Behind the Sign

Quick blog from Amritsar, in the state of Punjab.

I'm staying at the Golden Temple, which is the holiest place in the Sikh religion. It's another one of those situations where you can just FEEL the holiness of the place. It's funny, though. When I wrote about Varanasi, I talked about the difference between what this felt like at St. Peter's Basilica, versus what it felt like there. The Golden Temple is kind of a hybrid of the two. It's incredibly serene and peaceful, and yet people are sort of free to be themselves and act like actual humans.

You see two very fierce looking Khalsa dudes in stark black turbans with huge daggers tucked into them taking their ceremonial dip in the holy pool, and then they call out to their friend on the side, "Hey, don't forget to use the flash!" as he snaps their picture. A very pious and upright family with parents showing their kids the right way to genuflect on the way into the temple, and then the kids skip off, bickering about who gets shotgun on the way home or whatever it is Punjabi kids bicker about, and nobody shushes them or calls out for them to Stop Horsing Around Right This Minute, You Two.

It made me think a lot about the role religion has played in my life, especially growing up. That sense of their being Proper Behavior in a church, and having to sit ramrod straight and silent for upwards of an hour even when I was 4 or 5 years old, listening to a service I couldn't possibly understand. And while I know my parents are reading this, and I don't want to bring up stupid drama, there was this very real sense that if we didn't behave ourselves, we'd get "Taken Behind The Sign", AKA spanked. Basically for being normal kids. It's one of the things that has really put me off the idea of raising my kids in Christianity.

There's no behind the sign at the Golden Temple.

Of course, I've heard plenty of stories about the more brutal aspects of being a Sikh kid from Ranbir. And I certainly don't think being Christian makes your parents assholes, while Sikh parents are shining examples of restraint and positive reinforcement. But people here seem normal and not straight-jacketed into some fakely pious posture, and I think that's very cool. That you're actually allowed to enjoy yourself and be human in a holy place is really refreshing.

~~~

Totally unrelated note, but it was so awesome I have to share: passing through Punjab on the way here yesterday, an all-female cricket team got on my train. They had the compartments adjoining mine, and some of them were ballsy and spoke English and decided to befriend me. I spent the whole rest of the journey crammed into their compartment drinking tea and comparing notes on everything from Bollywood to the position of women in India. The coolest slumber party I've ever attended, by far.

~~~

OK, so this is the real instance of me not knowing when I'll have time to blog again. I'm heading into the home stretch of the trip, where I'll spend a day or two in Agra to see the Taj Mahal and a few other Mughal historical sites, then another day or two in Delhi doing the same and also some last minute shopping and the like, before jetting back down to Bombay to come home. I think I should definitely get to blog in Delhi, but the whole thing is running at such a breakneck pace that I have no idea.