Touring Punjab & Himachal Pradesh - I

Having lived in Bangalore for many years and seen most popular and offbeat tourist destinations in the south, a trip to North India is always special. I love the "energy" of the north, the rugged and stark landscapes, the food and the multiple eras of development and influences that are seen due to the zillions of invasions that this part of India has endured over centuries. The colder climes of the North are always a welcome novelty for Southerners and an inexpensive way of having kids experience snow and see that there is plenty of snow in India and not just in the European Alps or in the US!! (Its amazing how many people ask, "Oh you really saw snow in India?" After all, the 5000+ km Himalayan ranges are home to the heaviest volumes of snow anywhere and include places like Siachen which is the second coldest place on earth)

Travelling in Spring/April

All our previous trips to various parts of the Himalayas had been in the May to August time frame, essentially in mid to late summer. This time we decided to travel during early April or Spring (the oft forgotten season in India, in spite of Holi reminders!!) This worked very well with the North Indian kids still at school, most other people in the South still planning their holidays and therefore keeping the crowds away. Most importantly, the landscape of springtime with everything in full bloom, the carpet of flowers and huge swathes of snow still in the mountains helped experience the Himalayas true to its name. Travelling in the Punjab around Baisakhi with its landscape of ready to harvest wheat fields was a veritable, unplanned treat.

Punjab - Pride, Hard work and Community Service

The land of the five rivers (Beas and Sutlej - only two in Indian part of Punjab now) always fascinating from the outside for its hardworking, unconventional, entrepreneurial, brave people with a sense of community service, was all this and more. Our driver Sandeep Singh was an example of the pride and hard work of the Punjab. A professional to the core, always on time, courteous and hardworking, we saw in him all the virtues Punjab is known for. Proud of many aspects of the Punjab, he knew a lot about agriculture, having done it himself right since he was a kid. Such a change from the bored, lazy, unprofessional people that you see in the South and other parts of the country in the tourism trade.

Chandigarh, Amritsar & some parts of rural Punjab were all shining examples of urban communities living with pride and in far more order than other parts of the country. The Golden Temple at Amritsar - sparkling clean, local visitors engaged in helping out with various temple tasks and the humility with which "prasad" is served, all testimony to the virtues of this community. I have never seen a water body at any religious place in India being as sparkling clean as the Amrit Sarovar at Harmandir Sahib!! Jallianwallah Baug, that place which in many ways sparked off the outrage to get the British out of India was well worth the visit. Well kept place, well documented and maintained. This is one site every Indian should visit in their lifetime.

The festivities of the Wagah Border, now a popular destination, where 5000+ people gather every evening (10,000+ on weekends) to watch the BSF Jawans and the Pakistan Rangers mock the hostility between two armies. For more details, look out for my next article on Military Tourism in India. Attari railway station, the last station on the Indian side of the border with its Customs and Immigration sections, was reminiscent of the border stations (such as Calais) seen in France/UK along its trans European railway routes. Currently a couple of trains run from India to Pakistan through here, hopefully, some day Indians will be able to extend their trips to Amritsar up to Lahore and also get to see the main sites of Mohenjodaro and Harappa in Sind and the Pakistani Punjab.

Agriculture and Architecture in Punjab

Punjab, the granary of India. The bountiful crops, the canals and the Combine Harvesters. Approaching Baisakhi, fields were full with the golden hue of wheat. Covering every nook and cranny, right up to a few inches away from the rural homes, extending from the edge of the road right up to the horizon. The rural garages were full of tractors, tillers, combine harvesters and other agricultural vehicles not seen in other parts of India. Sandeep Singh stopped the car to show us a Combine Harvester, explained how it works and how quickly many bighas of land can be harvested. He explained how farmers grow Basmati rice with labour from Bihar in the rainy season (very little of which is consumed in Punjab, with most people eating rice only a few days in a year) and wheat in winter, with poplar plantations to get additional revenues. The newspapers in Amritsar and Chandigarh had lots of news around agriculture, procurement prices, water sharing procedures, water harvesting and other information.

Punjabi Architecture
Rural homes and urban buildings in Chandigarh, are mostly based on exposed brick architecture. Flat roofs, unplastered and unpainted houses and other buildings gave the architecture a natural and rustic look. If at all the buildings were painted, they were a yellow ochre, white or brown. The buildings seemed to "breathe" easily and blend into the surroundings. Whoever introduced plaster and gaudy paints to the building industry!! Most homes in rural areas were right in the "middle of individual farms", therefore well spread out and have not become high density, urban slums that most of our rural towns have become. I am sure, staying right there!! on the farm is another big reason for the huge agricultural productivity of Punjab.

Chandigarh

Le Corbusier's Chandigarh, the only modern, planned city in the country is thankfully still maintained as it was meant to be. Built around a plan that conceived of various types of public spaces from residential, shopping/business to gardens, its probably the most "efficient" city in India. The central stream (nallah) that flows through the city has been well used to create all the gardens around it. The Rock Garden and the Rose Garden are comparable to some of the best parks around London.
The Rock Garden (@ 20 acres), a labour of love by one man, Nek Chand who single handedly built the garden from waste material over a period of 12 years was the highlight of the city. Amazing use of waste material, great choice of the landscapes that have been created and especially the publicly usable spaces created in Phase III of the garden (mini stadium/amphi-theater) makes this one of the most unique gardens anywhere.
Chandigarh's Paris like tree lined avenues (4 lines of trees on each road), the icons that have been created for the city (such as signature manhole covers), the Chandigarh Tourism signboards about various sites and the orderly nature of everything in the city makes it a must see for being perhaps the only good example of modern India.

Punjabi Food

Food from the Punjab, so synonymous with North Indian food in all parts of India and indeed with Indian food itself in the UK and other parts of the world, is truly fascinating. Huge roadside Dhabas, anytime paranthas and lassi and that enigmatic dish - sarson da saag!! Amritsar, home to the kulcha (a stuffed parantha that is baked in the oven) and some old dhabas such as Bhrawan da Dhaba (120+ yrs old) alongwith food from Patiala, seems to epitomize Punjabi food. Haveli, a modern day air-conditioned dhaba chain from Jullunder gives tourists a glimpse of Punjabi food but did'nt seem to be very authentic, since we found the food to be Mumbai sweet!! Sarson da Saag, Makke Ki Roti and Gajar Halwa were not available anywhere this time of the year. Somebody needs to tell Punjabi/Shetty restaurants around the country that these dishes are indeed best cooked in the right season!!

Shopping for exotic groceries in Amritsar was quite an experience (we were actually taken to such a gourmet grocery place as part of the itinerary in Amritsar). Had never seen Asafoetida (Hing) in its correct (gooey paste) form before. For those who thought, the rock salt like substance sold all over the country as Hing is the right one, need to import some Hing from Amritsar. In fact the main difference between food in the Punjab and Punjabi food elsewhere seemed to be the quality of Hing in the food. Amritsar is the gateway to lots of original ingredients from Afghanistan, Kashmir and other parts of that region. Learnt about 7-8 grades of almonds and a live demonstration of high quality almonds from Afghanistan being compared with American Supermarket almonds that we were carrying with us. No prizes for guessing which one carried more "nutritional" content as seen by the amount of oil that could be squeezed out of a small piece of almond. Surprise, surprise, the size of a thali, roti, the amount of oil in the food was nowhere close to what Punjabi food is typically made out to be in other parts of the country. Typical lunch was just 4-5 items and a lunch thali looked more like a Gujju breakfast as compared to the 15+ item Gujju lunch.

Fascinating Punjab, with glimpses of Texas & Southall, anglicised names of dhabas, hotels, petrol stations and even universities (Lucky da Dhaba, Happy da Petrol Bunk, Lovely University!!) was true to its image of being the "manly" state of India. One vice of many men in other parts of India though - Smoking, seemed to be the least in India and added to the list of reality vs stereotype images of Punjab!

Wish you all a great time visiting Punjab!! Do write in with experiences that you may have had travelling to this part of India.