Amritsar Part II

First thing First, that is the bag story. 

We contacted Mittals after coming out from Wagha Border. They were already in the queue in the Golden Temple. Mr. Nittal suggested morning hours on the next  day. I contacted him again in the morning. He informed that his taxi was expected any time and he would come to our hotel on the way to Khajiar.  Finally we met in the lobby and exchanged our bags. Coincidentally we met again at Khajiar too.  

The Mittals & the Kid

Now coming back to my observation& suggestion on the management of system at wagha border, here it goes:.

An observation & Suggestions ( Being a consultant, recommendations are in my blood and these flow out easily, You Know ):

Frankly speaking I feel its sheer waste of 4 – 5 hours. I would love to see the same on the TV.

There is a complete mismanagement. I am told that People stand in queues right from 1 O’clock for a show starting at 6.30 or 7 PM during summer. People have to spend minimum 3 hours on weekends & holidays after getting inside, before the show really start.

I believe it’s a BSF show. They can very well paint Row & Seat numbers on all steps at
a distance of about 2 ½ feet from each other. Then they can put say Rs.5 for children below

12 & 20 for other locals. The tourists can be charged even Rs. 50 each, but given 

assured seats on any of the two sides of the stadium like facility there. Foreigners could be 

charged USD 10 or 2 Euros. The Tickets for tourists should be sold on line too. This will then 

avoid unnecessary frustration of missing out and also of sheer wastage of time. VIP Lounge 

could also be sold on line at Rs 100 per head for adults and Rs. 20 for children below 18.

Say 80 % of the seats ( in General & VIP Category ) for tourists should be sold on line. These should be sold max 2 month in advance. All Sold out indications could be displayed so that they could plan visit there on alternate day.

This money can then be utilized for improving the infrastructure there or for making some BSF owned restaurant there given on yearly contracts, which could again generate revenue for them.

The revenue can also be spent on the welfare of the jawans subsequently.

The situation was no better at the Golden Temple too. It appeared as if whole of Punjab if not India was there within the premises of the temple, and that too at about 9 PM in the night. I could see only heads in the queues for the Mathha Tek ( offering Prayers ), so much was the crowd. A volunteer told us that it could take 3 to 4 hours to be inside the sacred place. We wisely decided to opt out and wanted to see if we could easily get to have the dinner in the lunger as a Prasad. We faced similar unprecedented crowd there. We said  “better luck next time “, came out at about 10.30 PM and dinner outside in a near by dhabha.

Next day, we first went to the Jalianwala Bag and then again to the Golden Temple only to see similar crowds. After finishing the visits to these places we went to Kesar Dhaba for lunch, as recommended by a lady co passenger in the plane. You know ladies can never go wrong in matters of tastier food. We had huge glass of Lassi at Ahuja’s again recommended by her. In fact Anvaya ( our group member ) too had fished out same names from the Google’s net. The lady’s recommendation was a confirmation test as we do in the chemistry lab. We bid good bye to Amritsar with heavy stomachs and soon started snoring in our air-conditioned tempo-traveler.