Amritsar Trip: Retreat at the Border

After seeing the Golden Temple on Saturday, it was time to go see some terrorists, I mean Pakistanis. The border is about 30 kms from Amritsar and we passed a lot of fields on the way. "People don't build houses here," the driver explained, "They don't know when the next war is going to be." We reached the border about 30 mins after they opened the gates, and while we could have got better seats if we reached earlier, we'd have been roasting in the Sun and bored. I was disappointed to note that we would be rather far away from the border - the closest I got to it was about 30 metres. They split up the men and women on our side, presumably because there's too much jostling and they didn't want any hanky-panky. (On the Pakistani side though they actually seated the men and women on two different sides of the road.) So in increasing order of distance from the border we had VVIP's, VIP's, women and men. One of my biggest disappointments was in noting that the VVIPs and VIPs were mostly White. I thought we got our independence from Whitey a while ago, but apparently we still feel the need to worship Whitey over the common Indians. There was a White chick in a tank top who was jumping up and down as she got to her seat. She forgot to wear a certain garment and was basically falling out of her shirt. And then, during a crucial part of the ceremony where the soldiers gave flags to some girls and ask them to run to the border and back, this White chick ran to join the flag-runner (and again, almost falling out of her shirt). It bothered me a bit to see a non-Indian carry the flag, but I'm learning to live with disappointment.

The atmosphere was charged. There were patriotic songs blaring over the speakers from both sides. You could tell that the other side was doing the same, but you couldn't actually listen to the songs (by design I assume). In fact, the entire ceremony was symmetric from what I could tell, with a few exceptions. After the girls ran to the border and back with the Indian flag (on the Pakistani side there was just one guy dancing and waving the flag), they played some danceable patriotic songs and all the girls gathered there were dancing (only on the Indian side again, apparently Sharia law is already in effect in Pakistan).

Then came the synchronized posturing and sharp movements, kicking the air etc. The guide who was with me told me that these BSF guys, especially who participate in this show, are recruited for their height - they are very tall. What struck me is how well the guys on both sides synced up their movements so for example they'd each walk from their cabin and reach the border at the same time and face off. They even shouted out matching slogans like "Hindustan Zindabad" and "Pakistan Zindabad" in unison so you couldn't hear the other side.

The whole evening was fun, I don't think anyone left feeling more agitated. Everyone knew it was just posturing. I left with mixed feelings. I knew that I still hate that country and everything it represents. But, it also made me think of the Mahabharata because for all the anger and hatred, these are basically my long lost cousins. And I really wish we could be "friends" again. But it's too late for that. They're too brainwashed for that.