Passage through India – Homeward Bound and Top Ten Highlights (Part One)

So, a second enjoyable evening and an excellent meal in Shimla and then a drive back to Chandigarh for a final train journey back to Delhi.  It was going to be a full day of travel so I thought that I would put it to good use and make an assessment of the tour and come up with a top ten.  I took out my notebook and pen.

This proved to be very optimistic because it soon became clear that it was completely and absolutely impossible to write anything down due to the topography, a slalom like decent down the mountain and the driving.  A fifty mile journey by road but only twenty miles as the crow flies. The mini-bus rolled from side to side, swaying and lurching and avoiding obstacles  as it negotiated hairpin bends, rock slides, pot holes, road works and impatient drivers sometimes prepared to take really reckless risks in order to shave a second or two off their journey time.

It was all rather entertaining and there were some fabulous views on the way down, in fact in some respects it was better than the train journey from Kalka to Shimla as we passed through a succession of vibrant and chaotic towns and villages and the views were not obscured by track side vegetation.

I couldn’t use the notebook but I didn’t really need it because in my head I made my first three top ten selections and they weren’t going to change.

No difficulty coming up with Number One –  The Taj Mahal…

Poet Rabindranath Tagore described the Taj Mahal as ‘a teardrop on the cheek of eternity’, Rudyard Kipling as ‘the embodiment of all things pure’ while its creator, Emperor Shah Jahan, said it made ‘the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes’.

Every visitor wants a first important picture…

I imagine everyone knows the Taj Mahal, it is most likely the most famous building in the World (along with the Leaning Tower of Pisa perhaps or the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona) but to be there and see it is really something special. It is huge, much bigger than I imagined that it would be and the dome is magnificent.  It is ephemeral, it seems to float as it merges seamlessly into the sky.  I was disappointed that the sky was overcast and obscure but in retrospect that seemed to add to the experience as it melted and  dissolved seamlessly into the clouds.

To be fair the Number Two in my selection almost squeaked into first place but eventually Taj Mahal just edged it out – The Golden Temple at Amritsar

If almost everyone is aware of the Taj Mahal then it is almost certain that they will know about the Golden Temple as well.

Not as grand, not as architecturally stunning but almost equally important.  I liked it immediately and there was a difference; Taj Mahal is a tourist attraction, Golden Temple is a religious site and it was possible to connect with that immediately.  To absorb it, to feel it, another impact site but for a different reason.

I enjoyed this day above all others.  Nothing eclipses the Talj Mahal of course but  the Golden Temple was something special, mystical, spiritual, emotional and whilst the Taj Mahal remains in the memory the Golden Temple remains in the soul.  I will never forget it.

Number Three for in my list is the Amber Fort close to Jaipur…

Stepping through the gates of the Amber Fort was truly memorable, the marble stone shimmered and dazzled in the sunlight.  Apparently it was once even more beautiful, once adorned with art and precious stones but another Mughal Prince even more important than the owner of this place was rather concerned that it was even more splendid than his own Palace so ordered that the decoration be painted over and so it became Amber.

Most of us would happily have stayed longer at the Amber Fort but after an hour or so the visit was over, we were through the exit, pestered again by persistent vendors who rather good-naturedly take rejection without offence and back to the jeeps.   We were going shopping at a carpet warehouse.

Back to the journey….

… After two hours or so we left the frantic helter-skelter and crawled through the final few miles of traffic through Chandigrah to the railway station where we left the two buses and waited for station porters to pick up our luggage in the car park amidst madness, chaos, revving, shouting, snarling and bad manners.

Once on the train, the Delhi Shatabi Express there was a two hour ride to New Delhi and this time on a straight and direct line between the two cities and I was able to get my notebook out and consider my remaining Top Ten selections.

What will they be?

Passage through India – Barefoot in Turbans

“A poor, hungry person knows no religion; to him, the person who offers him food is the real God.”― Raj Kiran Atagaraha

Our visit began at the site of what is called the Amritsar massacre.

The more correctly called Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place on 13th April 1919. After several days of civil disturbance a large, mainly peaceful crowd had gathered during a public holiday to protest in support of Indian independence.  In response Brigadier General, Reginald Dyer, surrounded the people and after blocking the exit with his troops either lost self control or in a lust for blood  ordered them to shoot at the crowd, continuing to fire even as the protesters tried to flee. The troops kept on firing until their ammunition was exhausted.  He boasted later that not a single bullet was wasted.

Estimates of those killed vary from 400 to 1,500.  The story is told as an act of British Army violence and an example of imperial tyranny but the British Army as an organisation was not directly involved in the massacre, the British Indian Army was a separate organisation and this was a regiment of Gurkha and Sikh infantry.  It is said that Dyer selected troops for the operation who were especially loyal to the British in India.  There was a prevailing fear of insurrection and civil violence.  There is always a flip-side to a story.  Just saying.

It is a dark stain on British imperial rule for sure and I am neither wishing to be controversial or to be an apologist but it is that time and forgiveness thing again that I spoke about in an earlier post.  Going back a few days to our time in  Delhi tour guide Rahi told the story of a Mongol invasion and massacre and it was told as though it was just a part of Indian history without passion or emotion.  Something that just happened.

In 1241 an invading Mongol army advanced and the ancient city of Lahore (now Pakistan) was invaded by an army of thirty-thousand blood-thirsty warriors from the north. The Mongols defeated the local army, massacred the entire population, cut off their heads and stuck them on poles to warn others not to stand in their way and the city was completely destroyed.   Rather like modern day Gaza.  Rather like the destruction of Warsaw in 1944.  And many more.  I have said this before that if there is one lesson from history it is that we learn nothing and history sadly and inevitably repeats itself. 

The massacre at Lahore is not told as a dreadful act of brutality in the same way as the Amritsar massacre.  Time dulls the senses, centuries pass, the tide washes the sands and history is whitewashed.  There is a lot of forgetting and forgiving over a thousand years.  Rather like the Norman Conquest in England.  Eventually we forget.

For the sake of balance at the siege of Cawnpore in 1857 over four hundred (estimate) British men, women and children were murdered at what is remembered as the Bibighar massacre which seems to have been an especially brutal affair.  No one mentions that of course.

We moved on now to the main event – a visit to the Golden Temple of Amritsar. For this visit we had to remove our shoes and socks and wear a bright orange turban.  It didn’t need to be orange I guess but the trader outside was selling orange.  I would have preferred blue for Leicester City but had to settle, like everyone else for Luton Town orange,

If almost everyone is aware of the Taj Mahal then they will know about the Golden Temple as well.  Not as grand, not as architecturally stunning but almost equally important.  I liked it immediately and there was a difference; Taj Mahal is a tourist attraction, Golden Temple is a religious site and it was possible to connect with that immediately.  To absorb it, to feel it, another impact site but for a different reason.  Spiritual, uplifting, calm, pure and I am fairly certain that all in the group responded immediately.

A serene lake, a line of pilgrims ignoring the rabble  of tourists and a floating golden temple like a golden galleon on the high seas.  There is something very special about this place for certain, shoeless people shuffle in silence around the lake, hundreds wait patiently in line to enter the temple and view the holy scriptures.  We didn’t have two hours to wait in line so we skipped that and went to the kitchens instead.

The kitchens and the dining hall were really something special.  Here the temple feeds one hundred thousand people a day, twenty four hours a day and it is all for free, anyone can turn up pick up a plate and enjoy a hearty meal.  This is the very essence of Sikhism.

I was inspired by this, I thought that maybe when I got home I would do something based on the Sikh lesson.  I am not going to grow a beard and wear a turban or have people round to my house for food everyday but maybe something a little less dramatic. Sadly I haven’t got around to it yet but it remains on my agenda.

I enjoyed this day above all others.  Nothing eclipses the Talj Mahal of course but  the Golden Temple was something special, mystical, spiritual, emotional and whilst the Taj Mahal remains in the memory the Golden Temple remains in the soul.  I will never forget it.  If time had allowed then I could happily have walked around that lake for a second time.

At the end of the day in Amritsar we said goodbye to our guide for the day Jaswinder Singh and I was sorry to see him go.  He had given us an informative and entertaining day.

I liked him so much that I have included his picture in the post twice.

On Christmas Day 2021  Jaswant Singh Chail entered the grounds of Windsor Castle, where Queen Elizabeth II was living, intending to assassinate her with a crossbow. He posted online “This is revenge for those who have died in the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre”. He was arrested before entering the castle, and in February 2023, admitted three counts of treason, the last person to be charged and convicted of treason in the UK.