Journey connected a road often offers a glimpse into the psyche of the onshore it traverses—the mindset of its people, the trends they clasp and the struggles they confront. Hoardings flash what is successful vogue, slogans outcry retired the pressing issues of the region, and the villages, towns and cities archer soundless tales done the houses lining the roads, the cars passing by, and the eateries welcoming travellers.
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A trip connected National Highway 5, stretching from Chandigarh to the borderline municipality of Ferozepur, offers a unsocial penetration into Punjab. The unsocial highway, cutting done the bosom of the authorities from eastbound to west, reveals wherever Punjab stands and wherever it is heading. Its full agelong is from Shipki La adjacent the Sino-India borderline to Ferozepur. Much earlier the road was christened NH5, it stretched to Lahore via Kasur, some successful Pakistan now. One inactive finds a mates of milestones connected the road indicating the region betwixt Delhi and Lahore, reminding 1 the commercialized way of yore. The milestones transportation a imagination that the borders betwixt India and Pakistan would beryllium reopened someday.
As our travel begins from Chandigarh, a few kilometres past Kharar, a hoarding looms large, its connection stark and unsettling—Pardes jaana jaan Punjab rehna (Do you privation to unrecorded successful Punjab oregon determination abroad?) The question is not simply an advertisement but a challenge, tinged with urgency. The prime is stark—leave oregon stay? Immigration consultants aggressively enactment the highway, promising casual escapes—solutions for rejected visas, debased IELTS scores, and a accelerated way to a overseas dream. Yet nary notation the humiliation of implicit 70 handcuffed Punjabis deported from the United States successful subject planes. These advertisements thrive due to the fact that migration is Punjab’s obsession. Estimates suggest that 1 lakh to 1.3 lakh students permission the authorities annually for education, portion others wantonness agriculture, businesses, and adjacent authorities jobs for greener pastures abroad.
The fascination with overseas lands is not conscionable astir leaving Punjab—it has near its people connected those who return. Some, having made luck abroad, put successful Punjab but mould it successful the representation of the satellite they near behind. London Street, a gleaming marketplace complex, caters to those who question branded clothing, imported gadgets and Western nutrient chains offering accelerated nutrient acold removed from accepted Punjabi dhabas. Along the highway, galore specified modern marketplace hubs person emerged—places wherever eating is paired with entertainment, mill outlets connection discounts, and luxury blends with leisure. The beingness of planetary franchises, from KFC to McDonald’s, signifies Punjab’s purchasing power. Modernisation dots the highway.
A Bob Marley café a fewer kilometres abbreviated of Kohara invites you. There are nary Surinder Kaur oregon Asa Singh Mastana cafes successful representation of fashionable Punjabi singers.
Yet, the quintessential Punjabi dhaba is acold from fading. In fact, these once-modest eateries person transformed. Small shanties on the road present connection state-of-the-art hospitality—grand halls, paved parking, and cautiously curated menus balancing contented with modern tastes. The daal makhni, shahi paneer and aaloo pranthas with food and buttermilk, followed by masala tea.
It’s intolerable to walk by without stopping astatine the charming mobile vans dotting the highway, offering a sensation of kulfi, lassi and burfi—delicacies specially crafted by the Bhaini Sahib dera. These are not conscionable nutrient carts, but a connection astir the power and beingness of specified deras successful Punjab, estimated astatine 3,000.
Marriage palaces basal similar expansive monuments connected the outskirts of each towns that autumn connected either broadside of the highway, their architecture a funny premix of European facades, sloping roofs with Roman columns, and the timeless elegance of a Punjabi haveli adorned with Mughal minarets. In the evenings, their dazzling lights hint astatine extravagant abdominous Punjabi weddings—spectacles of wealthiness and celebration.
Ancient towns specified arsenic Sanghol (Harappan civilisation), and those a fewer centuries aged similar Morinda, Samrala, Kohara, Mullanpur and Jagraon archer stories of the Punjab of yore. These came up erstwhile radical started settling on the roads connecting large cities alternatively of settling on the rivers. The road was the lifeline but present it has ditched them and moved on—elevated roads present bypass these towns, cutting them disconnected from the precise lifeline that erstwhile sustained them. Punjab has recorded a 37.5% migration from villages and towns to municipality centres similar Mohali, Ludhiana and Chandigarh. The reasons are many—better education, employment and surviving conditions.
Yet, from the highway, Punjab’s villages look deceptively prosperous. No slums oregon mud houses dot the landscape, lone factual roads and sturdy homes. Those leaving bash not fly poverty, they pursuit ambition.
Among the symbols of alteration scattered on NH5, cause addiction looms large. Hoardings denounce substance abuse, invoking Punjabi pridefulness and urging younker to reclaim their practice of valour and hard work. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann stares down astatine the travellers from astir hoardings, boasting statistic of cause seizures arsenic grounds of success. Private de-addiction centres advertise guaranteed rehabilitation programmes. A first-time traveller cannot miss the unspoken truth—drugs are Punjab’s astir urgent battle.
The harsh broadside of migration and drugs surfaces astatine Dagru village, where the Ludhiana-Ferozepur railway enactment intersects the highway. Here, aged men beryllium connected some sides of the railway barrier, their frail bodies hunched successful the scorching sun, selling marunda—puffed atom held unneurotic with jaggery. Their faded kurta-pyjamas, loosely wrapped turbans and lined faces talk of decades of toil that led nowhere.
“Most of america are landless,” says Bikkar Singh, pointing towards his companions. “We were workplace labourers. Now, each we tin bash is merchantability these snacks for a fewer rupees. Some of our children person moved to cities to enactment arsenic plumbers oregon labourers. Others—" helium hesitates, eyes clouded—"we mislaid to drugs.” Soon, the over-bridge volition beryllium completed, the road volition bypass them, and they volition person to find different intersection to marque a living.
Yet, amid these warnings, anticipation takes form. On the outskirts of Moga, a radical of young entrepreneurs question to revive contented with innovation. Their startup bakery sells biscuits baked with sugarcane foodstuff alternatively of refined sugar, crafted with millets and gram flour alternatively of wheat. Trained astatine Punjab Agricultural University, they person built a bakery that rejects the norm, crafting biscuits from millets, gram flour and barley, baked wholly successful sugarcane juice. The assemblage gathered astatine their stall suggests not each traveller seeks accelerated food; immoderate take innovation.
As agelong arsenic specified enterprises thrive, Punjab has a future. One takes a heavy breath. Not each seems to person been lost.
English (US) ·