I spent this past weekend given the VIP treatment in Amritsar. I have gotten used to the stares that I receive from being a foreigner, especially a tall, female one with very light hair. Sometimes the stares are curious, some even hostile, but in Punjab the constant glances came with a nice surprise- huge smiles. Children running up to shake my hand, people asking for a picture with me, even one mother who handed me her four month-old baby daughter to pose for pictures.
Dan and I stop for a rest outside the Martyr’s Gallery- (a memorial for a massacre that occurred in 1919 when a British general, Dryer, fired upon unarmed, peaceful Indians who were having a nationalist rally).it’s a grave memorial thought most of the visitors are smiling families and school children, posing for pictures.
We sit down to thumb through the Lonely Planet, and look up to find over fifty students surrounding us, smiling, laughing, and asking for our names. This happens again and again. We are given Kit-Kat bars, offers of peanuts, desserts, assistance in getting a room ….
So, it is a bit annoying when you are reading about a painting, and realize the teenage boys behind you are trying to discreetly snap photos of you with their mobile phone. But it’s also quite flattering, when young girls approach you shyly and politely ask for a photo with you. It’s fun to feel like a movie star just for a weekend.
After a family took several dozen pictures with us- we can’t help but wonder if they have more pictures of their holiest shrine, or these American foreigners. (Or as Dan phrased it- ‘more pics of the Golden Temple or my golden hair?’) We can only guess about how they will describe us, when they are showing their friends these pictures. But based on their smiles, I’d like to think they will say good things.
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