Visiting historical gurudwaras

11.28.08
Visiting historical gurudwaras

We spent the day visiting historical gurudwaras in Sultanpur Lodi and Goindwal. Guru Nanak (or Baba Nanak), the founder of the Sikh faith, spent a lot of time in Sultanpur Lodi. Baba Nanak was a philosopher born in 1469 in the part of Punjab which is in present day Pakistan. He travelled extensively as he thought about the meaning of life - his thoughts and ideas are recorded in the Adi Granth (Sikh holy book).

The gurudwaras in Sultanpur Lodi are beautiful. They are simple, mostly white marble with dark blue accents, and the writing and symbols also in dark blue.

Rainik Bazaar:
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Back in Jalandhar, we dropped mum off at a function she wants to attend. Then dad and I headed back to the bazaar to pick up a few things. We stopped by a bookstore in Model town so I could get some novels for our host's children. Then as we were heading out, dad and I popped into a bakery to get some sweets for our hosts and also my bhabhi and niece in Amritsar where we were headed next. As we turned the corner, we saw a clean chaat place, and dad gives me this look of `you probably want some chaat and badam (almond) milk, right?' Though I'm not hungry, I find myself saying, `Oh yes, that would be splendid'. Dad and I shared a chaat and delicious badam milk on the street corner.

We concluded the evening by heading back to Rainik Bazaar so I could get a couple more dupattas (scarf worn by women with salwaar kameez). Now here's something that will only happen in bazaars in India, the shop keeper offered us chai or coffee. Since we'd bought a lot of dupattas from this place last time and in the course of shopping we'd asked him about his life, how long he'd been here etc, and he'd asked us about ours, plus we'd spend a fair amount on the dupattas, so when we came back, he was quite hospitable. Most of it is just good marketing and business, but part of it is also that we've now built a personal relationship so next time we go to Jalandhar, we'll first go to his place. The culture of hospitality spills over into business as well. Wandering around in bazaars is a fun experience - it is a very local fun activity in the cities here.