Trip to Amritsar-Wagah Border, Punjab, India

Finally our school trip to Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar was a reality and as we waited eagerly to board the Rajdhani Express at Secunderabad station, we started discussing about the long journey of approx. 24 hrs and the next few days. Our Aunties (a.k.a School teachers) ensured that we got on to our designated seats and soon the train chugged away from the station.

After a long and tiring train journey we reached Nizamabad(in Delhi) train station the next day and went straight to Ginger hotel to freshen up in the wash rooms.(No time to catch a shower L). Our next train journey to Amritsar was at around 4 or 5 in the evening, however it got delayed and we waited for three hours in the very hot railway station. So our Aunties (Teachers) bought us soda/aerated drinks and three people had to share one bottle at least that was very refreshing. Finally we boarded our train the Shatabdi Express and as our luck turned out there was problem on the way (some kind of agitation) and we reach Amritsar at 2 a.m.(further delay of 3 hours). Thankfully, our hotel, Comfort Inn Astonia was only 10 minutes away from the station and reaching there most of us just crashed – dead tired.

The Golden Temple was not very far away from our hotel and we walked through the lanes. This walk was really nice and it seemed like the olden part of Amritsar and felt like one had gone back in time. That walk was worth the effort as suddenly in front stood the majestic Golden Temple (known as “Sri Harmandir Sahib”, or “Sri Darbar Sahib”). Before leaving on our journey, I had done some research on Wikipedia about “Sri Harmandir Sahib, however looking at it live, thoughts started flowing in “Is it really gold?”, “how was it made”, “who gave so much gold”? I was amazed by its beauty and stood in awe.

All of my school mates split up with our teachers and stood in the queue, the queue was really long; and it took us half an hour to enter the Golden Temple. The designs inside the temple were really beautiful & delicate. As we were walking, I saw a “Nihang” walking stoically with stick/bhalla and the whole experience was surreal.

After our prayers, we had very tasty roti, dal and halwa at the Langaar.  However, we didn’t have time to do any service at the Langaar  and felt quite bad about it.

Memorial

Our next stop was Jallianwala Bagh and it was just ten minutes away from the Golden Temple. I had read about the importance of this place and the scene in the epic movie “Gandhi” was heart rendering. Now I was about to enter this place with lot of respect, fear and anger…Jallianwala Bagh was like a garden and there was a memorial, the gun shots on the wall and the well in which people jumped to save themselves. This trip was a bit overwhelming because you are standing at a place we people were shot just like that and thousands of people died. Post this we headed back to our hotel, had our lunch and freshened up.  We were on the way to our next pit stop i.e Wagha border post.

Wagah Border, Indian side

We reached there by late afternoon and the atmosphere was very charged. People were dancing, running with the Indian flag, shouting of “Bharat Mata ki Jai”. Then the gates on both sides opened and the marching event happened. People on both sides kept shouting and then the flags of both the countries were put down, bringing to an end a very charged event which lasted for 2-3 hrs. The school had made arrangements for some refreshments and post that we left for the hotel.

Running with the Indian Flag

All of us were really tired as it had been a very long day experiencing the Golden Temple, Jallianwala Bagh and the Wagha border event. After a quick and short nap, we were back in the station early next day to board the train (Shatabdi Express) back to Delhi.  Though our one day trip was very hectic, it was worth it the effort. 

(Contributed by Shreya Mishra)