The Golden Temple

I saw the Golden Temple, the holiest building in the Sikh religion, through the arches of the clock tower last night. My eyes ballooned. Today, I went inside the complex. The temple is gold plated ans surrounded by a mini lake on three sides that has fish. It was moving to see people of all religions bend down to worship it once they walked through the arch.

You must take off your shoes and cover your head before entering the complex. You also wash your hands and face in the sinks to the side of the entrance. There's a puddle of water that you step in to wash your feet before gazing on the Golden Temple. To the left is the dining hall. I stood in line with the hoards of others waiting to enter one of the rooms. Once in, it was a mad rush to sit on one the rows of rugs. We sat cross-legged (at one point my feet were sore from being pressed against the marble floor, so I shifted position and a young boy told me to to change back). We held out our hands to receive chapatis and our plate so that volunteers could slop on the various veg fare. I actually ate a good bit of it, but they gave me seconds and I barely put a dent in that. When I carried my plate down, everyone was giving me dirty looks.

The young boy sitting next to me, dressed in a red sweatshirt, completed with hood, was very nice. I gestured that I was full, which he took to mean my stomach was hurt. Anyway, he walked me down to the drop off point, where we left our plates. He made sure I was alright, guiding me through the masses.

Next, I walked around the reflecting pool to find a long queue, dozens wide, hundreds long, to enter the temple itself. So, I'll go back another time. I saw the Sikh museum, which has plenty of portraits of Sikh martyrs. After the Golden Temple, I visited the nearby Jallianwala Bagh, a park dedicated to Sikhs who were massacred there in 1919 by the British. Now I don't want to be disrespectful, but the Sikhs seem to be the Detroit Lions when it comes to fighting wars.

Over the past week, I've been asked about American sexual habits quite a bit. The perception here is that you'd be hard pressed to find a woman in America who wears a skirt that covers her upper thighs. Some people I've talked to think that America's public space is covered with people having sex. I know Humpty once got busy in a Burger King bathroom, but that was a long time ago and it's important to remember that Humpty isn't real, he's the alter-ego of Digable Planets frontman, Shock G. And plus, that was just a song.