With love, from Punjab
As we booked our tickets to attend a family wedding in Amritsar, hubby decided to explore his Punjabi roots. After living in Bangalore for 50 odd years, he felt he was losing his “punjabiness”, hence the need to stock up! That’s how the much talked about trip to Patiala materialised.
Wait for the expected and the Punjabis won’t let you down! Whether it’s the massive tiffin in the train - with pickle, raw onions, paranthas, veggies, sweets and a small swig from an hip flask to wash it all down; the heavy weight aunty, attired in a tight salwar refusing to budge from someone else’s seat because she was there first and not to forget the elderly gentleman complaining loudly about the cold AC on the Railway helpline (to my surprise, someone actually responded n addressed his issue)! For the full Punju Monty, a train journey is a must!
For the touristy circuit, a visit to Amritsar covers it all. Though we ticked all the boxes there [Golden Temple, Kesar Dhaba where they serve more ghee than dal, Wagah border where the level of patriotism makes you feel you can fight the next battle single-handed😊], the real Punjab is more than all this.
Next stop, a visit with my Jalandhar branch where my uncle is an aberration, a stain on the Punjabi name: his un-punju ways, old world charm and gentle talk almost made one wonder if we were in a polite western society!! Thankfully, our cursing driver reminded us where we were as he happily jumped a red signal on our way to Nabha.
The green fields and rice mills of rural Nabha - the clean pure air almost made our lungs hurt while the slow paced, laid back life proved a challenge to the frenetic city dwellers! With not a theatre/ restaurant in sight, it made one almost envious of how the other half lived!
Finally, we hit Patiala! No one in the family could believe that we opted to spend a rocking weekend here, and not because we had a wedding/ business meeting/ etc. Once a princely state and now a small bustling town with broad avenues, cluttered with dhabas and bazaars selling every traditional item. It has a beautiful fort, royal palace, famous Kali Temple, Gurudwara…with a few breweries and malls thrown into the mix. Not to forget the innumerable hoardings promising the eager youngsters clear TOEFL/ IELTS in their attempt to migrate.
You can walk to most places or take any of the umpteen e rickshaws at govt-fixed rates. When asked about her choice of profession, a female rickshaw driver (one of 5 in Patiala) put it very succinctly, “each of us has to fight our own battle in our own way”!!
Waited on hand and foot in our hotel by a “Happy Singh” – the epitome of the happy-go-lucky locals and a veritable must in every Punjabi family, both the name and the attitude. We could have asked for the moon and he would have happily delivered!
Exiting from Punjab via the well-planned out Chandigarh, one can’t help note the sameness and the incongruity that exists side by side in Punjab: coarse swear words politely interspersed in conversation; universal pride in Punjabi heritage v/s the desire to emigrate abroad; large crowds at breweries & the local kulfi seller… its truly the enigmatic, large heart of India.
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