Attari Border Crossing

Hey all! Just like the blog below says, Amritsar was amazing! Nothing dissapointed there. One highlight, on top of the Golden Temple, was the Attari Border Closing Ceremony.

Every day at the border crossing between Pakistan and India closes at around 5ish. Each day THOUSANDS of people go to the border at this time to watch the hilarious closing of the border. Upon arrival at the border crossing, I felt like I was entering a sporting event. People were singing, cheering, waving flags and acting very patriotically. After a quick frisk and a dodgy metal detector, we entered the grandstand seating to watch the spectacle. Before it began, women were dancing in the streets to the Indian techno playing over the loud speakers. When the music stopped, a man at a microphone began to crank up the crowd. He started some wild chanting of HINDUSTAN!! And some more Hindi cheers. I waved my 5rupee plastic Indian flag with all my energy. On the Pakistani side, they also had grandstands (women seated separately from the men) and a head cheerleading male to get them all excited.
Finally it was time for the border guards to do their thing. There was a quick screaming match between the Indian and the Pakistan side. This involved an Indian guard yelling into a microphone while a Pakistani guard yelled into his microphone and they competed to see who could scream for the longest time. No matter who won both sides cheered. Then guards marched towards the gate in a way I can only describe by saying they looked like they belonged to the Ministry of Silly Walks. We were in stitches. It was one of the funniest/strangest things I have ever seen. About 5 guards took their turns walking in their 'silly walk' fashion towards the gate, directly at a silly walking Pakistani. Then they posed at the gate and started at their opposition. This part of the ceremony reminded me of when 2 male animals or birds are competing for a mating partner....who has the puffiest feathers or the most extreme dance moves.

All in all, this was one of the strangest experiences of my life. My description does this event no justice for how odd it really is. The combination of the patriotic crowd acting like they are at the Superbowl and the Silly Walking guards (the most silly walks get the biggest cheers from the crowd) made this afternoon quite amazing. I apologize for the video quality...I was trying to scream along with the crowd and also trying to watch.