Mercurochrome

Salman Rushdie titled the chapter in Midnight's Children dedicated to the British Massacre at Jalianwalah Bagh "Mercurochrome." The title is an allusion to the color both of the blood spilled when General Dyer opened fire on a group of non-violent Sikh protesters celebrating the Sikh New year and to the color of the solution used by doctors to heal some of the wounds. It is one of the most powerful images in the novel, which I recommend to all.

I was at Jalianwalah Bagh this past weekend. Nowadays, the land is the site of these beautiful gardens. You would never imagine them to be the site of such misfortune if it weren't for the bullet holes on some of the walls and the well that reminds visitors of the many who drowned trying to escape the shooting by diving in. What I most remember about the visit,though, were none of these remainders but the little alleyway that serves as the only entrance to the gardens. When General Dyer ordered his men to fire, the thousands of people in the garden could only escape through this tight alleyway.

Just 400 meters of this site is the Golden temple, the most holy site for Sikhs. The Harimandir, the temple itself, containes over 100 kilograms of gold and is surrounded by a commanding pool of holy water as well as a complex of countless buildings built in marble. The temple is remarkable. It is beautiful, sure, but the way it functions and the services it provides to the surrounding community are impressive. The Sikh religion puts a lot of emphasis on service, and as a result a large part of religious practice is serving others.

What this means is that surrounding the temple are a free kitchen, free lodgings, a free school and a free hospital. The temple itself is polished from ceiling to floor every night.Even the children help out. What's more, free food is available twenty four hours at the Langar, the temple's kitchen were we had a dinner of dah, chapatis and chai. On weekends, when the temple is busiest, the Langar feeds over 100,000 people. All of this, completely for free. The Guru Ram Das Niwas, where our group stayed, is one of two complexes the Sikh providing free housing to all who want or need it. In our case, we stayed in a wing reserved for foreigners where we benefited from a guard outside our door. Though the accommodations are beyond basic, it was so striking how organically the temple works; it's an arrangement that has been maintained for hundreds of years. However, what is most striking is that within the Sikh compounds no divisions of caste are tolerated; the rich man must sit next to the homeless in the Langar and vice versa. In a country where caste remains so important, staying in this small sanctuary for a couple of days was such an interesting experience

The final thing we saw on our trip to Amritsar this last weekend, were the border closing ceremonies between India and Pakistan. These are supposed to be incredible because Indians and Pakistanis shake hands, but personally I found the competitive nature of the whole affair a little overwhelming. On the Indian side people lined up to run back and forth while holding the Indian flag, and people kept shouting "India Live forever" at the top of their lungs. Turns out one of my high school teachers, Jeremy Jimenez, witnessed the processions in the Pakistani side. Since we couldn't see into Pakistan from the bleachers on the Indian side, it would be interesting to compare what we saw.

Anyways, now we're back in Sarah college, with a lot of Tibetan to memorize and map assignments and memorization tests, but only for a very short time: next weekend we're going to Bir, a Tibetan exile settlement with mainly refugees from East Tibet.