This close!!

Afterwards we went to see Waga border. The stretch of land on both sides of the road made me think about the time during partition and I felt depressed. Then I saw a road sign that says ‘Lahore 23 km’! When we reached there we saw a long queue of people waiting to go in. When the gates opened there was a mad rush, people were simply running and pushing each other to get ahead at any cost. Anyway we somehow got inside the gates and walked to where we were supposed to sit. Then I casually looked to my left side, and to my surprise a saw the picture of Jinnah and the writing ‘Pakistan’ and just like me people from that side were looking at us too! It was a total surprise to see the country Pakistan right before my eyes! It was a strange feeling to see Pakistan that close! We got a very good place to sit. There was music blaring from both sides and ladies started dancing to the tunes. Everybody was in a joyful mood, enjoying and shouting Vandematharam and Chak de India. The soldiers kept telling the people to sit down but nobody listened to them, obviously!! We are used to only not listening to such orders.. Then it was time to start the parade. When marching, the soldiers’ legs went up as high as their heads!! I heard the people who marches are under tremendous pressure and there were times they fell unconscious after the parade due to the stress. A war of a different kind I guess. All the people were standing and I couldn’t see clearly what was happening at the gate and then I saw it was time to fold the flags and with that the parade ended. Then started another rush of people who just wanted to get out from there as fast as they could. All we had to do was stand still and the others would push us forward. Watching the parade was worth taking all that trouble, but my husband thinks otherwise!


All in all we had a really good trip.