After the temple we drove another hour to the India/Pakistan border located near Attari. This was also quite an amazing experience. We stopped along the way near Pathankot to grab a bite to eat from a local mom and pop restaurant. Unfortunately, I had no appetite so I just had some nan and water. My friends got to order some pretty yummy food however. We were trying hard to stay hydrated, as the sun was hot and debilitating. When we arrived to the border, our driver had to park in a designated area and we had to walk the rest of the way, about a mile down to the border checkpoint. We had to leave our purses and belongings in the car, and had to take the covers of our phones to bring them in. There was a separate line for foreigners and our local friend Pankaj, was not able to enter with us.
Women and men had separate security lines and it didn't take long to walk through, even though there were so many people there. Once we got through we met up with our male friends and grabbed seats near the top of the stone bleachers. There were people from all over the world there, we met people from Spain, Thailand, China, Germany and the US. It was so hot and we had to wait for two hours before the sun would set, which commences the ceremony. Its surreal to sit in such a place knowing that at any moment either government can declare war. The roof near us started to collapse in some areas, so we ended up moving to a lower seat. The ceremony began and it started with the female officers marching and kicking high in a choreographed performance. Then the men followed. Each kick was higher and more animated. The Pakistani soldiers followed suit, in their own coordinated march. They carried assault weapons and managed to do this while holding guard. At each side of the border, there were two soldiers who never cracked a smile and had ear buds and sunglasses on, as to not be distracted by the acrobatics and keep track in case something went down. It was exhilarating, yet a bit scary. The ceremony lasted about an hour and at the end, each side pull down their flag and folded it ceremoniously and carried it to each side of the gates. Then a respective member of the guard from each side looked at each other, smiled and shook hands and then forcefully closed the gates to each country. This had to be the most interesting part for me. This ceremony occurs every day, this is their daily work life for each of these soldiers. I imagine they know each other, such as, "that's Kamil, he is 44 years old, he has two kids and a wife named Amrita" I don't know lol I imagine this dialogue, yet each side is not fond of each other and at anytime can declare war, yet they see each other every day and go through this ceremony every day. War is silly, its silly to think we have such turmoil in the world, knowing that we are all truly the same... we all bleed red, don't we?
Other than this excursion, its been a pretty hectic week of studies and preparing for our anatomy, pranayama and philosophy exams. I have my yoga class sequence down already and I am excited to teach it on Thursday. One more week to go in India, then headed home. Excited to see my family, friends and my dogs. I miss them terribly!
~Namaste
