The Indian-Pakistani Border

Trip Start Jan 08, 2006
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Trip End Apr 07, 2006


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Flag of India  ,
Monday, February 6, 2006

First the shock of leaving Delhi by train on my way to northern Punjab--*hundreds* of people along the tracks having their morning movements, squatting there in rows, just feet from one another, almost all facing the train as we went by...the locomotive like a magazine to glance over while doing one's business. It was surreal. Again, there is NO privacy in India; certainly not for their underprivileged classes.

But these pictures: surely the best Changing of the Guard in the world, the show at the Indian/Pakistani border is a hoot! Tensions between the two countries have been pretty high ever since partition, but happily things have somewhat warmed, in part thanks to the two nations battling on the cricket pitch. (I was a huge disappointment to most male Indians, being a Canadian--the ONLY Commonwealth country not to be completely cricket-crazy.) But nationalism runs high at the daily Changing of the Guard here on the border, in western Punjab. It's become a family tourist destination: popcorn, flags, visors in national colours, buttons...the full range of patriotic schlock is for sale and the Indians buy it up...as do the Pakistanis over the fence, from the look of things. Check it out!
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