I was recovering from the surprise when I realised a group of men wearing turbans, waving flags and sticks and chanting what I took to be slogans was approaching. I moved into a doorway to watch them pass. It was only later, after my return home and the news about the Sikh uprising of 1982 that I realised I may have seen a small part of the protests.




At some point I must have turned off the wide street and I found myself wandering through the narrow streets of the market place just looking, listening and inhaling the smells. Taking pictures too. Very few people seemed to mind me "snapping" them, but with my oh so slow film most of the activities that attracted my attention were in places too dark and shadowy. I have had to develop a steady hand. How will the many pictures I've taken on 1/30th second exposure and my widest apperture come out?

I alarmed myself on a few occassions when I realised I was lost. Or at least I'd lost my bearings and the narrow, tightly packed alley ways all looked the same aleaving me unsure how to return to the more familiar parts of the city.

Here there were stalls selling multi-coloured goods, cloth, clothes, bric-a-brac and further one there were workshops, artisans carving wood, sewing, binding books, polishing semi precious stones and further still the shops selling these local crafts. Everyone was busy. The same as the other towns and cities, and yet something struck me as different. For a while I didn't realise what; but eventually it came to me. The craftsmen and the traders were ignoring me; at least they weren't following me and trying to persuade me to look at and buy their wares. Oddly this made me more inclined to look for items I could purchase as small gifts and momentos to take home. I'd be leaving India in two days time.

I ate lunch in a small cafe and then took to the shops again. I bought a Kashmir wool, hand embroidered, silk lined cape for my Mum. It set me back a lot: Rs220/- including the 10% tax. Maybe I couldn't afford anything else now. I made my way out of the alleys and back to the wider roads. Someone started to follow me; a young man who became a nuisance. I couldn't shake him off. He persisted, I felt intimidated, but there were plenty of people around, reason told me I was safe but I didn't feel it. I saw one of the may little police booths at a nearby road junction. The policeman was directing traffic. I walked towards it and sat down nearby. I watched the policeman, the buisance lngered. I noticed a small flight of steps down to another road level just behind the policeman. I walked past him and "escaped" down the steps. I had been grateful to the presence of policement before, especially their ability to disperse rickshaw drivers just be appearing nearby.

The people of Amritsar I spoke to were very proud of their city and their Punjabi heritage. They claimed to be richer and more educated than other states in India. Was it true? I don't know, but it seemed to give them an air of confidence. But for some partition seemed to have a lasting legacy. I heard claims that the best agricultural land was now on the other side of the border in Pakistan. Many  shop signs proclaimed businesses of Amritsar and Lahore. I wondered how many still had family members plying the same trade a few miles away on the Pakistani side of the British imposed border.

That evening I took one last walk into the city from my hotel. Maybe I would go to the ceremony in the temple. I sat reading in the park for a while and then strolled through the streets watching the shopkeepers closing up. A man called to me. He wanted me to go into his house. "You come. You come". His tone was forceful and sounded like a command.  I hoped it was merely a request, losing something in translation. Maybe he wanted to buy my camera like the group of men who had called to me in similar tones earlier in the day. However, unlike them he did not follow me down the street and stop me when I refused and continued walking.

By the time I arrived at the temple I was extremely tired and it was still far too early. I didn't have the energy to wait so I returned to the hotel and slept.