Pritpal...for a crazy ride through Amritsar city...for that hilarious take on the typical Punju guy...for 'ande ka burji' n 'layer wali rotis'...for hot popcorn on a cold winter evening...for 'patialas' made to order at 7 in the morning....for 'hahn ji' in tht adoreable way tht only Punjabis have :)...for 'aloo kulchas' n 'meetha paan'...n for liking my hair when it ws at it's worst...trust me ...tht made all th difference..;)
Aunty...for sizzling aloo parathas n creamy homemade 'makhan'...for putting up wth fact that I dismantled her towel hanger...;)...for tht lovely long chat sitting wrapped up in 'razais'...for her stories about kharagpur...for 'buddhe ko goli maaro'..;)...for rasgullas n noodles wth manchurian....for worrying abt us n fussing over us the way only mothers do...
The Indian railways...for upper berths...for the guy wth the 4 ft long gun...for invaluable lessons in zoology ranging from the insect family to the rodent family to the 'weird-guys-who-can't-stop-staring-n-should-be-shot-by-aforesaid-guy-with-gun' family...;)...for masala chai...for th daily morning trek from S3 to S1 in search of water...for Rajasthan by moonlight...
All those amazing people we met along the way....the family from Gwalior who jumped into the wrong train....Manjit Singh at the Golden temple who shepherded us through the rituals of the community kitchen n honoured me wth a place in his phone book right next to Woo Sung Hoo from Korea..;)...Nimo at Rajasansi village who braved her 'not-so-sober' husband to give us the grand tour...the Sikh guy on the bus from Anandpur sahib who translated Rs 47 into English for me...the Punjabi bookshop guy for the 50% student's discount...Prof Manjit Singh for a different perspective on Sikh architecture....Gurgirat n Suchitra for helping me plow thru theses at th Guru Nank Dev University...the cute BSF guard who posed for pics at the Wagah border..the auto wallah who ws fascinated with Kerala cuisine n finally figured out what a crab was from all our ludicrous attempts at describing it ("Bhaisaab it has 8 legs...Bhaisaab woh 'Jhinge' ke tare hoti hai...!!") ...
Here's to Punjab and the crazy 7 days we spent there...:) !!!
