Amritsar Diaries

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When I wrote the post on Makar Sankranti, I had friends sharing customs from so many of their festivals. I wasn't able to collate all of it. One interesting thing was Pongal is celebrated for four days. First day Bhogi is about cleaning the house and lighting a bonfire of all the discarded things in the night. Second day is to worship Surya or the Sun. People make Kolam with rice flour outside their house and on the doorstep. Third day is Mattu Pongal dedicated to cows and buffaloes. Fourth day is Kanum Pongal where apart from going to the temple, food is made and offered to the birds on a banana leaf. India respects Nature in all its festivals.

I was wondering how festive is Lohri in Punjab and then we went to Amritsar. Amritsar was a long pending thing in our list. The Golden Temple is divine beyond any imagination. The way the area is developed and the sound of Kirtan all over is so humbling. The beauty of Harmandir Sahib strikes you. It is mesmerising. No one is chatting in the Parikrama or the queue to go inside Harmandir Sahib. Just you and the Kirtan and nothing else.

Places to eat is Bharwan Dhaba. Kesar da Dhaba is over rated. It is in a dark dingy lane. The food has too much ghee and it doesn't feel clean. The owner is a nice man and am sure this has been there for generations and must be good. It did not sit my taste buds at all. The attitude of the waiters or the dark lane but something did not sit well with me.

Sadda Pind is the ' Chowki Dhani' of Amritsar. Much smaller than Chowki Dhaani of Jaipur. The village atmosphere created is beautiful. Each make believe house is constructed with a different layout and design and show cases one art/ craft of Punjab. I did Phulkari embroidery on a bedsheet. I did Chakki peesoing i.e. hand grinding the wheat. I worked on the loom and saw how 'chaddar' is woven. The women in their spare time were making small rice grains  with Rice  atta / flour. This is dried in the sun and then used to make 'Kheer' . The food there was low on Ghee and oil. The Makki ki Roti and Sarson Saag was delicious. The six degrees on the Mercury had something to do with it.

Ram Teerth is a place where Valmiki Rishi had his Ashram. Sita spent her time here and Luv Kush were born in this Ashram. Rishi Valmiki taught them here. The place has been done up with a huge pond and a walkway on all sides. Big Murti of Hanuman ji. We went there on our way to Wagah Border. The little detour is through villages and farmland. For miles, I could see only Kheti. There is a huge desire to write the blog in Hindi as I do not want to translate some words into English because I feel they loose their flavour. I still make mistake while writing 'loose' and all the words around it.
Jallianwala Bagh is heart breaking even now and Partition museum is heart wrenching. It is because of the sacrifice of all the people that we are free today. We spent a few hours in both the places which are a stone's throw away from the Golden Temple. In the Jallianwala Bagh premises, Lions club was having a blood donation drive in tie up with a shady NGO. Not a good place to do that, according to me, but they were getting the numbers.

Durgiana Temple is pending. We did go to the Golden Temple on all the days we were there. It was calming. It would be a lie if I said that I did not think of Operation Blue Star while I was there. And the divinity enveloped me.

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