Made in India

A couple of months ago, I had an opportunity to visit my native place, Amritsar. It was a godsend, considering that I had not been to Punjab for 10 years, yea right. I was really excited about going there and that brought back memories of school days when I used to go there.
Not much has changed there, such is the life of small towns. Shops close at 7 pm. People aren't seen at all on the streets. Life slows down to a crawl from the 5th gear, more so if you are from Mumbai.
Anyways, we usually travel by trains to the Punjab so the first thing was making a choice of which train to take. Since it was off season, tickets were available on all the 3 trains that go there from Mumbai. Frontier, Deluxe and Dadar-Amritsar. For brevity's sake, we always refer Golden Temple Mail by its older name of Frontier and the Paschim Express as Deluxe (never thought why is it called so).

Anyways tickets confirmed, the journey lasts for about 2 days and crisscrosses through various towns and cities. India hasn't changed much in the last 10 years I feel, except that people have more money and traffic jams are not limited to Mumbai only.

Now meeting up with cousins, uncles and aunties is a big big affair, more so when you are there for someone's wedding. It was the wedding of 2 of my cousins. And that is where the fun starts "Twadha munda kinna wadha ho gaya hai" i.e. Ooooh, your son is a big boy now!! What does he do? And my parents, faces beaming, reply "Sadha puttar engineer hai". And then, all hell breaks loose. Questions come like a rainstorm. Oh, he was very studious I see, He must be earning a lot. Where does he work? Did you get an alliance for him. Fortunately, my parents are not in a hurry to get me married off, so they just say he is young now, not old enough for marriage. What a close shave!!

Marriages are a very grand affair in Punjabis. Frankly speaking, I haven't seen marriages like those in Mumbai at all. Anyways they are fun, more so because there are many many Punjabi kudiyan to look at, which are hard to come by in Mumbai.
Since it was my cousin brother's marriage, he had all his friends invited and we were sitting together having a drink. Now I usually don't drink too much, just socially. But then, people have a nice misconception about you because you are from Mumbai. "Yaar tum bombaywale bahut kam peete ho, jaldi khatam karo toh ek aur peg daalun"..hmm..this does'nt help. Worst case? Unclejees who force you to have a glass. "Hun tu wadha ho gaya hai" i.e. now you are grown up!! Finally I took a glass and hung around with it for a good 3-4 hours just to avoid being handed another peg.
Speaking of cousins, I have a couple there who are in school. And for them, they just know my parents and me as "Bombay wale uncle, Bombay wale aunty and Bombaywale Veerji". Sounds like I'm a parsi. Kids there have only one question for me. Did you see Amitabh , Shahrukh Khan, Deepika etc etc. the list is endless. For some reason, they think that SRK, Big B shop in the same mall as I do. In jest, I told them yes I do because I meet them at the mall. Big mistake, they ran around the house yelling "Bombaywaale veerji knows SRK" till all his pals came running to me and asked me to tell stories. Fortunately I had one of my other bro coming to my rescue. We sat on his scooter and escaped to find a shop to get some cold drinks because it was very late in the night. 8: 30 pm...(no, its not a typo).
Tangent: Everyone in Punjab owns a scooter. Some own 1, some two or three. They all have 1 thing in common. Start the scooter, start the horn. As simple as that. And for brakes, drivers always use their feet, while simultaneously pressing the front brakes. Reminds me of the days when this was a cycle stunt. So, a note of caution. Be careful when driving a scooter there. Tangent ends.
Small towns have many transportation modes. Cycle rickshaws, auto rickshaws and for long distance "Bhoond" (Bhoond is actually the name of a flying insect in Punjabi). Haggling for fare is a common affair, and even though we speak good enough Punjabi, drivers always come to know that we are not from Amritsar and usually get an extra 5 rupees from us. Can't help it.
Also, another fact is that there is always one major road/bridge for each town. Approach from anywhere, you WILL get to that 1 place. For Amritsar, there is this 3 way bridge over the railway lines. Go to any place, you will pass that bridge. For intercity travel, its usually the famed G.T Road.
Now we have relatives out of Amritsar too and we hired a private taxi to visit them. This time, we had a driver who was drove an Indica but had all the attributes of a truck driver. Overtaking, fast driving is ingrained in everyone there. And the songs blaring from the CD player. Typical truck songs of local artists. Makes you wonder about the water of that place.
Anyways, there were many places we visited and it was fun.
But after some days, you start missing your life. 5th gear to a crawl all the time is not fun all the time, but yes, once in a while I do enjoy it. Trip nearing its end, I had to return to back. Hopefully , it won't be a 10 year gap to the next trip.