The Headless Chicken Returns

While many Sikh men stop supporting 5-Ks in Diaspora, women remain true to their 1-K of Sikhi, with Kaur middle name.
WGKK-WGKF

Dusty hot plains...stilled breezes...lifeless trees...old war memories...painfully blinding blue skies...yellow colored fields...ribboned roads...and...smiles of the people passing by...this is how I remember the villages of Punjab on the Pakistani side...is it the same on the Indian side...?...is Indian Punjab the same way?

Ciao

#Chowk has a real India-Pakistan flavour. I like this. It is nostalgic and it takes me back to my father who use to talk about his Sikh friends, about the khatrees in the village and the all powerful Angrez.

He spoke of those simple times of those simple people who were living their simple lives in the villages. There was no wheat, rice or tea. People ate makkei and Bajraa (maize). The fruit was the wild peelo. Once in while a cattle was slaughtered and that was a big day.

Waris Shah and Baba Bulay Shah`s poetry. Harvest season. Melas. Holy and basant. Love affairs near the well.

No toilets. Ladies went out in the fields at night, sat in a circle and did the thing.

Good crops. Plenty of food. No tensions. No TV. No telephone. No religious or ethnic animosities. Every one made fun and joked with eachother. Just living togather.

The village mulla went to each house in the evening and got a Roti.

Sunrise. Fields. Bells of the oxen. Heat. Evening. Gup Shup. Moonlight. Early dinner. Sleep.

so it goes on - they were not missing any thing.

We, with everything, still want more.

Ally, Wagha is actually a very small pinD near border inside Pakistan...about a mile or so inside. Attari is also a pinD about a mile inside on Indian side. Attari is a historic town in many ways...it is actually called Attari Sham Singh after the name of one of the generals of Ranjit Singh. Sham Singh`s descendents still live there. One of Ranjit Singh`s grandsons and a maharaja after Ranjit Singh..Kanwar Naunihal Singh was married to Sham Singh`s daughter. There is some local history on that.
Secondly, when British controlled Punjab, the first few miles of Railway line they established in Punjab was from Amritsar to Attari...about 20 miles. and they set up one of the first Christian missions there. There are quite a few Punjabi christians in this town. It basically grew to a small town during British time ..one reason being in the middle of Lahore and Amritsar. when I was in high school we used to go to Attari high school for sports tournaments, friendly matches Kabaddi, volleyball, kho-kho etc and also for our annual exams.

On your second question from the other board. I have no idea how Punjab looks from the sky. I think Lahore and Amritsar are the only 2 big towns in the area with in 100 miles. As you know my own home place is exactly midway between the two...few miles South West of Wagha/Attari....I remember in 70/80`s when the electricity revolution really took off in India/Pakistan....during dark summer nights on the roof tops I saw first time my uncles talking about the loo`(light)...a dim light hemispherical outline in the sky going up from land and saying this one on the left is where Lahore is and that one on the right is Amritsar..As kids we used to wonder about it but later on we used to see it all the time during dark nights and talk about it. In some corner of my mind I doubted that...but when I came to USA one night we were driving in central California and we could see similar loo` from miles away...and I said..aah..so it was from Lahore...I think land is very flat and 18 miles is not that long a distance.

There was a web site on internet which had satellite pictures taken from miles away of the sub-continent...you could actually zoom and pan on the map to easily spot the cities...will try to find it.

excuse my ignorance, but i`ve never actually been... are Wagah and Attari the same town with different name, or two seperate towns that happen to be very close or just two stops built because of the border?

DB

Its a shame these kos minars and sarai gates are falling apart, theres so much history written in them, i hope one day someone looks after them, after all its nice to see these things when ur travelling

Does anyone know the exact route of original GT road? As for as I know the original GT road crosses border few miles south west of Wagha/Attari. The first mark on the Indian side is RajaTaal(Raja`s Talaab/pool). There is still ruins of a little guest house and a pool built by some Mughal king. Then the next stop is Sarai Amanat Khan. a closely packed village with a huge double door and DiyoRi decorated with beautiful art on West entry point, a large street(main street) and a similar exit door on the East end. Inside was a Sarai(rest house), shops etc. There were checkpost type small minar on out side the village to monitor traffic from a distance. The whole road(now only a link road) was lined with little towers(kos minars) every few miles guarded by a guard/signal officer. From Sarai Amanat Khan the next big stop is Sarai Nurdin(now only called Noordi(n)) few miles west of Tarn Taran. The modern GT road from Attari to Amritsar is not the original. Amritsar town was established by Sikhs a peaceful distance away from the original GT road used by Mughals.

GT road is marked with Sarais and kos-minars. Most of the kos-minars and Sarai gates are falling apart with little funds to keep them up.

Sounds like headless chicken is stuck between Wagha and Attari station throughout the article except inbetween momentary visits to some other towns. First he started flying but as soon as he saw lights in Amritsar he started driving on GT road...the way Headless Chicken was jumping back and forth..paying no attention to whether Sarhid comes first or Goraya..it made me feel dizzy. It was like hovering over the buffet table for dinner without tasting anything. But I am hungry. I am back on GT road...on Attari bus stand. I look left and right there is a tea dhaba..smosas, pakoRay..paneer smelling so good. I turn 13 yr old again.

Sounds like headless chicken is stuck between Wagha and Attari station throughout the article except inbetween momentary visits to some other towns. First he started flying but as soon as he saw lights in Amritsar he started driving on GT road...the way Headless Chicken was jumping back and forth..paying no attention to whether Sarhid comes first or Goraya..it made me feel dizzy. It was like hovering over the buffet table for dinner without tasting anything. But I am hungry. I am back on GT road...on Attari bus stand. I look left and right there is a tea dhaba..smosas, pakoRay..paneer smelling so good. I turn 13 yr old again.

Where is agent OO-Gulab Jaman to investigate the plaigiarization in this story? This does not seem to be picked up from Chowk.com.

And how dare you credit Ashoka for building a road between Kabul and Pataliputra. Don`t you know that it was built single-handedly by Sher Shah Suri in 3 1/2 years from scratch.

I don`t know of the great Jat match-up between Waseen Akram and Harbhajan Singh in Indo-Pak match but in less than 10 years, you will be covering a Jat Marathon race between Nankana Saheb and Golden Temple on newly built motorway by Daewoo under an agreement between two chiefministers, Samranjit Singh Mann and Aitzaz Ahsan or Shahbaz Sharif.

The event will be marred by accusations of foul play by Rajputs by serving whisky instead of water and loud BhangRa nusic along the path in order to detract Jat participants.

This part lacks comic flavor of part 1. It appears to be written by a different author. Author spent too much time on border. All subsequent report is very sketchy. You might like to use an Indian ghost writer for Amritsar to Calcutta section.