The USS Quad Damage

Today we were going to go to Amritsar to visit the Golden Temple, but this morning my brother threw up a lot. This implied morning sickness, which meant he was pregnant. As it turns out, though, he just got food poisoning. I was hoping he’d get over it by lunch time which would’ve meant we could actually go to Amritsar, but he did not, so I was stuffed. Instead I went to the Rock Gardens.

The rock gardens are a whole area made of rocks. It was made by a whole bunch of people over (I guess) a long period of time. The area is very large, and takes maybe half an hour just to walk through. We took about an hour with pictures, and we were moving fairly fast. The number of sculptures, terraforming, and other things put together is staggering. Simply wheeling in the amount of material it would’ve taken to build the gardens is mind boggling. Later, the cement bags which were used to keep the rock gardens together are used themselves to create walls and pathways. There are a lot of them.

The rock gardens are sort of a communal area for Chandigarh, and contain two amphitheaters for small performances, as well as a courtyard with more amphitheaters, seating, etc. Someone who lives in the area can get used to the place, but to someone who has never seen it (or in my case, has seen it after a long time) it’s beautiful.

The place has become more of a lovers’ joint rather than a tourist attraction, though. I can understand. Despite the experience of being there, the idea of a rock garden sounds unappealing to a tourist. However, if you’re a resident and you’ve been there before, you know all the high walls and small crevices in the caves form this intimate experience that’s difficult to actually get in India. You can actually sit somewhere and look at a waterfall, and be alone. There’s also sculptures of monkeys. I can see sexy times.

Today we went to a gurdwara which is supposed to hold special significance. Gurdwara literally means “Guru” (Guru) “Dwara” (Place of Residence). The Sikh religion / way of life was established around the period of Mughal rule. Guru Govind Singh’s family were killed at the place which is now the gurdwara by being burnt alive, because they refused to become muslim. Apparently it’s really interesting to go “downstairs”, but because I didn’t know there was a “downstairs” I didn’t go. The pictures are really to show what a gurdwara is like in general, as opposed to the story I just discussed specifically.

This is a very large gurdwara. In the Gurdwara you are supposed to walk around barefoot, and decent Gurdwaras have a little water thing where you clean your feet before you enter (and clean them before you leave, in case it’s dusty). This Gurdwara is massive, though, and the “barefoot walking area” is gigantic. They actually have little walking paths so that you burn burn or freeze your feet (marble floors and the sun / lack of sun). Outside, I would expect Langar to take place. Inside the actual prayer room itself (which is remarkably small) you’re supposed to walk in, donate some money, get your mattha taken (which means bowing your head to the ground), do a “satstriakal” and sit down. Boys and girls sit on opposite sides of the room, from where they apparently perv on each other.

The guy in front of the room reads from the “Guru Granth Sahib”, which is the name of the holy book (“Sahib” means “Mr” though, so I don’t get why a book is called that). There’s a procedure of saying stuff and doing things by which the book is opened and closed, and it takes a while. There’s also some way of getting to the passage which will be read. Both the procedure and the text itself is impenetrable. Most punjabis I’ve talked to don’t know what’s being read, not to mention myself, who has a decent hold on Hindi but even pindi (village) punjabis confuse me.

The speaking itself is sort of melodic (like the reading of the koran?) and for some bits the guy out-and-out starts singing. There’s also a music trio consisting of two singers who also have harmoniums, and a tabla player who occasionally also sings. From my experience thus far all the tabla players look identical, like that nurse in Pokemon. The music trio sing songs of praise, and occasionally gets their lyrics from passages in the Guru Granth Sahib.

After visiting the Gurdwara, we went to “Aam Khas Bagh”. Literally translated, this is “Common Special Fort” (I think). It means a place for everyone. It has some unique design features and the thing works as a mini society unto itself. It has farming areas, gardens, water features, and a bunch of other things. It also has plumbing which doubles as air conditioning. The water running through the holes in the building runs throughout the entire building, cooling it. It also goes into baths, which can be used for taking baths as well as providing additional cooling.

According to my dad, the boys building was separate to the girls’ building. This may have lead to interesting times. The fort also contained a well which was operated by an animal walking around in circles. The well is gigantic, and comes complete with a little spiral staircase thingy so people can go down it. It’s also very deep, and would’ve contained the necessary water to sustain the entire fort.