Joe Bloggs

On leaving the grounds of the school, I had preliminarily decided to travel across Punjab to my DJ's village, but I needed a cup of tea to think it over. So my driver and I decided to stop back at the hotel in the nearby town of Anandpur Sahib and have a cuppa. It was easily the best I've ever had. I remember 22 years ago returning to England and thinking how bland English tea was after India. The main difference is the preparation, and the masala. I asked the hotel how they make it. They boil milk and water together, add a large amount of tea, boil it a bit more and then add a fair amount of sugar, and a powdering of masala. Don't ask me what exactly masala is, but do ask whether it makes a difference. It's quite divine. By the end of three cups I had confirmed my plan, but I needed a bit more cash. So we wandered through the back streets of the town to the centre, to the one cash machine available.

Anandpur Sahib is lovely. It's surrounded by lush green fields, and set right at the foothills of the Himalayas, and in the distance you can see the very high peak of Nana Devi, 'Eye of the Goddess', with a Hindu temple atop the mountain. The real delight comes at night when the lights make the temple and surrounding structures look like a village in the sky. Wandering the back streets makes you aware how much cleaner this is than elsewhere. The Sikhs are mightily proud of this place. It's the birthplace of their first guru, and the town is dotted with 'gurudwaras', or Sikh temples. The place is 'pollution free', a devotee told me as we asked where else we could get cash - that cash machine was closed. I wouldn't quite say pollution free. My hotel was very clean but just round the back was a mound of rotting rubbish. The devotee asked me and my driver if we would like a cup of tea. Of course. He took us to a building round the side of a gurudwara, and proudly told us that it was a hostel for pilgrims or travellers, provided almost free ($1 a night) by the gurudwara.

As we sipped our tea he told me about Sikhism and the Punjab. It's a relatively recent religion - just over 300 years since its official founding (the town celebrated the 300th year in 1999). At that time the guru announced to any Hindus that were interested in conversion to Sikhism that they were to be freed of the yoke of the caste system, and to emphasise that, all Sikhs were to use the name Singh. At independence in 1947 the British asked Punjab whether it wanted to be its own nation, but they made the 'grave mistake' of saying no, our friend told us (my Hindu driver listened politely). Even before the creation of Sikhism the Punjabis had a very separate identity. With their height and strength, the Hindus used them to defend their territory against the invading Muslims (without much success apparently - hence the existence of the Mughal emperors and the Taj Mahal). They grew their hair long, tied it in a bun at the top, and wrapped it in a turban to defend their heads against sword blows.

The next morning I opened the curtains to what looked distinctly like a large bank of marijuana plants right outside. It stretched almost as far as the eye could see. Is it cannabis, I asked the hotel staff. I don't think they quite understood, so I made a smoking-a-joint gesture and they just laughed. One of them gestured what seemed to mean making string, so it may have been hemp. But even so the police would be round in an instant if this were the West, I tried to explain (they didn't speak a word of English). More smiles, apparently of incomprehension.