4000 km long march was scheduled to begin from Takht Sri Hazoor Sahib at Nanded, Maharashtra, to Fatehgarh Sahib on March 30, kickstarting the six-week-long tercentenary celebrations to mark the Sirhind victory of Banda Bahadur. The Hazoor Sahib-Fatehgarh Sahib sojourn was going to culminate at Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib on May 12. This was the first of its kind march to be organised by the SGPC in the memory of Banda Bahadur. But, there has been so much zeal in people, that the march got delayed and on 12th it only reached Chandigarh. So on 12th May at around 9 PM, the march reached Chandigarh and me and Rane were there to witness the event. I cant say for Rane, but for me it was a bittersweet feeling in the end.
Kar sewa tents were everywhere on the route.
Sangat was gathered in huge amounts for Darshan.
The whole city was awaiting for the march to arrive and everyone was excited. Since morning sikh followers filled the streets and there were groups here and there. This was a jubilant feeling to see so much faith and so much passion. 12th May was the day when i saw the biggest number of saffron turbans filling the city roads. Indeed, since ’84 this has to be the first experience when i saw Sikh youth wearing turbans and flaunting them with pride. Young blood was raging that day as Sikh boys roamed the city on Bullets and open jeeps, i had no clue that such an event would happen in chandigarh, hence i wasnt carrying my camera and missed some really good would-be historical photographs during the day.
Finally the March arrived around 9 o’clock
Sangat didnt miss a single moment to have darshan, Palki Rath was still to come.
The march was to go through the “Sukhna Path”, the road connecting sectors 6, 26, 27, 30, 32, 46 and 49. As the evening approached me and Rane geared up and started our journey to 32 Sector roundabout. What we thought would take us 10 minutes, took us around 30 minutes of road rash driving. The reason being over zealous youth. Now there were hundreds of them driving here and there on open jeeps and Bullets and shouting “jaikare”. The traffic lights were not being followed and no one was wearing helmets and traffic police was feeling obliged stoppig all the traffic for them. For once i thought that the march was already here, but no, march was still at sector 27 and we were stuck in traffic at sector 49. These young boys were simply driving to and fro from one location to the other and were playing loud music in the name of religion. Decks were playing high and swords were being flashed.. it was hard to believe that we were in Chandigarh. The traffic was tight but this was just the beginning.
Palki Sahib arrived and suddenly everyone was on the move to have proper darshan.
Sangat moved with the Palki Sahib and the march moved at a slow pace..
Finally we reached sector 32 roundabout. This is the same place where our PP member Dalli gave his party at Nukkad Dhaba. But on 12th, that roundabout was full of people. As the time approached, my enthusiasm started to melt down when i saw more and more young guns riding here and there on Bullets, going across footpaths, markets and what not. There were jeeps playing Miss Pooja’s songs and young boys singing it aloud.. surely drunk to their noses as they screamed and jeered and the public forgave them for the discrepancies as today was the day of Banda Bahadur’s march arrival in Chandigarh. The whole roundabout was jammed with traffic, almost 1 km long traffic jam was waiting for the march to pass.
On the right side of round about there was 1km long traffic jam.
Finally the March arrived and people flooded in, Kar Sewa was in full action, water and tea was being distributed, as it always happens in Punjab, “pakode” were being distributed to the whole traffic jam. While i admire the faith and ideology behind such an action, i dont understand why its always forced on everyone. Some commuters were simply enraged due to the jam and were refusing to take “pakode”, the people who were distributing cursed them for refusing… and i have seen it a number of times in the past. Thats heart breaking. Is this what faith accounts for? Well we did darshan from a distance as it was impossible to reach the “Palki Rath”. Once agin i had made the mistake of not carrying the camera as i wasnt expecting any spectacle and thought of it as a private visit. Anyway once the march pased, the traffic started to clear, we went to Nukkad dhaba and had our dinner there as was it was quite late already.
When we finished our dinner and started our journey back, another folly was awaiting us… the roundabout, now deserted was full of litter, plastic cups, pakoda remains and lot of cows. Obviously keeping the city clean doesnt come under our faith. We only go so far to provide kar sewa, not to clear its aftermath. I just had to take these images to show the clutter at the roads. These images can only show so much, in real the roads looked like a garbage truck passed with an open “daala”. As we moved further we met with the march once again as by now it had reached Sector 46. Once again a lot of commotion was awaiting us, huge jam here as well, vehicles moving on the wrong side of roandabout and traffic in the wrong lane. I personally had to ride on footpath for 1 km to go across the march and bypass it from Sector 49. As we approached our sectors’ lights’ ie Victoria Enclave lights, we found sikh youth controlling traffic as they were fighting a war. Lighst were working fine, but they were instructing cars to follow their directions here and there. We had to struggle to get on our road, as he kept telling us to go the other way. I clicked some more images as i would never be able to see so much commotion again on my sector’s lights.
Kar sewa tents were serving water, tea and Pakode. The Van in the image was carrying “Shastar”
And this was about 40 minutes after the March had passed. This is the same tent from above picture.
The same round about. This image is taken from the same angle from where the 2nd, 3rd and 4th photographs were taken.
The road was also full of litter, plastic cups and Pakodas.
We didnt wait for the march to arrive and came back home. The whole experience left a bittersweet taste in my mouth. I adore the faith and passion that we have, but at what cost? Such huge marches and parades are organised, but no one thinks of the damage they do, the traffic jams they cause, the wastage of so much petrol and law breaking. In short, no one takes the responsibility of managing the aftermath. Neither people nor the govt. We did our part though, we didnt let the pakodas go to waste as we ate them the next day when we were hungry. At least we didnt throw them on the road. So much wastage. So much litter and then hoards of cows who were chasing the march wherever it went as this was their good time as well. So much litter to eat.
Another Traffic Jam at Sector 46. Notice that this image is clicked from the sidepath where i had to ride for 1km to pass the traffic on my bike.
The same jam, a little ahead. This was where we received our Pakodas.
The 46 roundabout Jam.Notice that we were pushed into the wrong lane..
This wasnt an isolated event, im sure this is happening everywhere this march is going. If you want to know what i was feeling, wait for the march to pass and look around yourself. In fact, this is not the first time, this always happens on any Nagar Kirtan, Ram Naumi or any religious march regardless of any religion. I know that this article might get a lot of heat on me, but im not questioning the March. I myself went there for darshan, but how can anyone excuse the breaking of law and non-responsible behavior of people to the litter? Traffic jams and inconvenience caused by such events. This can be blamed on administration that they didn’t organize it properly, but what about youth roaming the streets and playing music and waving swords? Im sure if anyone asked them to stop it, they would have broken their legs and riot would have been caused. Its not about following your faith, its about doing it with self responsibility. Any religious march, from any religious faction ends up the same. Its not really the religion’s fault, its people’s fault that they don’t accept the responsibility for keeping themselves and their cities clean. Such events are organised for the benefit of everyone. How nice it would be if everyone did it in an orderly fashion and followed rules, that it all goes in a calm way and everyone gets proper darshan, why do we always have to have darshan in a crowd while everyone is stepping on others’ feet? Why cant we just grow up and understand that getting organised would only help us?
The commotion at Victoria Enclave lights.
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nice article, where it was good to see the zeal of the youth, i was equally sad and frustrated to see the aftermath, I wonder if we will ever learn.
Wow, I wish i cudv seen that myself
wow,, thts really gd,, bot lor aa ihe ji activites de so aajda youth ve sikhi wal rujan pave
bhut wadiyaaa likhya ….har 1 cheez d enne changi tarah nal vyakhya kari hai ki fir eh hoya dn eh….. realli nice……..
bad da xperience v achi tarah byaan kita gya hai nd eh sach hi hai ji eme hi hunda hai …….
Thanks for reading the article. :D
omg…. i ddnt read the whole thing before, the top most paragraphs were tellin me like its to gd in punjab, like wearing dartars and showin faith b the ppl.but whn i was reading down and down, really its like sm movie was goin thru my mind, i can saw hw it was, really if u wana show ur faith we should show sm dicipline too, n alwz its remembers me lines frm babbu mann’s song, “ave kise ne fuuk chka te ase bare mahan aa”
actully i think jado is tra de nagerkirtan hon ta gurudwara managements nu kuj sewadars rakhne chaede ne jo ki ohna de langan to baad saaf sfaye kar sakan, huh i knw its really hard,
chalo i hope in future may b kuj hor sudar aave,,
bless us waheguru,,, sanu v kuj akal devo,
Its ironic isnt it? Panj piayriyan de langan to pehla Bhakur maar k ate paani dol k sadkan saaf keetian jandian ne, but after they pass, no one cares what happens. Duality.
I know, most of the viewrs are missing the whole idea of the article. =)