My first Wedding in India & Guru Nanak's birthday

Last Monday was thirst time I saw an Indian wedding, a part of it at least. It was actually a pre-wedding party. To my surprise I found myself (along with Sukhbir, naturally) in a drinking tent. It was sort of a separate place for drinkers (which in Punjab means to all the grown up men). The men offered me whiskey (can’t remember the name but it was a single malt whiskey) and as it would have been rude to reject it, I accepted their offer. However, I refused to let them pour soda in to my whiskey, which was accepted only because I’m a gora. After having my drink, I shifted to beer. To my surprise and disgust I found that they wanted to pour WHISKEY IN TO MY BEER!!!!I made my conclusions from that and decided that drinking is a new activity to Indians and they have really no idea how to do it (properly).No party is complete without a bhangra and the wedding was no exception. It was great fun, dancing with the locals and seeing old men doing Bhangra (Babe Bhangra Pound’ e Ne).

For the first time in India, I fell ill in the evening of Tuesday and remained ill for the following two days.

I went to school on Friday (23rd November) and found out that we had only one period (chemistry) and we played cricket for the rest of the day. Cricket went well and although our turn ended after I made my one and only hit (which scored us a run), I enjoyed it. After the game, Dan bowled me a couple of balls and I was able to hit every bowl. I must say that batting in cricket is by far easier than in baseball.Our school ended earlier because of the birthday of Guru Nanak (the first guru of the Sikhs). As I arrived home, I found that the house was locked and the gate key had not been left to the neighbors’ house. This meant that I had to climb our spiked wall. I was successful and didn’t hurt myself. After getting in, Sukhbir called and said he wanted to take me out for lunch. He did as he promised and we had mutton nan at some old place which is supposed to be famous for it (Jalandhar seems to be packed with old eating places which are famous for something).



The Birthday of Guru Nanak was on 24th November (yesterday). It is the most important festival for the Sikhs. Our visit to gurudwara showed that clearly, because it was totally over-crowded. It took us about an hour and a half to go through the whole process (getting in, listening to the hymns, getting out, having langar, etc.). In fact the event was so important that my family broke their promise, not to celebrate any festival for a year. When I asked Harleen about it, she just said that it is, after all, “Dada Ji’s “ birthday. We burnt quite a few crackers and although it can’t be compared to Diwali (in terms of fireworks), I enjoyed the evening. Saturday was also important for an other reason: the grand final of “Amul Star voice of India. It was won by Ishmit, a sikh from Ludhiana. Those who aren’t familiar with Indian pop-culture and the shows which are on, will not understand the importance of Star voice of India, but I guarantee that it is VERY important.

Fireworks on Dada Ji's birthday



As most of the people (our family included) choose to go to the bigger gurudwaras on celebrations, the smaller ones celebrate the events on the following day.
Our local gurudwara was no exception. Today we went there to cook langar and distribute it. At first I helped the women cook chappatties and afterwards, to distribute the food. I have trouble describing how I felt after langar was over, but I can say that it felt good. I suppose it has to do with working with the locals and doing something with the community, there is just something satisfying about it. In fact, langar is the only thing in religion that makes sense to me. I feel that every religion should contribute to the society like Sikhism does.

Talking about contributing to the society, I might be quitting Delhi Public School soon and start with the social work. The point is that DPS has nothing to offer to me anymore. I have fallen behind in the studies and if I wanted to get back on track, I would have to study incredibly hard. Studying incredibly hard is, however, something which I have no intention of doing over here. Therefore, all I do in school is sit in the classroom and wait for the classes to be over. Even the interaction with my friends is minimal due to the hard studies and therefore I really have NOTHING to gain from going to school. Of course, YFU India is very understanding and is already dealing with the issue.

Mid-term orientation

Yesterday I got back from our mid-term orientation. We spent two nights in Amritsar and two in Dalhousie.
The first day (11th November, Sunday) was spent on settling in and in the evening we had dinner in Ranjit’s Svaasa which is where Siim lives. The Svaasa seemed even more amazing than on my last visit and the food was delicious.

The next day was a mixture of discussing our lives in India and playing cricket. Before going to the dinner we went to Costa coffee where I ordered a big coffee. The trick is that they have no indication to exactly how big the coffee is. It turned out that it was a 600ml cup. This time we had dinner at Max’s house which (although it was no Svaasa) was magnificent. I suppose what made the evening special (better than the night before) was Max’s host-father who was once again overwhelmingly friendly.
As Max’s family owns a school which is on the same property as their house, we were able to play cricket which was great.

In the early morning of 13th November we went to see the golden temple and specially the ritual of taking the Guru Granth Sahib from the Akal Takht to The Harimandir Sahib.The ritual itself was nothing special, but I liked my visit to the temple more than I had before. I suppose the absence of heat and sunlight (which normally reflects from the white marble rather annoyingly) made the difference. There was a great rush to the Harimandir Sahib and therefore I (along with Mr. Ian, Sam and Siim) decided not to go there. I wanted to show the others the Sikh museum (which I had already seen) but it was closed until 7 AM (by the way, we went there around 5 AM). Therefore me and Sam went to have langar instead. Little did we know that at this time of the day, langar is merely tea, a very good tea, but tea nevertheless.
the 13th November was our departure date from Amritsar. We set off to Dalhousie around 9 AM and arrived in the afternoon. The second I stepped out of our car, I fell in love with the place. The air was clean, unlike the Punjabi air which forces me to take a shower 3 times a day. Dalhousie is such a peaceful place that it is hard to believe that it is India. The contrast between Punjab and Dalhousie is tremendous.

We had our lunch in a nearby restaurant and dinner at one of our rooms.
Next day we started our small hiking trip. Halfway through we took a different path with Sam. Our trail was moving up and it seemed more interesting, in fact it was more interesting than the other path and we raised couple of hundred meters from our initial road. The view to the mountains was even more excellent than it had been from down below and I think we made an excellent choice. This separate path had only one negative point to it: we missed the market where everybody bought their shawls.

When we reached the hotel, we took an hour to rest and headed to a place which was called mini Switzerland. As it was rather far from our hotel, we had to take the cars. The place itself was a large empty field in the midst of mountains (not exactly a valley). We all went horseback- riding which was good but could have been excellent if the horses would’ve been more obedient. I suppose they were just trained that way to make things safer for the customers.This time we had our dinner outside and it was an amazing meal. I was so full when we left the restaurant that I found it hard to move.

We took off early the next morning. Our car went through Amritsar and the other through Chandigarh so half of our journey was together and the second half, not. I was back home by 4PM the same day.Looking back I find that it was a great event and I wish to go back to the hills for some hiking.

The students and Sukhbir

10th November

Happy Diwali, India!!!!

Yesterday, 9th November was Diwali, the most beloved festival in India. It is a festival of lights (and a celebration of new year). The hindus worship the god Lakshmi (the god of wealth) on this day and the Sikhs celebrate the return of their sixth Guru from his imprisonment. It is said that the Guru refused to return until the Maharajas were released and in connection to that, Diwali is also a festival of unity between different religions.

Since Sukhbir’s father died a few months back, our family did not celebrate Diwali (in fact, no festival will be celebrated for a year), however we did go to the Gurudwara and light some candles and pray to the god. Everybody else, though, decorated their houses with lights (just as we decorate Christmas trees), burned crackers and sent rockets into the sky. I must give it to the Indians: our New-Year fireworks are NOTHING comparing to the Indian Diwali fireworks, which are tremendously beautiful, massive and long-lasting (I think the major blasting lasted for 8 hours). Today I can still hear at least 4-5 blasts every minute. Diwali for Indians is like New-year and Christmas all in one since they exchange gifts as well as burn the cackers and although my family didn’t celebrate Diwali, Sukhbir and Harleen gave me a framed picture of me and my little host-brother (both in turbans and curta-pajamis) and a statue of laughing Buddha which brings good luck and happiness.

Below: a house, decorated for Diwali

Following pics: Fireworks on Diwali

If 9th November was important because of Diwali then 8th saw me in Chandigarh, viewing an event which was not much less important than Diwali: the cricket match between India and Pakistan.Me and Sam had Indian flags painted on our cheeks (just so that there would be no confusion about who we supported) and a lot of people gave us credit for supporting "the right team". Sadly our team lost but I enjoyed the match nevertheless and to be honest I must salute the Pakistanis who made an extraordinary game. One of their batsman, Younis Khan, hit 117 runs and although there is a huge rivalry (if not hatred) between India and Pakistan, after Younis Khan was out, everybody stood up and gave him an amazing applause. Perhaps that’s what sports and sportsmanship is all about: leaving aside your political and religious views and honoring people for who they are and what they do. It is funny how somewhat 5 months ago I didn’t know a thing about cricket and now I’m a devoted fan, I suppose it’s just so easy to get attached to it because India is all about cricket, in fact I would have to be very ignorant in order to not get involved in it.

Fan of india

6th November (after Agra trip)

I think, laziness is my biggest sin. I have had the time to write, the desire to write but I am just too lazy. I need to push myself to start writing every week (again), no matter what happens. I’m also determined to start writing a diary every day.

To get back to reporting my year in India…Our Agra trip is over now. It was amazing, of course. There is no way to describe Taj Mahal in words, nor can the overwhelming beauty of it be seen from the pictures, you must go and see it yourself. In addition to Taj, we saw quite a few beautiful places such as Fatehpur Sikri (a mosque and the Emperor’s palace) and Baby Taj. Although I am extremely happy to have been on the trip and to have seen what I saw, I must say that my appetite for traveling and tourism has been seriously decreased because in Agra I saw the tourists (in fact, I WAS a tourist over there) and I felt stupid and humiliated because everybody thought, we were one of them, somehow there is something unpleasant in that I can’t properly explain what I felt or why I felt it but I can say that I do not want to be taken as a tourist in India ( at least not yet). However the trip had a very positive effect on in a sense that I feel more concentrated and sure about what I want from my experience.

Me and Sukhbir, we have finally joined the gym. That is a major accomplishment since it took me about 3 months to get him this far. The gym is quite well equipped and we have personal trainers in the reach of an arm. The gym has (after a 3-day trial) made a custom schedule for us, which is great.

The school started again on last Tuesday. DPS has set in a new rule according to which we have to pay a fine of 100 rupees for every day we are absent. This is the height of ridiculousness since we are already paying to go to school. I shall see how Sanjeev Sir (my class teacher) will try to make me pay, since I was absent today.

8th November might see me in Chandigarh, watching the India vs. Pakistan cricket match if Aajushmaan can get us tickets. I’m truly looking forward to seeing that and hoping that the inner-political crisis in Pakistan will not have an effect on the game.