Goats, golden temples & gourmet treats...

So how was your weekend? Pretty average? I’m not too sure what an average weekend in Delhi or being a VSO volunteer actually consists of or, what I thought it would consist of when I was in London. If you had said to me, “your Friday night, which you will look forward to all week, is going to involve a BBQ goat” I don’t think I would have believed you...

But that’s where my weekend started and there was much excitement about the goat. So for all those who know me or have read a few blog entries you will know how important food is. Being a volunteer in India is great if you love curry, which I truly do, but I had perhaps not been prepared to eat a mainly vegetarian diet. Being veggie most of the week has not been too much of a problem but sometimes I get carnivorous cravings. When we first arrived in India we did some touristy things which involved a visit to Old Delhi and Karim’s restaurant. It’s a traditional Muslim restaurant which serves great food and mainly ‘non-veg’ dishes. Its piece de resistance is a BBQ goat (stuffed with biryani) that feeds twelve people quite happily. So as one of our fellow volunteers was leaving the fold we decided to go out for a meat feast to say goodbye.

And my, was the goat good. We feasted away and it was the perfect start to a weekend which revolved around more delicious food. So Saturday morning I was up early on a six hour train to Amritsar for a weekend away with a friend. Amritsar has been on my list of places to visit for a while. It has two main attractions the famous Sikh Golden Temple and the highly entertaining border ceremony where India and Pakistan have a very engaging face/off to much cheering and jingoism. We arrived just after lunch in time to get a quick plate of kulcha channa. This is a traditional Punjabi delicious dish of very flaky, spiced bread that is generously slathered in butter which you dip into chick pea curry. My, it was yummy. We then jumped in a taxi to go to the border ceremony an hour’s drive away. The road to the border was probably the smoothest I had ever been on in India. We worked out the reason for its lack of potholes was that it needed to be in tip-top condition to send in the tanks if things got a bit nasty with Pakistan. Green fields flanked the road and it was nice to see more green than rubbish/construction work for a change.

We arrived at the border to what looked to be the opening of a carnival. The route was thronged with popcorn sellers, groups of excited school children were milling with families and everyone was rushing to get a prime position in the stadium seating that lined the border gate. Due to our tourist status we got a good spot near the front. The atmosphere was incredible. It was like being at the final of X-Factor. Bollywood hits were blasted out, whilst school children ran up to the border gate with oversized Indian flags, then gangs of kids got up and danced school disco style as the compeer cheered on the crowd. Soldiers in their fancy hats (adorned with napkins and a lot of starch it seemed) had whistles to herd the crowd into some submission but were very jovial. What was particularly bizarre was that the same thing was being replicated on the other side of the gate in Pakistan in a slightly tamer form.

I felt sorry for the Pakistani side at first. There was less of a crowd, the women were separated from the men and sat high up in the stand. Their Bollywood tunes weren’t as tuneful. It was all a bit more sedate and there were fewer tourists too. Then the ceremonial pomp started. It involved a soldier from each side power walking up to the gate that had been opened, saluting and high kicking to much shouting. It was straight out of Monty Python but the crowd on both sides loved it and continued to cheer through the whole hour. The flags on both sides were lowered as the sunset and as we left it was like leaving the end of a rock concert. We got back to Amritsar tired and delighted to see our guesthouse had an excellent menu so we ordered cheese toasties and finger chips (that would be chips) and sat in bed watching particularly trashy American TV. With no access to TV and cheese being a luxury item it was my idea of a perfect Saturday night in.

The next day we got up early to visit the Golden Temple which was stunning. We wondered around watching young Sikh boys and old men have a dip and prayer in the waters surrounding the temple. I don’t think I’d ever seen more Indian men in their pants in my life. We sampled the free food cross legged in the dining room, the temple serves food to up to 80,000 meals a day and there was an impressive washing up chain gain. Then we of course tracked down a renowned kulcha channa road side stand for more eating. After a bit of shopping and a good piece of chocolate cake it was time to get back on the train and we headed home back to Delhi after a more than above average weekend.

Highlights - traffic lights – my pedestrian woes seem to be easing as thanks to the CWGs my six lane highway of death that I have to cross everyday now has traffic lights, jumping red lights are fairly normal in India but now I have an extra 0.007 seconds to cross the road, hello Mr Sunshine – the monsoon is finally over, blue skies and sunshine are here to stay so here’s to no more running in the rain. Work – with only a few months to go it’s really rewarding to see funding coming in and our marathon campaign pulling in lots of support.