Saturday, November 25 Chandigarh, Anandpur Sahib, Climax Nightclub

I woke up early and jetted from the Gurudwara, taking a freezing rickshaw ride, local bus, and Himachal Pradesh transport bus, to Anandpur Sahib, the last town of the plains in Punjab before starting to ascend the Himalayan foothills. It was just really cold and unenjoyable, and the scenery was just more plains. These plains were clearly fertile, as nowhere was there simply open dirt spaces; every inch of space was under cultivation or had just been harvested. That’s why Punjab is the breadbasket of India. I got to Anandpur Sahib, a pilgrimage site for Sikhs, but for no one else, as everyone wanted to talk to me. In other places in India, they will stare and whisper; in Punjab they all rush to talk to me, as Punjabis are very warm people, and are interested in the West. Anandpur Sahib was a pretty big town, and on the way, a big bubbly white arch welcomed you to the Sikh holy city. I walked through the clean town past rows upon rows of Sikh temple gift shops. There was a museum, filled with oil paintings of Sikh gurus all being martyred, heads cut off, bodies being boiled, and being poked with spikes. I wonder why they are a martial people. I walked up to the Gurudwara, which towered over the rest of the town. The green Himalayas were visible in the background past the white cubist town and vast light-blue sky. I covered my head and took off my shoes, to go walk around the Gurudwara, with was a white marble building with huge open verandas, with devotees praying to the Guru Granth Sahib inside. There was also the characteristic guest house and dining hall attached. A bunch of guys came up and started talking to me, and this older man actually personally knows my professor, Shanta Verma. Goodie points. I took a bus back to Chandigarh, where I ate lunch, before taking a comfortable Haryana roadways bus back to Delhi. Five hours later, I got home, took a shower, and went out with Mariel, Kim, Alix, Ro, Puran, Tara, and Snehal (basically our whole house except for Nikhil….and we like it like that). We piled into a cab and drove to South Delhi to Delhi’s (supposedly) hottest nightclub, Climax. On the way, we were drinking really bad vodka, a lot of which Puran dropped and spilled all over my pants. I took my first sip of alcohol in four months! When we got to the club, the line was extremely long, but we did the Indian thing and pushed right to the front. We paid (it was $20 per person) and went inside. The $20 includes drink coupons, which Tara for some unknown reason, tore up and threw in the air on the dance floor, never to be seen again. I got a $25 (with coupons it was only $5) pitcher of Long Island Iced Tea, which was amazing. But I didn’t really get that drunk. I had a really good time dancing to weird techno and popular Hindi and Bhangra hits. The ambiance was really good; high energy and very affluent and beautiful people. I don’t ever see this side of India; the top 1% of the population, who can afford to spend $30 a night, going out and drinking, just like in the West. The girls were all wearing jeans, stilettos, and party tops. They were all hot, materialistic, and put-together. Guys were buff and all wore their finest jeans and party shirts. English was exclusively spoken, and you would have no idea you were in India; these people dress, talk, and look like NRIs. There were also some white tourists. Nevertheless, it was a huge sausage-fest, the ratio being probably 70/30, and girls were only accompanied by men, they weren’t there alone. It was surreal. They made us clear the dance floor, so these Belgian bikers could do tricks, which included accidentally falling down the stairs. We sat outside drunkenly eating, which was fun. Then we waited for a cab home, which grossly overcharged us, but considering we were wasted and it was 45 degrees, we didn’t care at all. We got home and Puran was flopping like a fish, on and off the couch. Ro and I sat there just watching and cracking up, and Nikhil came out to see what was going on. We pretended like he wasn’t even there, haha. It was a fun night, and now I know what it’s like clubbing in one of India’s finest nightclubs, among the cream of the crop.