One of the things I have the luxury to do is to hop on a train and go see more of India. My Dutch friend Dieuwke, her friend Fleur, and Dieuwke's 4 month old daughter Eva, and I traveled up to Amritsar for a night to check out the Golden Temple. The Golden Temple is a Sikh temple. It is an all-inclusive religion so we were able to enter provided we wash our feet before entering and wear head scarves. Amritsar is also fascinating because of the Jallianwala Bagh which we unfortunately did not get to see. It is the place where 2000 Indians were killed by the British in 1919 during a peaceful sit-in demonstration as India was trying to gain it's Independence. We were only 30 km from the Pakistani border so we put our brave hats on and headed over. We arrived late in the afternoon to watch the flag ceremony, where Pakistan and India raise and lower their respective flags and the soldiers shake hands. For those of you that might not know, there has been a huge rift between Pakistan and India, Muslim and Hindu's since the separation in 1947. So to witness this handshaking was quite an event. It was also quite amusing because the whole episode was like being at a major sports event with all the hooping and hollering. The audience was allowed to participate at the beginning with the running of the flags and dancing Bollywood. The whole thing was quite a spectacle. Hindustan Zindabad!!! (long live Hindustan)
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| Pakistan |
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| Running the flag |
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| The crowd goes wild! |
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| Audience participation |
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| Bollywood comes to the border |
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| Feet cleansing |
Beautiful pictures!
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