Tuesday, 31st Jan.
"Arrey kaisi sardaarni hai! Abhi tak you haven't seen the Khalsa museum??" - Anando Sir.
We had the next day off from college. And sir was ready to give us his thursday class off too. Tara had contacts to get us free stay at a guesthouse, free entry (and VIP treatment) at the museum, AND a driver to drive us around town. What more had we to ask for? ;)
The excitement began!
Raghav, Bhanu, Tara, Angelica and I could hardly contain our excitement all day long, and I kept getting text messages on my phone asking if the plan was still on! haha!
The 10:30pm Haryana Roadways bus turned out to be a much better experience than expected and we were at Anandpur Sahib in a mere 6 hours.
The city of Anandpur Sahib was founded by the Sikhs' 9th guru, Guru Teg Bahadur in 1665.
It is a quaint little old place with semi-modern houses dotting the picturesque valley the city is in. Almost untouched by the hustle-bustle of cities or the racket of too many tourists, the unhurried contented life that its citizens enjoy is practically infectious. For us delhi people, it was a treat just to be able to watch the pretty blue night sky dotted with innumerable stars!
Shinde uncle picked us up in his Omni van from the bus terminal and took us to our lodgings, the "Scholar's Guest House", tucked away deep amidst the wilderness, a good way off from the main city. Some sleep and freshening-up later, the breakfast of parathas at the Kissan Haveli was a godsent for us hungry souls. oh yeah! ;)
Dharmender, our museum 'contact' helped us through security and was an epitome of patience as he remained with us all through, while we ooh-ed and aah-ed at the mural illustrations, the installations, the applique panels, the lighting, the colours....
Angelica and I just would not stop looking at the life-in-punjab mural, each building and animal panel juxtaposed so brilliantly as to make it even better than a 3d! (And we thought the Form & Space at college wasn't a biggie. couldn't be more wrong!) But that wasn't it. The awesome panels depicting Guru Nanak's four udasis in applique work totally blew us away, as did the depiction of his enlightenment after 3 days in water. TOO bad we couldn't take pictures. But Google Images zindabad! :P
After disappearing into a river and meditating in the water for three days, Guru Nanak emerged having had a powerful vision of the nature of reality, Divinity and human existence. He recorded that vision in a song - known as Japji Sahib - the Song of the Soul. With Japji Sahib, humanity has a rare picture of what a Master experienced at the moment of his enlightenment described in his own words.
"Arrey kaisi sardaarni hai! Abhi tak you haven't seen the Khalsa museum??" - Anando Sir.
We had the next day off from college. And sir was ready to give us his thursday class off too. Tara had contacts to get us free stay at a guesthouse, free entry (and VIP treatment) at the museum, AND a driver to drive us around town. What more had we to ask for? ;)
The excitement began!
Raghav, Bhanu, Tara, Angelica and I could hardly contain our excitement all day long, and I kept getting text messages on my phone asking if the plan was still on! haha!
The 10:30pm Haryana Roadways bus turned out to be a much better experience than expected and we were at Anandpur Sahib in a mere 6 hours.
The city of Anandpur Sahib was founded by the Sikhs' 9th guru, Guru Teg Bahadur in 1665.
It is a quaint little old place with semi-modern houses dotting the picturesque valley the city is in. Almost untouched by the hustle-bustle of cities or the racket of too many tourists, the unhurried contented life that its citizens enjoy is practically infectious. For us delhi people, it was a treat just to be able to watch the pretty blue night sky dotted with innumerable stars!
Shinde uncle picked us up in his Omni van from the bus terminal and took us to our lodgings, the "Scholar's Guest House", tucked away deep amidst the wilderness, a good way off from the main city. Some sleep and freshening-up later, the breakfast of parathas at the Kissan Haveli was a godsent for us hungry souls. oh yeah! ;)
Dharmender, our museum 'contact' helped us through security and was an epitome of patience as he remained with us all through, while we ooh-ed and aah-ed at the mural illustrations, the installations, the applique panels, the lighting, the colours....
Angelica and I just would not stop looking at the life-in-punjab mural, each building and animal panel juxtaposed so brilliantly as to make it even better than a 3d! (And we thought the Form & Space at college wasn't a biggie. couldn't be more wrong!) But that wasn't it. The awesome panels depicting Guru Nanak's four udasis in applique work totally blew us away, as did the depiction of his enlightenment after 3 days in water. TOO bad we couldn't take pictures. But Google Images zindabad! :P
After disappearing into a river and meditating in the water for three days, Guru Nanak emerged having had a powerful vision of the nature of reality, Divinity and human existence. He recorded that vision in a song - known as Japji Sahib - the Song of the Soul. With Japji Sahib, humanity has a rare picture of what a Master experienced at the moment of his enlightenment described in his own words.
Above: The BRILLIANT depiction of Guru Nanak's enlightenment.
The representation of Bhai Lakhi Shah Vanjara setting his house on fire to cremate Guru Teg Bahadur's body was another first-rate design concept. This story of the Guru's martyrdom to save the Hindu religion played on a screen alongwith the audio inside a tent-like structure made of sheet metal. The pattern of different metal sheet pieces joined together for the complete surface resembled flames of a fire. Epiccc!
I can go on and on raving about each exhibit....loved every inch of it so much! If you haven't been yet, go NOW. ASAP! I can provide all the travelling details. :P
Following a visit to the Bhakra Dam, an AWESOME boat ride in the Gobind Sagar lake, visit to the gurudwara and a satisfying dinner at Pehalwan da Dhaba, we were back 'home' at about 8:15pm.
The plan was to leave early next morning by train. So it was best not to go to sleep at all, after the exhausting day. Playing poker, pyramid (half an OldMonk kept the others company) and UNO kept us awake till about 1:30am till everyone crashed on the sofas, too sleepy and tired to go back to the rooms (we had brought blankets to keep us warm earlier).
Hardly three hours later we were up, cleaning up the place n putting everything back in order. I think we did a fairly good job on that. Shinde uncle dropped us at the Anandpur Sahib railway station and the journey back home ended with the highly bothersome metro ride! :-/ But, what a good trip it had been!
Well. And THAT was....yesterday morning!!
Already feels like an eternity since we came back home...such an eventful couple of days it has been! But i think this was my life's best decision. Ever!
:)
