Rubbing Elbows

Since our last post, Kathy and I have made a loop from Delhi up to Amritsar and back. It is outside of Amritsar, in Betala, that Mr. Sekhri has his college.

Mr. Sekhri was an outstanding host. When he couldn't take care of us himself, he had his drivers taking us around. His mother, probably in her 70s, was also very gracious. She kept us very well fed. :-) (Tim: Kathy will do a posting all about food.) Here is a short synopsis of our trip North.

We took the express train, about 6 hours in each direction. It again arrived late in the evening, but again, Mr Sekhri had a driver meet us and deliver us to our hotel.

Our first day in Amritsar was dedicated to site seeing. We visited the Golden Temple, one of the most holy shrines of the Sikh religion. It is set in the middle of a lake, with only one path out to it. It really is completely covered with gold, thanks to the Maharaja Singh in the early 19h century. You will again have to wait until I find a computer with a USB port to upload pictures.

We also visited Jallianwala Bagh, the site where the British opened fire on thousands of unarmed, peacefully demonstrating Indians. Hundreds were killed. It is now a Peace Park.

In the evening, we visitied the India/Pakistan border, for the flag lowering ceremony. Typically, large crowds sit on both sides of the border and try to out yell each other in chants for their own country. Because it is Ramadan, the muslim month of fasting, very few people were on the Pakistani side. It was still a lot of fun.

The next day, I think we are talking Sept 27 was one of those days I am still processing. Mr. Sekhri is very involved in Indian politics. He said he would take us to a political event. That was about all we really knew about it. The event was the dedication of a new coin to freedom fighter Bhagat Singh at his ancestral village Khatkar Kalan. He had fought the British and is considered a martyr.

We were still staying in the hotel, so Mr. Sekhri's driver picked us up and we met Mr. Sekhri on the road. We are now a convoy of two, with us and Mr. Sekhri in one car and his driver and a security guard following in the other. He told us that we would be picking up a few other people on the road. The first was the head of Mr. Sekhri's party for the Punjab state. The second was a senator for the state. (For you Wisconsinites, we are now riding with the likes of Jim Doyle and Russ Feingold in our car.) Our convoy has grown to 4-6 vehicles, at least one of them a jeep full of uniformed security types carrying submachine guns. We have sirens going and everybody getting out of our way.

We pull off the road into a field that looks like a grass landing strip. Mr. Sekhi suggested we wait in the car, so we did. It was 90 + degrees inside and outside, so we opened the doors to let in some breeze. Soon afterward, a security guard closed the doors and about 30 seconds later a helicopter lands so close in front of us that the entire car is shaking from the whir of the blades. Out come some dignitaries from Delhi, including the Minister of Tourism.

The next part, the official part, was kind of boring for us. We went to an outdoor auditorium and listened to a couple of hours of speeches in Hindi, none of which we understood. The coin was revealed and everyone clapped.

We spent the next few nights at Mr. Sekhri's home in Betala. The 28th we did virtually nothing. It was the weekend and Mr. Sekhri was tired from the day before.

The 29th we had a function at the school, VMS Institutes. The function turned out to be a 4.5 hour talent show in our honor. It is an annual event, but they scheduled it to overlap with our presence and had a big sign on stage, saying "Welcome Prof. Stuart Hansen, Dean of Computer Science, University of Wisconsin". I was pleased with the promotion. :-) The talent show was very impressive. Students sang and danced in both traditional and modern styles. Again, we will upload pictures in the near future.

That evening, I had an outstanding dinner with Mr. Sekhri and a friend of his, Mr. Rakesh Goel. Kathy begged off, as she was very tired. I also tried Indian wine, which is very tasty and does contain alcohol.

So know we are off to the South. Last January, I had sent a card to Satya Kumar in Hyderabad, a friend from grad school. I never heard back, although the way SPAM is, I may have accidently deleted an email from him. Anyway, last week, he tracked down another friend from grad school, Dinesh, got my cell phone number and gave me a call. It was like talking with a close friend, even though we haven't seen each other in 20 years. So we are hopping a train today for Hyderabad. If we find a better computer, I may post pictures before we go.