Our last month in India was a wet one. It was also quite chilled out. We did some yoga classes and hung about reading books and avoiding the rain. We also found ourselves in the build up to an enormous Hindu pilgrimage in Rishikesh, at a Sheikh evening ceremony in the Golden Temple in Amritsar, surrounded by Tibetan Buddhist monks in McLeod Ganj and at the Muslim ´Qwwali´ performance at Nazam-ud-din´s shrine in Delhi - so immersed ourselves in India’s religions. Religion is everything plus more to most in India and it was interesting to see it up close.
McLeod Ganj was WET, really wet and the irony of the towns name wasn’t lost on us as the (m)clouds didn’t lift the whole time we were there. It put us in a bit of a mood to be honest. God knows how we’ll cope back in London. Luckily our (damp) room had TV and we avoided the rain by watching Wimbledon.
We did make it out and about a fair bit though. His Holiness the Dalai Lama was sadly not around - probably hanging out with Richard Gere and Sharon Stone in LA - but we went to see the headquarters of the Tibetan government in exile. It looked a bit like a multi-storey car park. We also went to a very simple but moving little museum which compiled the personal stories of many monks and nuns who escaped from occupied Tibet and accounts of their awful journeys by foot over the Himalayas.
After a few days in McLeod Ganj we took several LONG public bus journeys into the Punjab and headed for Amritsar. It was a bit of a shock to be back in the hot climate after so long up in the mountains! We finally arrived at the Golden Temple at 7.30pm and started asking around for somewhere to stay. We´d heard that pilgrims and tourists can stay at the Golden Temple, foreign tourists for free(!) if you can face the very simple shared dorms. We decided to go up market and take one of their pilgrim rooms for the grand price of 50 rupees a night (about 60p). Equality and inclusiveness are central to Sikhism, which seems like a very decent religion to me.
Every day the Golden Temple kitchen provides thousands of free meals to pilgrims, visitors and those who need it. The sound of clattering dishes rings around the complex all night, preparing for the next sitting.
Much like Agra and the Taj, the Golden Temple was breathtaking but Amritsar was a hot, smelly hell hole. After finding something (disgusting) to eat we deposited our shoes (like when you go bowling), covered our heads and walked along the marble walk, through a pool to cleans our feet and into the main area of the Golden Temple. White marble walkways surround a large square lake, in the middle of which is the ´Harmandir´- the actual golden bit. It´s covered in gold leaf and shines more than Victoria Beckham´s jewellery box, reflecting in the lake around it.
The evening service was taking place and people sat around the lake listening to the musician-priests singing verses from the Ádi Granth´, accompanied by tabla and harmonium. The music is actually broadcast around the complex almost 24 hours a day - so getting to sleep was tricky with the washing up and the prayer singing. It was very atmospheric though.
The next day we took a mini-bus to Pakistan border to watch the closing of the border ceremony. I´m sure many of you will have seen this on TV. Michael Palin shot some great stuff there. It really was like the Ministry of Silly Walks, with lots of pomp and patriotic excitement.
On the other side of the gate we could see the Pakistan supporters waving flags and chanting. There were FAR more people on the Indian side and it turned into a giant party with all the women dancing around Bollywood style, everyone singing and shouting and waving. There was even a hype-man to make sure we didn´t let the side down. It was enormous fun. Just when we thought it couldn´t get anymore exciting, the ceremony began and the excellently turned out soldiers on both sides started marching up and down, flinging their legs as high as they could, shouting, blowing on trumpets and stamping their feet. Then the flags were lowered and the gates slammed shut. See you later Pakistan!
The day was spent on the train to Delhi and then on to Haridwar. After a confusing and chaotic half hour in the dark at the bus station there, we were almost at Rishikesh. Most of you will know that this is where The Beatles came and got Shanti in 1968. It´s the Ýoga Capital of the World, so we did some yoga classes. It was quite good actually. Neither of us are particularly bendy yet though.
Rishikesh is up near the source of the Ganges. It’s a very holy place and it was crawling with Sadhus and pilgrims dressed in orange getting reading for a massive festival and pilgrimage.
Every night various Yogi dudes would chant some holy stuff very loudly and it would echo over the river and down the valley. One Yogi ended one of his chants with a crazy Hollywood-villain-style evil laugh then went on for about half an hour. It was weird.
Rishikesh is also full of fakes and phoneys who pretend to be Shanti but actually they want to touch up western girls who have come to find their inner-selves. I’m sure some of them really are cool, but I was a bit suspicious of them all. Rishikesh is also full of lots of weird travel types who have been there since 1968. I didn’t dig them much either.
5am at the train station.India tends to get a bit crazy when there is a pilgrimage going on. We were advised to keep out of the way, but actually we were heading back to Delhi before it began anyway. We saw lots of pilgrims arriving on the roof of the train. And lots more sleeping at the train station.
Safe.Our final stop was Delhi. I love Delhi now - we’ve been 3 times and I feel like I know at least a little bit of it.
Our last bit of cultural tourism, before the shopping began, was to go to an area called Nizamuddin West (our Sikh ricky-driver told us that it was a very low caste area of town and we should watch out for all the “not good people”). Our destination was Nizam-ud-din´s shrine, which is the tomb of the famous sufi saint and an important place for the Muslims in Delhi.
It was Thursday night, which is when they have the famous Qawwali sessions. Qawwali is Sufi devotional music and a tradition that dates back over 700 years. We arrived in the area and quickly noticed we were the only white people around. The place was buzzing with people everywhere. We had to walk through a labyrinth of narrow covered streets, lined with stalls selling garlands, incense, head scarves and other religious paraphernalia. We also walked passed food stalls where the wallahs waved tickets in our faces. It soon became apparent that the tickets were there for us to buy to give to the poor who needed a meal. We bought as many as we could, and still be able to get a rickshaw home, but it would never be enough! The worst bit was the stall owner made Sam hand them out - which makes you feel dreadful. What do you say to the guy behind the guy who got the last ticket?
The whole experience was actually quite stressful. Everyone wanted our money. We were in a place that felt more foreign than pretty much anywhere we´d been on our whole trip. It was HOT. There were people and smells and sounds and shouts surrounding us. But we persevered, because we wanted to see the musicians. And maybe even a Whirling Dervish! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dervish
The atmosphere was amazing. I wish I could have taken photographs, but they wouldn’t have given you much of a taste of the experience anyway. When we got into the marble court yard beside the shrine, hundreds of people were sitting on the floor around the musicians. It became obvious pretty quickly that giving money was a big part of this gathering. Men walked around with giant fans to cool the crowds. Children and women sat near the front, men stood at the back. We had read about the Qawwali in William Dalrymple´s ´City of Djinns´(which I really recommend) and we knew that the evening would get more and more intense. The pace of the music grows faster, the temperature would certainly rise with so many people there and the religious excitement grows. We were overwhelmed enough, not to mention out of money to give - so we left after half an hour. We would have had to have stayed until about 11pm if we´d wanted to see a Whirling Dervish.
It was an intense and exciting way to finish our adventure.
Wonderful Delhi.
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