony. The more late you reach, chances of watching the ceremony sufficiently clear with your naked eyes go down, unless ofcourse you have a special pass. You can only take your camera and clear plastic water bottle inside. Nothing else is allowed. No bags, not even for camera, no eatables, nothing. There are people selling packets of chips and water bottles inside.
The atmosphere inside was electrifying. Loud speakers with songs like "Yeh desh hai veer jawano ka...." were on full blast. Some ladies, girls, aunties and a foreigner were allowed to run towards the border gate carrying India's flag and were allowed to dance to the tunes of patriotic songs for some time. There was excitement all over the place. The sky reverberated with the calls of "Bharat Mata ki Jai, Hindustan Jindabad and Vande Mataram". The sound of people shouting slogans together was so powerful, if there was a machine built for the purpose of converting sound energy to electricity, it could have powered Amritsar city for a month atleast. Ok, for a week. Not less than that, I was there to hear it. People were so excited they would stand at their place and the ones sitting behind would throw water on them in hope that they will sit down, only to give up and get up from their seats so that they too can watch the ceremony. Compared to crowd on Indian side, there was no one on the Paksitan side. The crowd on Pakistan side was only made up of a group of schoolchildren who came to watch the ceremony and few more people. (Total about 150 people I guess, including the soldiers posted at the border.)
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| That's me at Wagah border |
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| Sniper for security |
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| Flag run. Could you make out 5 Indian flags? |
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| Crowd dancing to the tunes of patriotic song |
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| So many people to watch the ceremony on the Indian side and this is only half the crowd I could capture in camera. |
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| Delhi-Lahore bus at the Wagah border, as a symbol of friendship and peace between two countries, started by India |
Not Nangal, not Patiala, but Delhi
While leaving for trip I demonstrated extra intelligence and reasoned that I should not disturb my neighbour in early morning, so I did not give the key to the main door interlock to my neighbour, contrary to what my wife and I had decided. Due to some miscommunications, I assumed that my wife would return on Sunday evening but actually she was to return on Sunday morning. I realised my mistake when I spoke to my wife from Amritsar and had to cancel trip to Nangal and overnight stay to Patiala. Instead next day, I had to take the route Amritsar-Jalandhar-Patiala-Delhi and return to Delhi the same day for obvious reason.
I came across a war museum just outside Jalandhar but could not visit it because the museum was not open yet in the morning. There was a huge robot structure made by using Maruti 800 at Lovely Professional University, reminding me of Transformers.
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| "Transformers" at LPU near Jalandhar |
I took rest on roadside during returning. There were some dhabas, but I didn't took lunch, just some snacks on the way. Some pics of my bullet resting.
In Patiala I saw a sign board mentioning Shimla 260 km and there was an intense desire to take the turn and go to Shimla, but was terribly disappointed that I had to go to Delhi and cursed my use of extra intelligence on the morning I left for trip from Delhi. I said to myself, "Don't worry, one fine day...."
Route I took
I reached Delhi by 5 pm. I am waiting for next such weekend....
2 comments:
Excellent article moree...
Impressed
Amazing tour trip
Sir...
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