Pakistan-India Border Ceremony
(vero;2018-Nov-13)
One outing not to be missed when in Amritsar is a trip to the small border town of Wagah just 30 km away in order to attend the Pakistan-India border closing ceremony which takes place everyday shortly before sunset. We thought we knew what to expect, we had read reports and seen videos, but nothing compares to simply being part of it and experiencing the ambiance and craziness of it all.
It is easy to get there. Around midday, many touts ply the area between the Golden Temple and Jallianwala Bagh memorial park offering trips to the border, either in taxi or rickshaw, private or shared. We chose the cheapest option of a shared rickshaw with 8 people on board and after a very short and easy bargaining we agreed on 100 Rs per person for the return trip. The man with whom we closed the deal took our names and told us to meet him at 15:00 in front of Jallianwala Bagh for departure: payment was to be made at that time.
Everybody in our party was already there when the man reappeared at the given time: a young Japanese couple, a young Indian couple, an older one and finally the two of us. We followed our tout out of the pedestrian area to a small street where a rickshaw was waiting. As one can imagine, we got all a bit squeezed: two persons in front, four in the back and two at the rear facing backwards (this was the most uncomfortable place). Our tout disappeared after we paid him and off we went. It seemed to take ages until we finally left Amritsar's traffic behind but once past the last city suburbs the ride was smooth and we made good way among all other taxis, rickshaws, buses heading in the same direction as ours.
We arrived after about one hour and eventually parked in a huge wasteland full with other vehicles. There were also a few tea or food stalls, some of which were functioning as left luggage facilities as spectators are not allowed to bring any bigger pack in the compound. We had been warned upfront and had only a small bag with our camera and some water, so we were fine.
There was a very good atmosphere as we made our way to the border, it was like going to a funfair: happy and chatty people waving flags or boasting the Indian colours on their tee-shirt or as make-up. After some security checks we got funneled and eventually emerged into a kind of arena: there were some reserved seating areas, but other than that, we were free to sit where we wanted. We sat next to the border gates in the hope to be able to follow the proceedings on the Pakistani side as well.
Unfortunately, we were there on a Tuesday and there were relatively few people attending compared to the crowds visiting at week-ends, specially on the Pakistani side. But even though the whole was quite impressive.
Since we had arrived early, we had a lot of time to observe what was going on around us and all the time while we waited there was loud music blasting through loudspeakers, with the same happening on the Pakistani side: a real cacophony, it was nearly impossible to speak (shout) to each other!
The Indians had a professional entertainer shouting some patriotic paroles in order to fire up the crowds and make them cheer (think Super Bowl or American wrestling fights to get the pitch) and groups of school children or women were regularly invading the central space to perform dances or parade to the sound of the music. It was all good fun.
Meanwhile on the other side, people were also arriving but the ambiance was subdued and not so bright: people were dressed more conservatively, in a not so colourful way and even if some men stepped as well in the central space to perform some dances to the sound of their own blasting music (the main attraction being a one-legged man waving a flag and swirling around), they did not exude the sense of gaiety one could feel on the Indian side.
Watching as we were, we could not help but find the Indian side much more attractive than the Pakistani side: difficult to beat the spectacle of the dancing Indian women, so colourful, feminine and exuberant. They were a big asset and made a huge difference. Then again, there were definitely less people on the Pakistani side, not a good attendance day for them, which surely impacted negatively our overall impression.
At last the ceremony began. A squad suddenly stormed out of their quarters and with much strength and virility paraded several times down to the gates separating the two countries and up again. Every time they reached the gates, they would face the other side and similar to strutting peacocks would display aggressive and intimidating behaviour. It was a show of moustached men, highly fuelled with testosterone, looking menacing, fierce, wild and flexing their muscles, stomping the ground as if defying their counterparts to dare crossing the gates. Among some impressive goose-stepping there were some very fine examples of marching worthy of Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks. Of course, exactly the same was being played on the other side.
Then the gates opened. After a final intimidating pose, a soldier of each country advanced in the small no man's land in between, shook hands with his “foe”, seized the rope of his home flag and started lowering it slowly to the sound of a bugle, completely synchronised with his counterpart. When finished, both folded their flags and retreated to their quarters with the gates swiftly closed behind them under the cheers of the crowds.
The whole performance was incredible: it was baffling to watch those two arch enemies, both nuclear powers, choreographing such a show of intimidation and to realise at the same time that this show could have only been staged with the two parties working closely together to make it so perfect.
Everything was over as soon as the last soldier left the arena and the crowds quickly made their way back to the parking area, happy and feeling good and proud about being Indian. No doubt the people on the other side felt the same about being Pakistani.
You might want to watch the small video we brought back from that day:
We also recommend those two videos we have selected on YouTube:
- The first one shows the ceremony from the Pakistani side and although it is 15 minutes long we recommend watching it as it is of very good quality.
- The second one commented by British actor Sanjeev Bhaskar is much shorter and filmed from the Indian side.
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$updated from: Blog.htxt Mon 04 Mar 2024 16:04:40 trvl2 (By Vero and Thomas Lauer)$