Amritsar Trip
Writing a post about a trip........ after a very long time......:) In fact, I was also trying to get rid of this boring routine of home-office-home-office. So it was nice to get an opportunity to travel to a nice place.
Being a government employee, like others, I also watch calender every year for the leaves that are near weekends so that by taking less leaves I can make a full week off to go to home. I saw that after Saturday(12th April) and Sunday(13th), this Monday was also a gazetted holiday for Ambedkar jayanti. Then, Friday was also holiday (Good Friday). So by taking three day leaves (of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) I could enjoy the whole week full of leaves. Thus I took leaves from office and went to Haldwani on 12th April. Before going haldwani, Mausi and I had decided to go for a trip to Amritsar. Actually one day, I was watching a program on Discovery channel based on golden temple and for the very first time I got to know about beauty of this temple. I had also seen " Rab ne bana di jodi" movie in which a scene of Anushka sharma was shot in this place. Both the temple and actress, Anushka were looking beautiful in that movie. Also, some Office batch mates of mine frequently make programs to visit new places for tourism. They had also put a photo of Golden temple on facebook. Thus before going to haldwani,I enquired my batch mate about Amritsar trip.
So, after returning from haldwani to Delhi by Sampark Kranti on thursday 17th April at 4 pm, I went to Mausi's home. We started for Amritsar at 10 pm by a Volvo, in which I had already booked 2 seats before going Haldwani.
It was 9 pm, Mausi and I were excited about going to a nice place. I was more excited that I was going to Punjab. Movies description of Punjab and punjabis makes it a fantasy to visit. We bought potato Chips, Haldiram Moog daal namkeen etc. to relish while journey. At 10 pm, we were in our Volvo at Red fort. As soon as our Volvo started for the nice journey, a Punjabi movie also started on the TV screen of the bus, to give us a feel that we were going to Punjab. Name of the movie was "Patiala dreamz". the movie was a mixture of romance, comedy and suspense. I can never sleep during a suspense movie. Though initially during romance-comedy, I had took a small nap but soon the suspense portion of the film started and then I saw it till end. Teja Singh the villain.....:) hahaha....
Next morning, when I woke up at 6 am, most of the passengers were still sleeping and some had woken up. As our bus was moving on a smooth road, I was confirmed that it was Punjab. Now I was wondering which place of Punjab was that, one reason was that because I wanted to know how far were we from our destination and the second reason was the place was looking developed so i thought it might be a known place. I came to know that the place was Jalandhar and we were half an hour or hardly one hour far from Amritsar.
So, it was now 7:30 AM, and we had reached Amritsar.....a WOW feeling was there....we got out of bus and felt that it was very cold weather!!! it was just opposite to our imagination......before leaving Delhi, we were discussing that weather in amritsar could be warmer than Delhi and as per all, a trip to amritsar in late April was a stupidity, even mausi wanted to go to Dharamsala (himanchal pradesh) in that month but just because I wanted to go to Golden Temple, Mausi had agreed........but WOW!! All the roads were drenched. It might have rained heavily last night. At least now Mausi couldn't scold me for making a stupid plan of visiting amritsar.... :) Any ways, we took a rickshaw for the guest-house which was already booked for us from my office. It was a very nice Kothi and a very comfortable accommodation for us.
Reaching our room, mausi just lay on bed to complete her sleep. She said, she could not sleep all night, though I was feeling very fresh-fresh. Mausi completed her sleep at 12 noon and we took breakfast of bread-butter, milk. We had our lunch at 2 pm and got ready to go to Wagah Border. We reached border at 4 pm. Wow! what a nice patriotic feeling it was!! Weather was nice....sky was getting dark like that of 7 pm. We took our seats. Music on both sides of border was loud. On other side of border were thousands of Pakistanis and here we Indians. We could only listen to the loud music of our patriotic songs viz. SUNO GAUR SE DUNIYA WALO BURI NAZAR NA HUM PE DAALO CHAHE JITNA ZOR LAGA LO SABSE AAGE HONGE HINDUSTANI.....HUMNE KAHA HAI...TUM BHI KAHO.......and we all were also shouting with the song.......YE DESH HAI VEER JAWANO KA ALBBELON KA MASTAANO KA, IS DESH KA YAARO...HOYE.....IS DESH KA YARON KYA KEHNA, YE DESH HAI DUNIYA KA GEHNA...... and all............we were enjoying so much but lo!! It got darker like night though it was just 5:30 pm and it started raining heavily. We all got wet and then all who were sitting in Chairs ran fast nearby to get shelters......due to heavy rain that day, daily PARADE programme was cancelled and we returned to our guest house. While returning we asked our driver to show last railway station i.e. Attari Railway station.We were all drenched and were feeling cold. We had dinner at night and Mausi also took coffee to make herself warm against cold weather. Caretaker Bhaiya of guest house gave us smooth mink blanket of pink colour due to cool weather, So we had a nice sleep.
Next morning we got fresh and without taking breakfast moved towards golden temple. Near Golden temple there were many people putting a white or saffron cloth on their foreheads to cover their heads. We went to the temple gate, where there was a bucket containing these type of saffron clothes to wrap over heads. We did the same. Before the main entrance, there was a low floor corridor with rubber carpet on it, filled with water, so that people entering the temple could wash their feet automatically by walking on it. I was impressed to see this technique. To wash our hands, there were water-taps where there were lying soap-pieces also. I was wondering to see this and was thinking nicely if I had ever seen soap near taps outside any Hindu temple?? well It was good to see hygene. We entered the temple, took "kadha prasaad" and stood in the line of darshanarthis/Gurubhakts.....All were chanting " SAT NAAM WAAHE GURU" collectively. There was a long queue and we had got almost one hour to reach the main golden temple- where the Holy book, Guru Granth Sahib was placed, still we were neither feeling tired nor hot. because the queue passes through a bridge over lake and cool wind of lake doesn't let you feel hot or tired. Or it might have been the effect of Pujabis accompanying us in the queue, that we were feeling as fresh and energetic as Pujabis are. the temple was really very-very beautiful. Orange and yellow fishes in the lake were also looking very sweet. :) Even mausi had traced a fish drinking lake water by opening her mouth...;) "No, I think they must be taking oxygen by opening their mouths" I said. God knows why they were opening their mouths beneath water! Now we had to go to famous Langar of Golden temple but "haye ri sharam" being girls or what I don't know why we didn't ask anyone about the place where we could eat langar food. We then, took holy water to drink and got out of temple.
We knew that Jaliyan wala bagh was near golden temple but first we decided to have lunch. We entered in a restaurant, I ordered Amritsari-kulche chhole with lassi from menu and mausi took gobhi parantha with lassi. Food was nice. We did some shopping, especially amritsari jutties (ladies shoes) and then went to Jaliyanwala bagh. It was a really nice garden developed by government after independence to make it a memorable place. There was a room where photography was prohibited but the interior walls of room were full of old news paper cuttings which showed how cruel were britishers over Indians before Independence and how much struggle our great martyrs had faced. We then came out of that room. Since till then we had got really tired, we ate "Kulfi falooda" now in the market after we got out of jaliyanwala bagh.
Now since we had to return Delhi that night, we asked some Tour n travels agents about Volvo booking for that night. Fare of the buses was higher than when I had booked tickets earlier. The reason was that on the same day of travelling, dealers buy many tickets from Bus owners and sell them on high costs. Anyways,We booked our tickets and then again walked in the market where we got to know about a cloth market, as every rickshaw puller every here and there was requesting us to go to cloth market to buy beautiful suits for us, since morning. we asked a shopkeeper about that market. " Please don't take any rickshaw, just go on foot, go straight, you'll get a red light, on the next red light, take a left turn and ask people about KATRA JAYMAL SINGH MARKET. Rickshaw pullers will take you to a shop from where they get commission." We did the same and reached Katra Jaymal singh market, where the costs of suits were very less, at least cheaper than other places. So, I bought a yellow suit-piece for Mummy. There was nice embroidery on that suit called "PHULKAARI". Mausi also bought a dark blue cloth for her Kurta with skyblue strips on it. Then we returned to our guest house. Took rest, Thanked caretaker of the guest house who had served us very well by his nice behaviour and delicious food, paid him the rent, took our baggage with us and left for taking Volvo for Delhi.
At 10 PM we were in Volvo, remembering the nice moments. I said, "I will never forget the nice holy golden temple, Wagah border, nice behaviour of Punjabis and Soap everywhere near taps even in restaurant and temples"...:). Mausi said, "Don't you think, we should come here once again??"...:)....
Being a government employee, like others, I also watch calender every year for the leaves that are near weekends so that by taking less leaves I can make a full week off to go to home. I saw that after Saturday(12th April) and Sunday(13th), this Monday was also a gazetted holiday for Ambedkar jayanti. Then, Friday was also holiday (Good Friday). So by taking three day leaves (of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) I could enjoy the whole week full of leaves. Thus I took leaves from office and went to Haldwani on 12th April. Before going haldwani, Mausi and I had decided to go for a trip to Amritsar. Actually one day, I was watching a program on Discovery channel based on golden temple and for the very first time I got to know about beauty of this temple. I had also seen " Rab ne bana di jodi" movie in which a scene of Anushka sharma was shot in this place. Both the temple and actress, Anushka were looking beautiful in that movie. Also, some Office batch mates of mine frequently make programs to visit new places for tourism. They had also put a photo of Golden temple on facebook. Thus before going to haldwani,I enquired my batch mate about Amritsar trip.
So, after returning from haldwani to Delhi by Sampark Kranti on thursday 17th April at 4 pm, I went to Mausi's home. We started for Amritsar at 10 pm by a Volvo, in which I had already booked 2 seats before going Haldwani.
It was 9 pm, Mausi and I were excited about going to a nice place. I was more excited that I was going to Punjab. Movies description of Punjab and punjabis makes it a fantasy to visit. We bought potato Chips, Haldiram Moog daal namkeen etc. to relish while journey. At 10 pm, we were in our Volvo at Red fort. As soon as our Volvo started for the nice journey, a Punjabi movie also started on the TV screen of the bus, to give us a feel that we were going to Punjab. Name of the movie was "Patiala dreamz". the movie was a mixture of romance, comedy and suspense. I can never sleep during a suspense movie. Though initially during romance-comedy, I had took a small nap but soon the suspense portion of the film started and then I saw it till end. Teja Singh the villain.....:) hahaha....
Next morning, when I woke up at 6 am, most of the passengers were still sleeping and some had woken up. As our bus was moving on a smooth road, I was confirmed that it was Punjab. Now I was wondering which place of Punjab was that, one reason was that because I wanted to know how far were we from our destination and the second reason was the place was looking developed so i thought it might be a known place. I came to know that the place was Jalandhar and we were half an hour or hardly one hour far from Amritsar.
So, it was now 7:30 AM, and we had reached Amritsar.....a WOW feeling was there....we got out of bus and felt that it was very cold weather!!! it was just opposite to our imagination......before leaving Delhi, we were discussing that weather in amritsar could be warmer than Delhi and as per all, a trip to amritsar in late April was a stupidity, even mausi wanted to go to Dharamsala (himanchal pradesh) in that month but just because I wanted to go to Golden Temple, Mausi had agreed........but WOW!! All the roads were drenched. It might have rained heavily last night. At least now Mausi couldn't scold me for making a stupid plan of visiting amritsar.... :) Any ways, we took a rickshaw for the guest-house which was already booked for us from my office. It was a very nice Kothi and a very comfortable accommodation for us.
Reaching our room, mausi just lay on bed to complete her sleep. She said, she could not sleep all night, though I was feeling very fresh-fresh. Mausi completed her sleep at 12 noon and we took breakfast of bread-butter, milk. We had our lunch at 2 pm and got ready to go to Wagah Border. We reached border at 4 pm. Wow! what a nice patriotic feeling it was!! Weather was nice....sky was getting dark like that of 7 pm. We took our seats. Music on both sides of border was loud. On other side of border were thousands of Pakistanis and here we Indians. We could only listen to the loud music of our patriotic songs viz. SUNO GAUR SE DUNIYA WALO BURI NAZAR NA HUM PE DAALO CHAHE JITNA ZOR LAGA LO SABSE AAGE HONGE HINDUSTANI.....HUMNE KAHA HAI...TUM BHI KAHO.......and we all were also shouting with the song.......YE DESH HAI VEER JAWANO KA ALBBELON KA MASTAANO KA, IS DESH KA YAARO...HOYE.....IS DESH KA YARON KYA KEHNA, YE DESH HAI DUNIYA KA GEHNA...... and all............we were enjoying so much but lo!! It got darker like night though it was just 5:30 pm and it started raining heavily. We all got wet and then all who were sitting in Chairs ran fast nearby to get shelters......due to heavy rain that day, daily PARADE programme was cancelled and we returned to our guest house. While returning we asked our driver to show last railway station i.e. Attari Railway station.We were all drenched and were feeling cold. We had dinner at night and Mausi also took coffee to make herself warm against cold weather. Caretaker Bhaiya of guest house gave us smooth mink blanket of pink colour due to cool weather, So we had a nice sleep.
Next morning we got fresh and without taking breakfast moved towards golden temple. Near Golden temple there were many people putting a white or saffron cloth on their foreheads to cover their heads. We went to the temple gate, where there was a bucket containing these type of saffron clothes to wrap over heads. We did the same. Before the main entrance, there was a low floor corridor with rubber carpet on it, filled with water, so that people entering the temple could wash their feet automatically by walking on it. I was impressed to see this technique. To wash our hands, there were water-taps where there were lying soap-pieces also. I was wondering to see this and was thinking nicely if I had ever seen soap near taps outside any Hindu temple?? well It was good to see hygene. We entered the temple, took "kadha prasaad" and stood in the line of darshanarthis/Gurubhakts.....All were chanting " SAT NAAM WAAHE GURU" collectively. There was a long queue and we had got almost one hour to reach the main golden temple- where the Holy book, Guru Granth Sahib was placed, still we were neither feeling tired nor hot. because the queue passes through a bridge over lake and cool wind of lake doesn't let you feel hot or tired. Or it might have been the effect of Pujabis accompanying us in the queue, that we were feeling as fresh and energetic as Pujabis are. the temple was really very-very beautiful. Orange and yellow fishes in the lake were also looking very sweet. :) Even mausi had traced a fish drinking lake water by opening her mouth...;) "No, I think they must be taking oxygen by opening their mouths" I said. God knows why they were opening their mouths beneath water! Now we had to go to famous Langar of Golden temple but "haye ri sharam" being girls or what I don't know why we didn't ask anyone about the place where we could eat langar food. We then, took holy water to drink and got out of temple.
We knew that Jaliyan wala bagh was near golden temple but first we decided to have lunch. We entered in a restaurant, I ordered Amritsari-kulche chhole with lassi from menu and mausi took gobhi parantha with lassi. Food was nice. We did some shopping, especially amritsari jutties (ladies shoes) and then went to Jaliyanwala bagh. It was a really nice garden developed by government after independence to make it a memorable place. There was a room where photography was prohibited but the interior walls of room were full of old news paper cuttings which showed how cruel were britishers over Indians before Independence and how much struggle our great martyrs had faced. We then came out of that room. Since till then we had got really tired, we ate "Kulfi falooda" now in the market after we got out of jaliyanwala bagh.
Now since we had to return Delhi that night, we asked some Tour n travels agents about Volvo booking for that night. Fare of the buses was higher than when I had booked tickets earlier. The reason was that on the same day of travelling, dealers buy many tickets from Bus owners and sell them on high costs. Anyways,We booked our tickets and then again walked in the market where we got to know about a cloth market, as every rickshaw puller every here and there was requesting us to go to cloth market to buy beautiful suits for us, since morning. we asked a shopkeeper about that market. " Please don't take any rickshaw, just go on foot, go straight, you'll get a red light, on the next red light, take a left turn and ask people about KATRA JAYMAL SINGH MARKET. Rickshaw pullers will take you to a shop from where they get commission." We did the same and reached Katra Jaymal singh market, where the costs of suits were very less, at least cheaper than other places. So, I bought a yellow suit-piece for Mummy. There was nice embroidery on that suit called "PHULKAARI". Mausi also bought a dark blue cloth for her Kurta with skyblue strips on it. Then we returned to our guest house. Took rest, Thanked caretaker of the guest house who had served us very well by his nice behaviour and delicious food, paid him the rent, took our baggage with us and left for taking Volvo for Delhi.
At 10 PM we were in Volvo, remembering the nice moments. I said, "I will never forget the nice holy golden temple, Wagah border, nice behaviour of Punjabis and Soap everywhere near taps even in restaurant and temples"...:). Mausi said, "Don't you think, we should come here once again??"...:)....
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