It was all because of my cousin B. He came all the way from Chennai to visit North India (yet again, it is true that ALL that is above the 4 sister states is North India for us, including Orissa!!) and was soooo fascinated to visit Amritsar. Well, he couldnt make it but that ignited us to pay a visit. It is vacation time for kids too after all.
Actually it was a week long vacation for me and kids. It is always wonderful to ride on the car with DH from Delhi to Chandigarh, but this time we detoured first to Haridwar-Rishikesh (will write a post later....) and then from there it was set to Chandigarh as DH has got work. We three were literally 'vetti' (couch potato in tamil) eating, sleeping, watching TV in the hotel room and did nothing else. The minute I step out, I will go shopping. Shopping = waste of money. So DH was fine with me not stepping out this time. Also the Shukna lake and rock and rose gardens have been visited by us many times! And boy it was SOOO HOT. Comes the next saturday we set from Chandigarh to Amritsar.
We were joined by Mr. K, DH's dotted boss. He is also from Chennai and is on official visit so we stuck him with us for this journey. Chinni was well prepared to behave, and I too practised to shut my mouth tight. It was all only for few hours of journey. Soon we realised him to be a very good jolly fellow so it was all fun from then on!!
As we were approaching Mohali, a traffic police looked down at our number plate bearing 'HR' and then inside us. Not matching!! balle balle... he must have thot. He stopped us and then we had to show the proofs and come off. This is probably the first ticket that our Duster is getting for NO REASON! anyway it feels good to remember this incident.
My DH took a break and Mr. K started driving. DH promised that he would drive only until lunch but the lunch hour kept coming. Finally after Jalandhar we stopped by a 'dabba' (very low quality) dhaba shop with fans pouring very hot air here and there. That too the power went off in few minutes. As we settled down to a lovely spicey Dal Makhini, Kadai Paneer and Aloo Gobi (which he brought as we were discussing if we had to buy it and decided not to!!) with rubbery roti. Chinni was pretty upset with the dhaba's ambience -- didnt I tell you, she is a delicate darling!! and the spicey food. So we ordered her Maggi without spicey. But he gave Maggi without masala to add more wrath to Chinni. She half heartedly munched on something while Dittu was pretty happy to chew on the roti. Then the kids settled on Haldirams Pudina chips.
Point to be noted - when we parked our Duster outside, there was absolutely NO vehicle outside, nobody inside except two policemen and two other people who appeared like the captivators that the policemen brought along (no I dont know... just thinking :)). After us there came pompous people in various cars... so we were about to ask discount to the old Sardarji who was very humble to us. The moral of the story is whether you run a high class or low class hotel, park a vehicle outside!!
The car started but Mr. K insisted on holding the steering wheel. We kept rushing as we wanted to go to Wagah border through Amritsar before 3:30 PM to view the flag ceremony by 5:30 PM. We had one full golden hour, but!!! got struck in Amritsar traffic and it became 4 there itself. That too there were lot of Sardarjis giving away free drinks to all the ongoing vehicles and those cars were stopping insensibly in the middle of streets causing traffic jam. I like the service and their good heart but not in the cost of our time! Then we drove through to reach Wagah border by 5 PM!!!! It was too full to get inside. We have to park our vehicles 1 KM away and walk all the way. By the time we went we didnt have any breathing space. There is a huge screen outside, we all trusted it to be showing the event live but no! It became almost 6 pm yet no ceremony was shown. That is when my tall DH peeped in through the crowd and said the screen is NOT showing the live program! How mean and how cheated I felt!
A whining about this Wagah border -
Why o why should there be such a disorder... cant the Army do something about this??? The crowd was too much to control. First come first serve basis is fine as long as the gallery is getting filled. People are waiting from 1 PM it seems in this hot summer... they definitely deserve a better view. Post that it is all like people standing and pushing each other trying to get a view inside. Tall, young fellows are lucky enough. But short and old people, children are the worst sufferers. Dittu was screaming in my arms that I had to step out to get fresh air which otherwise was too suffocating to be inside the crowd. Though I had a fair chance of viewing the event by standing outside, thanks to Dittu, and I couldnt spot my DH in that crowd... had to step out!!
I overheard a madam talking to a Army Jawan complaining this issue, he coolly replied her "Aap PM ko liko memsaab" (You write to the PM, madam). Her suggestion was good though. All she said was to make the people in the front to sit down so that everyone can get a view. Just like how being done in temples during 'Abhishekam' or special poojas. Yeah that is a really good suggestion.
Or at least you can have separate places for men and women. The checking post, walking area from parking place is all having separate queues for men and women, so why not here? At least we can get rid of unwanted groping!! grrr... and men are comparatively too tall to be in the front hiding all the views.
Or we can give 'tickets' to everyone for the gallery and stop the rest of the crowd from even entering, but that would make this a commercial event rather than a patriotic event. They kept on announcing that this event is free of cost and if anyone is bribing, let the army know. But the very next day we saw at least two people outside Jallianwala Bagh selling tickets for "Wagah Border" event guaranteeing a seat. That too in front of policemen without any fear. We were absolutely dumbfounded.
Worst was when I saw a group of young school children brought for field trip. Poor kids... if I myself got so perplexed and claustrophobic, am sure at least two kids would have fallen down. Cant they reserve seats for these school children?
They can also reserve seats for people coming from far away places like East or South. The localites knowing the ritual can fill up very easily... unlike us tourists. If they can reserve seat for foreigners why not fellow Indians who are not localites?
And frustrating part was the live video. Puleeese... they could have shown what is happening in that at least. We would have been more than happy to watch it than live. It was totally a disappointment. Every time the "Barath mata ki jai" was being shouted, tears came down my eyes.
God knows if we will get another chance to visit there. That too wait in the hot summer afternoon or freeze in the winter afternoon is too much to think. Reality coming true here for every Indian!
Arnab Goswami on one hand is shouting about VIP reservations and all. Will he look at this too?? It is very evident that things have NOT changed anywhere. If you know anybody in Army of high rank, you are allowed into the special dias. If you pay money to the Jawan, you are allowed. If you are smart enough and/or single and/or young enough, you can sneak in.
Well, now will I write to the PM just like the Jawan asked me?? I dont know if I will... but at least I wanted to jot down my frustration and suggestions and that is why venting this out in this blogspot. May be I MUST write to the PM who is of course pretty reachable these days.
At least got some picture clicked outside...
-- to be continued
Actually it was a week long vacation for me and kids. It is always wonderful to ride on the car with DH from Delhi to Chandigarh, but this time we detoured first to Haridwar-Rishikesh (will write a post later....) and then from there it was set to Chandigarh as DH has got work. We three were literally 'vetti' (couch potato in tamil) eating, sleeping, watching TV in the hotel room and did nothing else. The minute I step out, I will go shopping. Shopping = waste of money. So DH was fine with me not stepping out this time. Also the Shukna lake and rock and rose gardens have been visited by us many times! And boy it was SOOO HOT. Comes the next saturday we set from Chandigarh to Amritsar.
We were joined by Mr. K, DH's dotted boss. He is also from Chennai and is on official visit so we stuck him with us for this journey. Chinni was well prepared to behave, and I too practised to shut my mouth tight. It was all only for few hours of journey. Soon we realised him to be a very good jolly fellow so it was all fun from then on!!
As we were approaching Mohali, a traffic police looked down at our number plate bearing 'HR' and then inside us. Not matching!! balle balle... he must have thot. He stopped us and then we had to show the proofs and come off. This is probably the first ticket that our Duster is getting for NO REASON! anyway it feels good to remember this incident.
My DH took a break and Mr. K started driving. DH promised that he would drive only until lunch but the lunch hour kept coming. Finally after Jalandhar we stopped by a 'dabba' (very low quality) dhaba shop with fans pouring very hot air here and there. That too the power went off in few minutes. As we settled down to a lovely spicey Dal Makhini, Kadai Paneer and Aloo Gobi (which he brought as we were discussing if we had to buy it and decided not to!!) with rubbery roti. Chinni was pretty upset with the dhaba's ambience -- didnt I tell you, she is a delicate darling!! and the spicey food. So we ordered her Maggi without spicey. But he gave Maggi without masala to add more wrath to Chinni. She half heartedly munched on something while Dittu was pretty happy to chew on the roti. Then the kids settled on Haldirams Pudina chips.
Point to be noted - when we parked our Duster outside, there was absolutely NO vehicle outside, nobody inside except two policemen and two other people who appeared like the captivators that the policemen brought along (no I dont know... just thinking :)). After us there came pompous people in various cars... so we were about to ask discount to the old Sardarji who was very humble to us. The moral of the story is whether you run a high class or low class hotel, park a vehicle outside!!
The car started but Mr. K insisted on holding the steering wheel. We kept rushing as we wanted to go to Wagah border through Amritsar before 3:30 PM to view the flag ceremony by 5:30 PM. We had one full golden hour, but!!! got struck in Amritsar traffic and it became 4 there itself. That too there were lot of Sardarjis giving away free drinks to all the ongoing vehicles and those cars were stopping insensibly in the middle of streets causing traffic jam. I like the service and their good heart but not in the cost of our time! Then we drove through to reach Wagah border by 5 PM!!!! It was too full to get inside. We have to park our vehicles 1 KM away and walk all the way. By the time we went we didnt have any breathing space. There is a huge screen outside, we all trusted it to be showing the event live but no! It became almost 6 pm yet no ceremony was shown. That is when my tall DH peeped in through the crowd and said the screen is NOT showing the live program! How mean and how cheated I felt!
A whining about this Wagah border -
Why o why should there be such a disorder... cant the Army do something about this??? The crowd was too much to control. First come first serve basis is fine as long as the gallery is getting filled. People are waiting from 1 PM it seems in this hot summer... they definitely deserve a better view. Post that it is all like people standing and pushing each other trying to get a view inside. Tall, young fellows are lucky enough. But short and old people, children are the worst sufferers. Dittu was screaming in my arms that I had to step out to get fresh air which otherwise was too suffocating to be inside the crowd. Though I had a fair chance of viewing the event by standing outside, thanks to Dittu, and I couldnt spot my DH in that crowd... had to step out!!
I overheard a madam talking to a Army Jawan complaining this issue, he coolly replied her "Aap PM ko liko memsaab" (You write to the PM, madam). Her suggestion was good though. All she said was to make the people in the front to sit down so that everyone can get a view. Just like how being done in temples during 'Abhishekam' or special poojas. Yeah that is a really good suggestion.
Or at least you can have separate places for men and women. The checking post, walking area from parking place is all having separate queues for men and women, so why not here? At least we can get rid of unwanted groping!! grrr... and men are comparatively too tall to be in the front hiding all the views.
Or we can give 'tickets' to everyone for the gallery and stop the rest of the crowd from even entering, but that would make this a commercial event rather than a patriotic event. They kept on announcing that this event is free of cost and if anyone is bribing, let the army know. But the very next day we saw at least two people outside Jallianwala Bagh selling tickets for "Wagah Border" event guaranteeing a seat. That too in front of policemen without any fear. We were absolutely dumbfounded.
Worst was when I saw a group of young school children brought for field trip. Poor kids... if I myself got so perplexed and claustrophobic, am sure at least two kids would have fallen down. Cant they reserve seats for these school children?
They can also reserve seats for people coming from far away places like East or South. The localites knowing the ritual can fill up very easily... unlike us tourists. If they can reserve seat for foreigners why not fellow Indians who are not localites?
And frustrating part was the live video. Puleeese... they could have shown what is happening in that at least. We would have been more than happy to watch it than live. It was totally a disappointment. Every time the "Barath mata ki jai" was being shouted, tears came down my eyes.
God knows if we will get another chance to visit there. That too wait in the hot summer afternoon or freeze in the winter afternoon is too much to think. Reality coming true here for every Indian!
Arnab Goswami on one hand is shouting about VIP reservations and all. Will he look at this too?? It is very evident that things have NOT changed anywhere. If you know anybody in Army of high rank, you are allowed into the special dias. If you pay money to the Jawan, you are allowed. If you are smart enough and/or single and/or young enough, you can sneak in.
Well, now will I write to the PM just like the Jawan asked me?? I dont know if I will... but at least I wanted to jot down my frustration and suggestions and that is why venting this out in this blogspot. May be I MUST write to the PM who is of course pretty reachable these days.
At least got some picture clicked outside...
-- to be continued
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