My introduction to India was Amritsar, the largest city in India’s Punjab state in October 2016. As we left the Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport in the taxi, I saw India for the first time. It was hot and dusty, with a grimy brownish haze in the air which was similar to cities in China. The traffic however was very different, fewer cars and motor vehicles and more people travelling by motorcycles and on bicycles.
Amritsar is the largest city in India’s Punjab state. It is the centre of the Sikh religion and home to their holiest shrine the Golden Temple.
The main street in the city is Lawrence Road which is often clogged with traffic: motorbikes, scooties, rickshaws (both motorised and bicycle), cars, trucks, buses and cows wandering at will. It’s a shopping haven with clothing stores, traditional wares ranging from carpets to bangles, shawls, jewellery, woollen textiles, fast food outlets, and sweets.
While having a coffee and chatting with my new Indian friend, Aditya, I happened to glance out the front window onto the busy street to see that an elephant had just arrived with its handler. A mum had paid to take a photo of her son up in the handler’s arms. I was told that this happens quite often and was not a rare sight!
Amritsar’s Golden Temple, ‘Harmandir Sahib’ (the abode of God) draws Sikhs from all over India and tourists from many countries. The gurdwara located in the heart of the city, surrounded by narrow lanes and a busy market area welcomes all. Patient worshippers queue for hours to see the priests chanting from the sacred scriptures of Sikhism. What strikes you is the hospitality that Sikhs offer any visitor to their gurdwara. You are invited to eat in the langar, free kitchen, which is staffed by Sikh volunteers.
The temple has four entrances to show openness and acceptance. It is surrounded by a man-made lake called Amrit Sarovar (pond of immortality) and reached by a causeway. The water is considered purifying and Sikhs can bathe in it from a platform near the edges.
There is an almost palpable sense of serenity as you walk around the lake and mingle with the worshippers.
Traditional Sikh hospitality has also been very evident here in Victoria during our recent bushfires and now while we are caught up in the COVID-19 outbreak. Food was provided by Sikhs, in their food vans, to the high rise tenants who were required to stay in a strict lockdown and detention for weeks on end.
There is a myriad of narrow laneways and bazaars in the old part of Amritsar around the Golden Temple. Each laneway specialises in different products like kitchen utensils, clothing, textile goods, medicines, jewellery, spices and Punjabi food.
On the Amritsar Heritage walk in this locality you can pass under a sacred tree. Also on the route is the Partition Museum (previously the Amritsar Town Hall) which was opened in 2017, for the 70th anniversary of Partition. It is a very graphic reminder of the terrible slaughter and suffering of Indians as a result of the arbitrary division of India by the British into religious states, despite the appeals of both Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India.
Other sights from my few days in Amritsar. Punjabi T-shirts ‘Last name Singh, that’s enough’, schools advertising their academic results the ‘Glowing Gems’, young men and women destined to study abroad in Canada, cricket played wherever there is a flat piece of parkland, al fresco barber, Amritsar’s terrible air pollution in autumn, a herd of buffaloes getting free fodder on a vacant city block, a milk vendor in a ‘posh’ residential area, the very popular Punjabi slippers called ‘jutti’, a Sikh mother with her daughters and fearless young Punjabi men travelling along the Grand Trunk highway.
In autumn during my stay in Amritsar, many Sikh weddings were celebrated in the afternoon at the hotel where I was staying. First you hear the band of dancing musicians with their drums and pipes loudly announcing the arrival of the bridal party. The groom with his male friends then appears on a white horse in traditional clothes with a beaded headdress and a krijpan (sword) to protect his wife. Following the meal in the hotel which features home cooked classic dishes such as spinach curries (palak/saag paneer), women engage in dancing. It is a very joyous and colourful ceremony celebrating the holy union of man and wife.
Cliver's Punjab Blog 