About a week ago, we somehow managed to squeeze a holiday for Dussehra out of our boss and on the spur of the moment made a plan to go to Amritsar. Within a day the trip was planned, tickets booked and the train boarded. Althought the Golden Temple was stunning, there was something about our trip to the Wagah border that mesmerized me to such an extent that I am going to take the liberty to skip writing about the Golden Temple right now and write about the Wagah border first.
The Wagah border near Amritsar is where India shares it's border with Pakistan. Every day in the evening thousands flock to the Wagah border to watch the retreat ceremony. This is what I knew of this place before I arrived there. But nothing could prepare me for what I saw.
After 2 security checkpoints we finally made our way to the stadia-sort-of-place only to find that the whole seating area was jam packed. The men in uniform allowed Neha and me to sit on the pavement of the road where the parade takes place. The guys had to find their place in the crowd.
We settled down on our designated portions of the pavements and finally looked around us. A sea of people sat waiting for the parade to start. Just then loud patriotic music started booming from the speakers. After that the spirit of the place was to die for. People started cheering, singing, dancing, smiling. Kids and even a few ladies came down to the road and danced and danced. A beautiful array of colours sat in rows and rows with bright eyes and loud cheers for their country. The spirit of patriotism in the air could be seen, heard, smelled, touched. Never before had I seen so much of positive energy concentrated in any one place! People sang and swayed and whistled. It was pure magic! There was nothing that could dampen the excitement that could be seen on the face of every person there, be it a 2 year old kid or a 80 year old grand-father. I just could not stop smiling. I knew I was probably looking like an absolute idiot staring at the crowd and grinning away to glory but I didn't care. I wanted to share the joy, the patriotism. The smile just got broader when the music stopped and was replaced by loud cheers of Vande-Mataram, Hindustan Zindabad and Bharat Mata Ki Jai. There was no catalyst needed for the loud cheering to reach the point where everybody was just screaming at the top of their lungs. After a few minutes of the unwavering cheers, the parade finally started.
The soldiers marched to the gate. The Indian and Pakistani gates at the border were opened, salutes exchanged, flags were dropped to half mast and then taken off and folded, marching was done, gates were closed and salutes were exchanged again before the parade came to an end. Throughout the parade the crowd cheered and loudly proclaimed their love for their country. All I could do was stare in awe. One of the most memorable experiences of my life. Truly magical...
