Dodging Fireworks

Sorry again this is so late. I promise to give another update by Monday. :)

Last weekend Olivia and I went to Amritsar- some of you may have seen the pictures on facebook. It’s a pretty cool place. It’s the holy city for the Sikh religion, kind of like Mecca for Muslims. The day we got there we saw the Pakistan/India border closing ceremony. I won’t go into detail but here’s a link to a video of it- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ0ue-XGl9c . It was definitely a fun experience.

The state I’m interning in (Punjab) is famous for its food and for the large population of Sikhs. The man who started the religion, Ram Das, was born a Hindu. He resented the inequality of the caste system and started Sikhism, which is based on the idea of equality and service. I’ve gotten to know many Sikhs while I’ve been here and have found them to be fun loving (if a little crazy) and kind people. Though one criticism of Sikhs that some tend to be pretty exclusive even though the teachings of the religion preach openness (By the way, many of the things I’m stating are based on conversations I’ve had with people here and some Wikipedia research during my free time… so not super reliable). I’ve seen some hints of exclusiveness that I’ll reference later on but in general they seem to be welcoming people. There are some controversial events in Sikh history, but I figure there’s really no religion without some controversial stories and/or beliefs. One thing I really like is that they (mostly men but I’ve also seen some women) often carry around small, beautifully engraved knives that they sling across their fronts. We saw it more in Amritsar because it was a more formal place for them so they all dressed up. I found out that the purpose of these knives is to defend the helpless. The religion is offended referred to as a warrior religion and now I understand that it’s a defensive warrior stance. Actually, their values really remind me of medieval knights- honor, service, defense of the helpless, and equality. I’m diggin it.

The physical epicenter of their spiritual world is the Golden Temple. It’s a magnificent place enclosed by a marble palace of sorts and the temple itself is surrounded by water that the pilgrims bath in. When visiting the temple we were asked not to touch the holy water. We arrived at the Golden Temple to find out that it was a big day- Ram Das’s (remember the man who started the religion- it’s first guru) birthday. We were told by some locals to go back at night for the birthday ceremony. So we returned just before dark to a scene of about 15000 Sikhs jostling for a spot to sit in the massive enclosure. We sat down and were stared at for the next two hours. Recently what I’ve tried to do is give people bright smiles whenever I’m severely stared at. The result is usually pretty fun as most of them give me shining grins back but the two women in front of us were not amused- especially when my phone rang during the chanting. I felt a little guilty about that. I’ve heard religious chanting many times since I’ve been here but this was the first time I’ve been truly moved by it. I could probably even describe its effect as meditative. That also explains why I jumped out of my skin when fireworks suddenly went off right behind us… and I literally mean right behind us. One second I was sitting peacefully thinking I could really get into this and then there was an earth shattering boom followed by heat and ashes falling from the sky. In fact the skeleton of a firework promptly fell right into my lap. Olivia and I looked at each other, both silently deciding if it was time to leave. Around us the others were apparently loving the showers of hot ash and clapping excitedly as enormous fireworks exploded over our heads. Then something happened that made up our minds. One firework, instead of going up, came down to land 2 meters away from us and exploded. A crowd of men then ran up to the flaming mass to beat it with cloth until the fire went out, while others pulled the people away who were sitting in that spot- I couldn’t see if any one was hurt or not. Olivia and I looked at each other again. Time to go! We got up as quickly as we could without panicking and began to push our way to the exit. Unfortunately for us it looked like thousands of other Sikhs had also decided it was time to leave so we got swept up in a suffocating pushing battle. I got pushed up against a banister and no one would let me move to go around it and were instead pressing me up against it, making it hard for me to breath. That’s when I’d really had enough. I started screaming many inappropriate words and that was enough to shock enough people so that I could scoot around the banister and up the stairs to the door. My work was done and my reputation as a vulgar American confirmed. A shaken Olivia and I then made our way to the twilight zone- A real coffee shop which played country music and served us delicious chocolate cake with ice cream. This shop couldn’t have been more out of place but at that moment it was my refuge. We stayed there until the crowds died down a bit and until we quit shaking and then made our way back to our hotel. Just another adventure in India I suppose!