Our first half of the day, our program
is at a medical college in Ludhiana. By now, all the weather shift and
extensive travel coupled with continuous programs is beginning to take its toll
on us and a bunch of are coughing a lot while the others have random aches and
pains. We’re trundling along and Rakesh says, “Chalo chalo jaldi karo!!”
“Thak
gaye, Rakesh Bhaiya..”
“Arre
baap re.. Sab kamzor ho gaye ho.. (Pause to think)Hum medical college ja rahe
hain na, after the program, tum sab ko doctor ko dikha denge. Chalo!”
Unfortunately, I was very out of it and
coudn’t attend the sessions that happened in the Medical College or in the
school in Paghwara.. But I heard they were awesome! (And we never did get that
check up, by the way)
The Jalandhar program was interesting as
it was where Ravi spoke in Punjabi for the first time. Hehe.. It was thoroughly
amusing. He began his speech with it. Check out the small video by clicking - here.
At this same program there was a qawali
and speeches and all, but the sweetest part was that they honoured our team
with these beautiful shawls. All the guys got cream ones and all the girls got
differently coloured ones with such brilliant designs.. And they were really
warm too! I know we’re gonna be using these for the rest of the trip..
At night, Fr. Peter arranged to take us
all to ‘Haveli’ which is an experience in itself. They told us that it was what
Punjab was like in the old days, before technology took over. It was
constructed to look like a typical village with mannequins and in some places,
there were actual people as part of the scene. We even got to taste some pop
corn, freshly made, from one of the houses where a lady was making and handing
it out. In the centre, there was a live play type thing going on which was
showing a piece of life in the village. After wandering around in this new
‘world’ for a while, we all went in for dinner to the restaurant in the
premises.
The tables were really low and so was
the lighting which gave it a homely kind feel, in pure Punjabi style. There was
no menu, everyone would be served a thali with like 4 or 5 sabzis and a couple of different grain rotis and dal and lassi and dahi and salad.
But the really unique thing was that the thali
and the katoris and the lassi glass
were all pure brass and sooooooo heavy!! It was kept that way in the effort to
have everything authentic. Rakesh joked that you cant steal it if you wanted
to, coz even if you hid it in your bag or something, its weight would become
your undoing. What was amazing was that the people serving were carrying like
10-12 thalis and glasses and it was
normal to them. But then again, they’re probably used to it by now. They start
at one end, move around in a circle and turn by turn serve the dahi, sabzis, rotis, dal and lassi.
The food’s taste is rich, each flavour
coming in through the senses, and all distinct from one another. At one point
Fr. Peter (who is sitting at one end) gets offered a second helping of roti and tells the server to offer it to
other people first. It gets passed through everybody one by one, and eventually
ends up back at Father. Everybody was laughing. Hehe..
And the servers were funny too! They
kept bringing seconds and they would wave it front of every person and say “Yes
Ji?” and give it to you based on your response, then move on. So you heard a
lot of
“Yes Ji?” “No thank you”
“Yes Ji?” “No thank you”
“Yes Ji?” “No thank you”
“Yes Ji?” “No thank you”
“Yes Ji?” “No thank you”
“Yes Ji?” “NO JI!!”
Hehe..
Overall, it was a new and fun
experience, and a little relaxed one at that too. We’re beginning to treasure
all the non-work times a little more..
On the way back to our accommodation, we
pass by this KFC outlet which is on our left and I remember this being
different because it was a drive thru. Directly opposite that, to our right was
a flyover under construction. In between these two, I’m thinking, on one side
you’ve got something so totally developed, a corporate giant, and on the other
side something almost at the other extreme, that’s still in the process. It was
an interesting feeling sandwiched there in the middle of these two, but I
realized that this is exactly what our country is about. We’ve got everything. And it’s the same and it’s
different and it’s all mixed together and it co-exists and grows together. Without
conflict.
Only in India.
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