Part One - Amritsar

India is a country both of us has visited before - Nick has been lucky enough to have visited the south several times - but it’s so massive and there are so many fascinating things to see that we’ve always wanted to return to explore the north.

Imagine our delight then, when we are invited to the wedding of Jen and Pranav (PK).

Jen is the daughter of our good friends Janet and Chris and she is marrying PK in Jaipur in November. We don’t hesitate in accepting, we’ll worry about the logistics later!

Apparently, as well as wearing Indian clothes, it’s a tradition for the bride’s family and guests to have a dance-off against the family of the groom, so the challenge is on! There’s been much practice - and all we can say, is watch out Bollywood here we come!

It seems a shame to waste this opportunity on a flying visit and so we decide to travel out a couple of weeks before the wedding and as we’re now retired, to stay on for a month afterwards.

With the expert help of Ravindra of Tailor India Tours (www.tailorindiatours.com) we make a plan which will see us beginning our adventure in Amritsar, the great Sikh holy city, and ending it in Kolkata the former capital of British India and now a city renowned for its cultural life.

Our journey will take us through seven Indian states and we’ll cover nearly four thousand miles travelling to our various destinations not to mention sightseeing in each place!

We aren’t taking a vehicle with us this time and our itinerary is pre-planned but we still want this to be a real adventure. Our accommodation will be home stays, guest houses and modest hotels (except when we stay in a palace for the wedding, but more of that later!) and we will be going on a couple of long train journeys.

We know there will be testing as well as magical times ahead but that’s what adventures are made of and we can’t wait!

————————————————-

First stop… Amritsar!

The much anticipated day of departure arrives; we leave the house and the dogs in the more than capable hands of Dawn and Ray and head to Heathrow where things take a downhill turn.

The queue to get through security is so long that it snakes out of the terminal building and back in again!

We do make our flight but it’s a close thing. We change planes in Delhi where we repeat the stressful experience, this time we are sent to wait at the wrong luggage carousel and by the time we realise, we have to run to catch the flight which is closing as we reach the gate!

We arrive in Amritsar in the early morning to fog, this isn’t what we were expecting.

We needn’t have worried though.

Our first stay is at Farmer’s Villa in Daburji, a village about a twenty minute drive outside Amritsar.

We grab a few hours sleep and awake feeling refreshed and relieved to see that the fog has lifted and the day is bright.

Our hosts are Jeet and Kish and their daughter Kiki.

This is a truly peaceful place and we receive a warm welcome.

We have a delicious lunch - all home grown and home cooked and beautifully served by Priti. You’d be hard pushed to find better hospitality anywhere (www.farmersvilla.in).

….and then we’re invited on a tour of the farm.

Jeet is a keen agriculturalist and has a twelve acre smallholding which he farms organically. It’a fascinating to hear him talk about his crops and his methods.

Jeet invites Nick to prepare one of his fields for planting and Nick doesn’t need asking twice!

Not a bad job for a beginner!

We wander into the village and on the way meet Kuldeep who works at the Villa. She invites us to her home for tea and her friend who handily speaks English comes too.

We feel very honoured to be taken into Kuldeep’s home and to be able to meet her family and friends.

Today it’s time for some serious shopping and sightseeing and we are driven into Amritsar.

It’s everything you expect of an Indian city, the traffic is bedlam, vehicles share the road with cows - even elephants… there’s hooting, shouting and people everywhere. We love this environment!

First stop is a clothes shop. We have to purchase several outfits each, plus accessories for the wedding.

Our first sightseeing stop is to Jallianwalla Bagh.

Now a peaceful oasis in the centre of the frenetic activity of the city centre, this was once the site of a brutal massacre of unarmed Indian civilians by British soldiers. This shameful event is known as the greatest single atrocity of colonial times and this place stands as a memorial to those who lost their lives here.

On 13th April 1919 a crowd of about twenty thousand gathered in Jallianwalla Bagh to protest against the Rowlatt Act (which allowed the British to imprison without trial any Indian suspected of sedition). Other, similar demonstrations having resulted in unrest, martial law was declared and a platoon of soldiers drafted in to surround the protestors.

Jallianwalla Bagh was an area of waste ground hemmed in on all sides by high walls and only accessible via two, narrow alleyways. Before any speakers could address the crowd and with no warning, those gathered were fired upon by the soldiers. People tried to flee by attempting to climb over the walls and many were shot in the back as they did so, others tried to take cover in the well.

It isn’t known how many people were massacred that day though Indian sources give a figure of two thousand. This dreadful episode led directly to the civil disobedience campaign which played a major role in bringing British rule in India to an end.

There is a museum on site which we visit and the well in which many tried to take refuge is still there as is a wall bearing bullet holes. We find it hard going to learn about the atrocity committed by our country on that day and by our country’s behaviour towards the Indian people in general and we feel uncomfortable visiting this place but also glad to have been able to pay our respects to those who died.

We also visit the Partition Museum; opened in 2017 and housed in the old Town Hall it is the only memorial in the world to the largest migration in human history. An estimated eighteen million people lost their homes and up to two million lost their lives when in 1947, Bristish rule in India came to an end and India was partitioned to create the Muslim state of Pakistan (including East Pakistan, later to become Bangladesh).

Once again we feel shame for the way the British behaved towards India - occupying the country, plundering its assets, using its people to fight in wars not of their making and finally hastily abandoning it to the appalling violence resulting from Partition.

Our next stop is entirely different and truly awe inspiring - the Golden Temple, the holiest site in the Sikh faith. All are welcome to visit the temple - you need to remove your shoes, cover your head and wash your hands and feet first.

What a place! A golden temple (covered in real gold no less) stands resplendent in the middle of a sacred lake - the Amrit Sarovar - in which the faithful can bathe.

Most people here appear to be Sikh rather than casual visitors and we are surprised (but not disappointed) by the lack of western tourists.

We love visiting the immense communal canteen, the Guru-ka-Langar, which is open twenty four hours a day and during that time, serves about one hundred thousand free meals to anyone who wants one.

The operation is on a huge scale as you’d imagine and the majority of those working there are volunteers.

We notice numerous men in the temple complex and outside, dressed in deep blue with silver bands (chakrams) around their turbans and carrying swords.

We learn that these are the Nihangs, an elite warrior order within Sikhism. They are highly trained in martial arts and have historically protected Sikh communities and Sikh holy sites.

Last stop of the day is the Wagah Border Ceremony.

This takes place daily at the Attari-Wagah border between India and Pakistan and it is pure theatre.

The event starts with much patriotic chanting and on the Indian side with women dancing and singing… and foreigners waving flags!

The border gates open and soldiers from both sides in elaborate uniforms perform marching drills involving impossibly high kicks and machismo posturing.

The flags of both countries are then lowered and the border closed for the night. It’s great fun and not to be missed.

The next day is Diwali and Farmer’s Villa is bedecked with many twinkling lights, it looks magical.

Kiki puts her artistic talents to good use and creates two intricate designs on the floor, a traditional type of decoration for Diwali.

We head back into the city for the evening as we have to collect our new clothes and we want to see the Golden Temple on this special night.

The temple is covered in lights and all around the edge of the lake are thousands of burning candles.

It’s very busy and there’s a great atmosphere.

The Nihangs seem to be conducting a ceremony of their own in a place slightly separated from the main temple and lake, there’s lots of chanting and people are thronging for a good view.

Tomorrow we’ll be leaving Farmer’s Villa, Amritsar and the Punjab behind and heading north into Himachal Pradesh bound for Dharamshala. We’ll be sad to leave the new friends we‘ve made and we hope to keep in touch.

We are both agreed that this has been the perfect reintroduction to India. We’ve always found home stays to offer rich and memorable experiences and Farmer’s Villa has been no exception.