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31st Dec 2005 We the team of 11 Hexawarian & Mr. Samapath from Outerbay (The company for which we are working here in Chandhigadh) had decided a day outing to Golden Temple, Jaliyanwala Bag and The Wagah Border. Amritsar
is 235 km from Chandhigadh and further Wagah Border is 29km from
Amritsar. We started at 6:15am from our Guest House and reached
Amritsar at 11:30am. Due to the fog our journey got delayed by 30 min. We thought Amritsar will be a well organised city but our imagination flushed off seeing the city infrastructure. It was really unorganised city. It looks like an old pilgrimage village. We then visited Jaliyanwala baug. It’s next to the golden Temple. A historical monument that tells the sad story of mass killing during the independence movement in India, Jalianwallah Bagh is another must visit in Amritsar. Here lies the memorial of the martyrs of the 1919 massacre by British General Dyer. Presently the place also has a park. The Martyr’s Gallery is open from 9 am to 5 pm in summers and from 10 am to 4 pm during winters. We then moved to Wagah Border after quick filling our hungry stomach. We found few foreigners as visitors in the Amritsar. Also Wagah Border is one of the famous destination close to Amritsar. One can find so many tour operators marketing out with their agents on the gates of Golden Temple and Jaliyanwalah Baug. As we kept on moving towards border the atmosphere looks no different among the locals
but we all tourist were very much enthusiastic about the borders. For me it was one of
my dream becoming reality which I thought long back in My College NCC (National Cadet
Coprs) days. Similar to this my colleague Parag and Sampath expressed about the visit. First time I saw a Pakistani Guard in black pathan ware, so closely near the Gate. Courtesy to our then Prime Minister Atalbihari Vajapay the travel bus from Amritsar to Lahore were there waiting before the ceremony to cross the border to go to Lahore. My colleague Parag expressed his wish to visit Lahore where no formalities required at all to cross the Border. He has some hope of reunion of both this country which I can’t see its practical. But as per Mr. Samapath we should not loose the hope. We were there 5 minutes before the ceremony. The entire Indian crowd was very much charged up due to the event & as well due to those devotional songs were played on the loud speakers. In between the announcer used to charged the people with 'Hindustan Jindabad, Vande Mataram, Bhramt Mata Ki jai' type of slogans. At one point people started dancing on the road. Its amazing atmosphere. There were some people who cried literally. Exactly at 4:30pm the flag down ceremony started and both the side the guards were doing their best performance of the year. The kind of energy flowing out of them while parade was like they were on fire. The kind of 'Josh' and foot stamping and elevating at the time of right and left turn was a kind of killer performance. No doubt about our border is in a strong and safe hand of these guards. My Salute to these soldiers and to Mother India. Exactly after 30 minutes the ceremony closed and we were very much satisfied with this last destination visit and gossiping about the same. While returning we talked about the ceremony at least for 2 hrs. Everybody agreed that this is the best way celebrating the last day of the year 2005. We reached home (Chandhigadh) at 11:15pm and had a small party in celebration of our
Successful day tour and to Welcome the New Year 2006. We wished each other and closed
the day. |
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