Like the sea, blue, deep and full of secrets.. I yearn to dive and to collect the pearls..
Her eyes..
They call him Mister India, and he calls himself Prince. A strong muscular 20 years old that looks like 30. With a well shaped mustasch and well kempt beard. He invited all of us to his house for breakfast. His father is Diljit’s father’s cousin and he has a sister and a brother. In their house, we enjoyed a tasty local breakfast that filled our stomachs for some time. Prince pops up from his peers. With his fitness-model body and broad enjoying smile while dancing, with his sense of fashion and his Royal Enfield. His plan is to go to Canada and study fitness nutrition to go back and help his community. He just wants to make his parents proud, he said.
After the breakfast we walked a short distance to Diljit’s house where a big pink tent was constructed. Inside the tent, a place was designated to the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh’s holy book. And a small religious band that plays the accordion and percussion on the sounds of prayers. As we sat there, not understanding much, the locals hummed with the prayers. I later came to know that they didn’t understand much either. But probably the prayers made them feel good. After the ceremony, a priest gave a long speech to the attendants. I was lucky to have prince sitting besides me and translating the content. I must admit that before that, my knowledge about the religion was limited to what Diljit told us over his delicious dinner evenings. Listening to the priest, I saw the similarities to other religions. Prince was explaining that all the roads lead to God, no matter what is the path. After the speech, Christoph and I were invited to give small talks to the attendants about Diljit for the wedding occasion.
After this ceremony, Prince invited me to take a tour on his motorbike, Royal Enfield, aka, Bullet 🙂 In the first minute of him riding in the streets of Dasuya, I started making my prayers and promises to God in the very possible case I meet Him soon!
Prince showed me his collage, his gym and we went to fill the tank. There was also McDonalds and Subway.
We rode in the superb of Dasuya. We changed turns and stopped here and there for a photo-shooting session. Prince is good looking and photogenic. We rode up some hills with enchanting views. Places I would have never visited as a tourist. I felt lucky, I felt thankful. Prince kept repeating “Don’t say thank you brotha”.. In a couple of hours, I felt we developed a deeper friendship. We discussed life and its beauty, dreams and love. It is impressive how a 20 years old in some parts of the world can be much wiser than a 40 years old in other parts.
We rode back to the market where the rest of the group was. Since we didn’t know where they were, Prince asked random people: “Have you seen foreigners?” going around the market with the motorbike, we managed to find our friends in a shoes-shop. They bought scarfs, traditional punjabi clothes and shoes.
A night full of music, dancing and food. In the pink tent, a small stage was constructed and all the locals gave to dancing. Later, everybody accompanied Diljit and Alvi in a parade around the town. He carried some item on his head and went around town to get the blessings of different houses. A small band accompanied the parade with drumming that forces you to shake it shake it.. I wore a traditional punjabi suit gifted to me by my new friend Prince. He gave me a black one and wore a white one which made me think of Ying and Yang somehow.
The parade was back to the pink tent, where more and more dancing was taking places.. man, these people can dance forever.. and they have every right to! Punjabi music is a new favorite for me. You can’t be depressed with Punjabi music! You can’t be sad! A song that was somehow the theme of this trip is Na Ja. Which I grew addicted to and loop it throughout the day.. The guys taught me its nice dance which looks like a flying pigeon.
It was one full day for me.. full of friendship, dance and good mood.. Merve does not want to go back.. She wants to immigrate to Punjab and enjoy the friendliness, the music and the food. Well, this was not it! Next day is the Wedding day.. and it was full!
