Our visit to the holy place was nothing short of a dream that finally came true. In the bucket list for eternity, this is now truly ‘Done’.
Truly, a divine experience! Merely just setting our foot in the largest Gurudwara was indeed a cherished moment, something which cannot be described in simple words. After a long queue and witnessing the aura that surrounds this place, we placed our prayers in the ‘Akaal Takht’ before proceeding to the ‘Langar Seva’.
And that is where, everything fell apart. One of the most disappointing aspects of this otherwise totally, serene and magical place was unfortunately, this. And to mention, this is not my first visit to a Gurudwara and its ‘Langar Seva’. Over the years, I have visited Gurudwaras in Calcutta, London, Peterborough and more recently, in Edinburgh and Glasgow. We were blown away by their hospitality, their attitude of service mindedness and the sweetness of their food, people and culture. So obviously, our expectations were sky high.
Thud and Begging! That was precisely how I felt when we sat for Langar. Throwing the plates with disdain, rice hardly cooked, the dal was, not sure what it was, and supposedly ‘kheer’ was just hot water with pinches of sugar. Forget divine, beggars might get better food anywhere these days. I was shocked beyond words. Not that we went all the way to ‘The Golden Temple’ for the food but over the years, our expectations were built on what we have heard from other, dependable sources (who visited the temple earlier). But this was not what I had signed up for.
So whatever we heard was obviously in the past, done and dusted. Commercialisation at its worst, at the expense of rich culture and legacy. Money and arrogance have taken over compassion and kindness. Indeed, fall from glory!
Nevertheless, I do have fond takeaways from Amritsar and Punjab, in general. But, this feeling of anguish and disappointment will linger for a long time to come. And in a way, took the sheen off an otherwise wonderful, week long hip-hop where we managed to capture some iconic landmarks of our country.
@Lifeoholic 