Amritsar

After reaching Jammu we decided to see Amritsar. This turned out to be wise decision to use time wisely. We left Hotel under heavy rain. We needed a honest Auto driver and this time we had one. He took so many short cuts to avoid the traffic jam but where ever we went we found the worst situation than before. (see the picture above) Somehow we got a seat in Muri Express. Shailesh fell a sleep straight away. Finding a Hotel in Amritsar was another task. Shailesh knew that there are hotels right outside of Golden Temple so that was our target. We selected an innocent looking boy as our auto driver and asked him to drop us in a hotel outside Golden Temple. His instant answer was yes but minutes later he tried to dump us in a lane saying Golden Temple is just on walking distance from here. We knew this trick so refused to get off. He tried another hotel and at last refused to go to the destination we agreed for. We got off and decided to look for hotel by ourselves. A traffic man guided us and Shailesh found the right place to stay.
We had a quick visit to Golden Temple and dinner at Bharawan Da Dhaba. Naam bade aur Darshan Chhote. Food and service was not that good as we were told. That was disappointing. Shailesh missed his Chicken, god knows where that restaurant was.
Next morning again we visited Golden Temple and Jalianwalla Bagh. We both were impressed with cleanliness and with the behaviour of devotees and people at Golden Temple. I did not go to Vaishno Devi temple but Shailesh's comment was that he was pushed by police man at Vaishno Devi and hardly got a second to have Darshan. I knew this. Thats the one reason I have stopped going to the temples. I stopped it after my fathers death in 1974. Now I firmly beleive in my own God to whom I pray every day at home. Now I am not an orthodox religious person but prayer has become a habit.

I liked visiting Jaliyanwaalaa Bagh. One reason behind that was because we read about it in school days and that horror image was drawn in the brain that in order to save their life how people jumped in that well. Bullet marks, Well and the place from where they were fired completes the picture.

We still had some time to visit Bagha Border. We took a taxi for Bagha. There we found that visitors are allowed only after 1630 PM. Driver knew this fact but he didn't wanted to loose his business. We did see Atari railway station.

I salute to all those freedom fighters who lost their life that day.

That evening we took a train to Delhi. Next day Shailesh left for Jabalpur while I decided to go and see my family in Mainpuri.