13 April 1919 a man was conversing with a couple of individuals, was examining upon the ongoing themes around the country then all of a sudden an uproarious sound was heard by him, disregarding the sound their discussions went further. After sometime he realized that the sound was of the gunshots, thinking that the government might have ordered to kill some terrorist he ignored it. In any case, a couple of moments later the place got loaded with the shout of the local people, everybody was running, yelling, crying. The man stopped, befuddled. Then the sound of gunshots soon filled the atmosphere. He started running, then soon he saw his 5 year old son lying dead o the ground with 14 gunshots on his body. And beside his body was lying the dead body of her wife. He turned his face here and there and saw that the peaceful place had now been filled with the crying of people and dead bodies everywhere, the sky had turned red with their blood. He realized that British general Dyer had ordered an open firing on the ground all gates were shut, no chance for escape was possible. His eyes got filled with tears and so he jumped into the well and died.
This might seem a nightmare to all but unfortunately this was the plight of thousands of innocent Indians who being unaware of the curfew which general dyer had laid in Amritsar, had a local meeting on the day of baisakhi.
After hearing what happened on that deadly date in Amritsar, I was loaded with outrage as each Indian would do as such. My ever growing curiosity knew no bounds and so I planned a visit to the jallianwala bagh with my friends. I got 4 of my friends who were interested to accompany me in this trip. So we were all together 5 and were all girls. This was for the first time that I was going to stay away from home without my parents. We booked a train to Amritsar.
We planned the visit on 13 April 2018 as this was the date on which 99 years ago the bloody event took place. So we finished packing around 12 at night of 11 April and went to sleep. Till morning 5 we were seated in the train and around 5:30 the train departed from the station. We enjoyed the paranthas that were served as breakfast. Our fervor of sitting in train with companions nearly kicked completed and we began to feel exhausted so to evacuate the fatigue we began seeing TED talks online as every one of us were a tremendous fanatic of TED. Though the internet connection was weak still we managed to see at least 1 episode of TED talks.
Around 3 o clock in afternoon we reached the Amritsar railway station. After reaching the railway station we booked a normal room in a nearby 3 star hotel. By luck we found a travel guide in the hotel who would take us to jallianwala bagh the next morning. So we all were tired and hungry and it was around 8 at night so we rushed towards the restaurant and enjoyed the meal of a Punjabi thali along with my favorite beverage lassi.
After that we returned back to our room and bounced into our beds to have a decent night rest so we could wake up fresh toward the beginning of the day for the visit. And then my alarm clock started ringing and I soon realized that it was 6 am in morning and our visit was at 11 am and it would take us 1 hour to travel from our hotel to the bagh. So till 6:30 am all my friends woke up and then we cleaned up the mess we had made. Then one by one we all had a bath and then we had a light breakfast of a sandwich in the restaurant.
It was 9 am in morning and we all had finished our morning chores. Then we went to a nearby gurudwara and worshipped there. Then we sat in the car at 10 and around 11:30 we reached our destination.
We were welcomed by a gate of bricks which was named Jallianwala bagh slaughter entryway. We went further and saw a long queue for the tickets so we needed to sit tight 1 hour for the tickets. We were fortunate that the sun wasn’t over our heads or else we would have tired at the ticket counter itself .We continued our walk and in front of us was a huge park in which there were sculptures of soldiers made using branches and leaves so we clicked around 100 selfies at the garden itself in order to take a great deal of good recollections back.
After walking a few steps what was visible to our eyes was a jallianwala bagh memorial which was created in the memory of those innocent people whose life became a prey for the homicidal britishers. Next sight our eyes got was of a huge wall with shots of gun on it. The shots gave a clear proof of how brutally the Indians were killed, beside it was the well in which many people jumped to protect their lives but later died.
That sight was capable enough to bring tears in my eyes and it filled my heart with patriotism. Though it was just a wall and a well my as every picture tells a story it also had the most terrifying story to tell.
Just the gun shots could explain it well that how much sacrifice our ancestors have done just for us to live freely and happily. Bhagat singh once quoted “Even if I have to face death a thousand times for the sake of our motherland, I shall not be sorry. Oh lord! Grant me a hundred births in India. But grant me this too, that each time I may give up my life in the service of my motherland.” This line clearly depicts the amount of patriotism that was in the hearts of our ancestors.
We have got independence after a long struggle so we must do our best to make this country the dreamland of those sacrificed themselves for this struggle. All my friends supported me this statement. It was 5 in the evening and we all had to return back to hotel so that we could catch our train at 10 at night. So we booked an ola and around 6 we were back in our rooms.
We all just had the best possible trip of lives together. After that we rapidly had the supper and went to the railroad station. Despite the fact that we were yearning to go home yet we wanted to stay there however that wasn’t conceivable as our maths paper was drawing closer. So we sat in the shatabdi and slept.
At morning 8 we arrived Delhi thus we all went back to our respective homes. To sum up this visit was just not only fun but also reminded me the duties of mine as a citizen in protecting this nation.
— Anika Singh (Winner of Essay Competition, July,2018)
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