Summer 2008 : Part I

I am back to blogging after 4 months. My life was in a transition mode. I formally became a Master of Business Administration, though nothing much has changed. That happened on April 26th. Left Mumbai on that night for a trip of North India.

New Delhi. After 17 years.

A lot of water has flown through the Yamuna. New Delhi definitely looks more like a capital city now. I roamed about Delhi on a bike with a map in hand. The bike ride from India Gate to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan was highly enjoyable, but for the April Sun. When I was waiting on the signal before the north and south blocks, the Prime Minister’s BMW passed by from the Parliament.

I visited the National Museum on the Janpath. Inside the museum, foreigners outnumbered Indians one to five. It is one of the most extensive museums, I have seen in India. It houses a huge collection from the Mohenjodaro and Harrappan excavations of the 1920s. The other section I enjoyed was the bronzes from across the sub-continent, across ages.

Then I left for Vaishnodevi and Amritsar. Travelled to Punjab and beyond for the first time. Enjoyed the trek to the temple and the queue less darshan (its wrong and unfair, but still I did it) at the temple, thanks to my chittappa in CRPF at Katara. Left Jammu for Amritsar and Wagah.

Saw the Jallianwala Bagh and the Golden Temple. I feel we have started maintaining our monuments and places of worship much better than what we used to a decade ago. Jallianwala Bagh is brilliantly preserved. A little more civic sense from all of us and they will be among the best preserved in the world. Left Amritsar for Wagah.

Saw the ‘lowering of the flags’ ceremony. There was a huge turnout of people on both sides to watch, with competing shouts of ‘Hindustan Zindabad’ &‘ Pakistan Zindabad’ and ‘Vande Mataram’ & ‘Quaid-e-azam Zindabad’. There was no significant difference between the people standing on both sides of the gate. I was just wondering how it would have been if India had not been partitioned. Easily the most populous country in the world, I somehow felt that managing the ‘Akand Bharat’ would have been a much more difficult almost impossible task. But imagine how strong the Indian cricketing team would have been.