The Ministry of Silly Walks

Who thought that it was a good idea to have a border closing ceremony, complete with bleachers and a soundtrack and everything?  I'll say whoever thought of it was GENIUS!

funny hat

We hopped on the public bus in Amritsar and drove for an hour through the countryside, stopping...pretty much in the middle of nowhere.  From there we took a rickshaw to the border.  We knew we were there by the masses of people crowded outside the customs gates waiting to get in for the fun.  On either side of the street were restaurants and snack bars - one showing a DVD of the ceremony - while kids milled among the crowd selling cheap Indian flags and visors.  One of the kids was devastated at the prospect of Travis not getting a flag and therefore team India being not as good as team Pakistan, so we got the flag.  It was fun, anyway. 

running man with Indian flags

Finally the gates opened, but it wasn't the mad rush we expected.  Yes people were hurrying, but it wasn't so bad.  We got complacent.  But it was too soon!  The mad rush was made at the bleachers.  At one point I thought a couple of young women who had fallen would never be able to get up.  More pushing and shoving you never did see in your entire life.  Little old ladies!  Tsk, tsk.  Travis and I escaped this crowd by simply walking around the corner.  There is a VIP section where foreigners can sit, but at the moment we were concentrating on just getting into the performance zone.  We made it up, and were trying to make it down to find out where the VIP section actually was when there was a huge crush (everyone wanted a good front row seat, you know) and we got stuck and yelled at.  I crossed over to the ladies' section and Travis got stuck with all the men.  It was way crowded.  And they do this every day. 

Travis got stuck with the Indian men

It started with spirit music and clapping.  One of the songs was really catchy, even though the only word I could understand was "India!", and our MC got everybody clapping and brought out two Indian flags that two lucky men got to brandish fiercely while running at the border.  Then there was the chanting.  This continued in true nationalist fashion until the very end of the ceremony.  When the MC stopped, someone else would pick it up so that everyone could keep going.  This would, in turn, cause the MC to start again. 

Finally, after much milling about by the soldiers in the massive and utterly spectacular hats, the ceremony began in earnest.  The sergeant (who was a Sikh and therefore had a special turban that made him look particularly dashing) made some loud, completely unintelligible sound that I guess was a word, because his six soldiers started doing crazy high kicks.  Then, quite suddenly after another command they started marching in a completely undignified fashion.  It wasn't just the high leg kicks.  It was the speed.  Who marches as fast as humans can walk?  And so they bounced down the road toward the gate.  The sergeant, who marched around in a silly fashion himself for no apparent reason, barked out orders to his men, who then bounced into their various stations so that the flags could be lowered.  At one point one of the soldiers got sent back, and I got a pretty awesome video of his very silly walk, which you can view right here.  These guys could take on cheerleaders.  Except they have a greater mastery of stomping and scowling than cheering.  But their high kicks!  You would not believe...  And who marches with the same foot twice?  Again, watch the video. 

Mr. Silly Walks

There was so much stomping and cheering and general craziness that I didn't even realize that the flags were coming down.  This is particularly important because 1) it signifies that the border is, in fact, closed, and 2) they are lowered at exactly the same rate so that no one gets their knickers in a knot because somebody's flag is higher than somebody else's.  Very diplomatic of them.  Once the flags were down, they were folded and the whole contingent of silly walkers bounced back to the security office and put the flag to bed until tomorrow. 

Now, you'll see in the pictures all the amazingosity that is the Indian uniform and crazy high kicking.  Let me just mention Pakistan.  We were a little far away from them, but I espied some things.  Mostly they did the same thing, but tried to do it better.  I saw a few more gratuitous high kicks.  And not only did the guards have a crazy fan in their long, black, uniforms - their turbans had tails.  When one of their soldiers marched off, he swung his arms so mightily that I thought his hat might fall off, the tail was being whipped about so violently.  But nothing so undignified would ever be allowed to happen.  So maybe when we feel comfortable with it we'll see the show from the other side...or at least the relatively safe and not out of control crowded VIP section. 

the Indian side

And then everyone milled back through the customs area and got on whatever ride they were taking back to Amritsar. 

It was so ridiculously cool!  Everyone should do it!

Erin 

the stars of the show

cool hats

the flags

lowering the flags

the silly walk

the crowd

in front of the crowds

Erin with team spirit

cool uniforms