>> any other closing thoughts for this clip show in general? >> no. >> no. let's hit the beach. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com language ] ♪ ♪ ♪

felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪ ♪ ♪

>> this house came to be built by dr. blake, who was in the service. my grandfather came to be nominated to the council of state. >> it was another time. one that few still remember. the india before partition when these rooms, this house was part of the seat of power. >> i had the privilege of being born in this house upstairs. >> this was the maharajai's bed, his chambers are present.

>> and it was a routine, we would all go up to my grandfather's room to wish him good morning. and then we would all come down for breakfast. >> the walls tell a story. many stories. >> there were two very divided classes in india. so there was a lot of tension between the ruled and the rulers. but that was a different time, you know. now, i think back and it is more like a fairy tale.

>> day one in northern india, near the pakistan border. this is amritsar, the largest city, population about a million. this is a part of adindia i hav never seen, a place i have always been curious about, home to some pretty legendary cuisine, in amritsar, they have a saying. the best food is not cooked in homes. you find it on the streets.

punjabis are known for their adventureous spirit. in fact, much of the good stuff we refer to simply as indian food comes from here. the punjab of the early 20th century saw some of the most violent resistance to british rule. and when the british finally cashed out in 1947 they carved off a huge piece, what is now pakistan.

and it remains a potential flash point for conflict. but that is easy to forget when you first smell the food. daba, meaning side of the road food stall. and there are like countless dabas to choose from in this town, but this one is legendary. i like it. >> you eat around this part of the world, punjab in particular, get used to eating a lot of vegetarian. and in india, that is one of the few places for me that that is not a burden. >> i'll take that right here my good man. that is good. >> in the punjab, meat or no meat, you're almost guaranteed a free for all of intense colors,

flavors and spices. unlike some of the joyless vegetarian restaurants in my experience, the vegetables here are spicy, different textures. and served with extraordinarily good bread. it has this crispy edge on the outside. if this was practiced at most places in the west, i would be at least half as much of a dick about the subject. look, if you made bread this good i might eat at your restaurant. around here, one of the first things we notice that is different from the rest of

india, turbans everywhere, the symbol of self-respect, bravery and spirituality for sikh men. amritsar is the home of the spiritual center for the sikh faith. the world's fifth largest and maybe most misunderstood religion. in the heart of amritsar stands the golden temple, the equivalent of the vatican. sikhs are fundamentally against any caste system, believers in religious tolerance, but they are just as fundamentally war-like when it comes to defending their principles and what they see as their territory. >> welcome. >> thank you. >> today is one of the most

auspi auspicious days of the sikh calendar. pilgrims from all over the world come to worship, walk the perimeter and bathe in the holy pool. all are welcome of any faith or caste to remove their shoes, wash their feet, cover their heads and take part in a simple meeting. this is a free vegetarian meal

served to many thousands of visitors from every walk of life, every day of the year. they serve every day for how many years continuously? >> 300 years. >> everyone doing the cooking, the serving, the washing of thousands and thousands of metal plates and utensils are volunteers. the sound is extraordinary. >> we have a teaching that everyone should serve, all three thing, money, mind, and body should be served to other people free of cost. and that is what we do. >> walking me through it all today, a religion that is so concerned with tolerance, where does the grand punjab military

tradition come from because it is a very, very powerful one. >> so powerful people, so hard working people. every sikh you see after he is baptized, in our religion, when you are baptized, you must protect yourself and your country. so that makes us what we are. the one who seems like he's already got the job 'cause he studied all the right courses from the get-go. and that's an accountant, a mom, a university of phoenix scholarship recipient, who used our unique --scratch that-- awesome career-planning tool. and that's a student, working late, with a day job, taking courses aligned with the industry he's aiming to be in.

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morning, the smoke from countless burning fields covers amritsar in a thick haze.

the ancient art evolved from wrestling techniques that date back to the fifth century b.c. training is rigid, as this is not just a sport but a way of life. wrestlers live and train together and have strict rules of diet and personal conduct. no smoking, no drinking, no contact with women.

i did high school wrestling actually so that i could get out of gym class. i was a dirty, dirty fighter. it is an all-too natural segue between the opposing bodies and this. the entire border between india and pakistan has only one crossing. here. every sunset, the border is officially closed with this bit of national theater.

wearing nearly duplicate uniforms, the indian and pakistani rangers are in a game of theatrical contempt, clearly, it is a popular show. so where are we? >> we are right next to pakistan. >> india and pakistan were once one country, ripped apart in one of the quickest, ill-considered partitions imaginable. beyond there, no more fence? so once you get past there you can go straight into pakistan -- >> see, the problem is, india is trying to stop people from coming in, the drug dealers -- >> he is working on a documentary about the pakistan border. >> no one in their right mind wants to go into pakistan. >> well, really?

that is a fairly decisive statement. so they put up the fence but the fence is on the indian side? >> yeah, it is 150 meters from the border. >> so beyond that fence is still indian farmland, so people who live over here can farm over there. the punjab is a fertile region in an otherwise dry country. this is india's bread basket with over a billion people currently residing in india, this is fertile land. suddenly your life became difficult? >> they can only grow some kind of crops and they can't farm more than eight hours in a day. >> how long does it take to go back and forth. >> they have times when they can enter and come out. how much farther can we go

before they start to get worried? >> yeah, i think we should just go. >> when india and pakistan was separated the attempt was to try to draw a line across religious lines. drained by the huge task of fighting two world wars, in 1947, great britain decided to end their nearly 200 year rule over india. in an attempt to stop what the colonials saw as a war between the hindus and sikh, they had a lawyer draw up the border. >> he was given two months, basically. looked at the map. you know, people died because of the displacement. unofficially this says two million people, when they fight, they get trampled upon. >> in one of the largest exchanges of populations in history, many millions of people fled their homes. almost immediately religious

violence broke out on a mass scale. this is exactly what the partition had been intended to avoid. do people here still have families over there? >> yes, they do, when the lines were drawn, there were religious areas split into half. there are some houses where you enter from india and leave in pakistan. this part of punjab was one street, so the culture, very similar. >> well, it is a popular metaphor for india, pakistan is twins separated at birth. >> they were not twins, it was just one country, dismembered. if you cut a body in two, they're not going to become twins. it is sad, you can see them, they're doing the same work as you're doing. they dress the same. they look the same. but we can't talk to them. >> it is an ongoing struggle and enduring cause of paranoia

visible all across the region. two nations with atomic arsenals who have showed if nothing else a terrifying willingness to use them. from the horrific 2006 train bombings to the militant attacks in mumbai, the threat of terrorism along this border is a daily concern.

♪ ♪

want something good? really, really good? when in amritsar? something local, regional, iconically wonderful? you can't say you've had the amritsar experience until you've had a little kulcha in your life. kulcha, this is the iconic dish of punjab is this. >> yes. ♪ >> kulcha, a perfect little flavor bomb of wheat dough pressed against the side of a very, very hot clay oven, slathered with butter and served with a spicy chickpea curry on the side. did i mention the butter? >> how is it? >> delicious. >> everyone seems to be an expert on kulcha, including this

lady. >> this is our radish. >> very, very, very good. generally speaking, punjabis are famous for being a warrior class. taller, bigger. >> yes. they're big. >> still maybe not fighters so much but still eaters. >> oh, yeah. big-time. yes. the religion doesn't matter. food is religion here. >> first time in amritsar? >> checking off my list of things to do in the punjab, i got to score some animal protein. it's time. i've been going all morrisey for two days now and frankly, that's enough.

i need chicken. we are nowhere here. where am i? >> it's very famous for chicken. >> when we are talking must-haves, tandoori chicken is just that. >> i have some lemon in this. you will enjoy it. >> oh, man, it's delicious. this type of establishment, dhaba? >> this is the most successful business here. anyone who open a dhaba tomorrow, it will be like this. >> but if you're going to have chicken it better be good. >> yeah. >> it's a good place for that. would you like to have something else? >> there's ground mutton? >> that's called naan. keema naan, mutton ball, dough. and the special ingredient, magic hands.

believe me when i tell you, this -- is good. so good that people snap it up the second it comes out of the tandora. hey, that's mine. mm. >> is it good? >> sensational. wow. >> people do love their food. >> i love eating. >> the movies and television in this country is fantastic. >> all the films are made -- >> i don't even understand why -- what's going on. everybody dances and sings. i don't get it. ♪ >> would you like to have something else? >> no, this is good.

mmm. ♪ oh, yeah. ♪ wow. ♪ oh, yeah. ♪ mm, that's good. thank you. no, nothing, thank you. it's delicious. so good. q.

e . leaving the fertile plains of the punjab, i'm heading out to the himalayas. and getting there has not changed much in the last 100 years. all aboard. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ this is going to be sub-optimal seating. i don't think this declines. thank god they have a relaxed attitude towards prescription drugs. before you head to the himalayas, you better self-medicate. meanwhile, i have been 24 hours without food.

great, get a bag of peanuts. to tell the truth, i'm an angry man when i board. seeing images of p.f. chang. you go on the king kong ride while my stomach growls and become the kind of traveller i warn against, groupie, self-absorbed, immune to my surroundings. but as my brightly colored little train heads up into the mountains known as the gate way to the himalayas, my world view starts to improve. the unnaturally bright colors of india starts to saturate my brain, mountains, 100-year-old

bridges, it is well, breathtaking. my fellow passengers, too, are irresistibly charming. chanting as we pass through one of the tunnels. i pretty much have forgotten about my hunger until the whistle stops. one of these, two of these, this place is named for a colonel, the british engineer tasked with building the line up to shimla,

the station and the tunnel bearing his name are are you moo-- rumored to be haunted. already behind schedule and plagued by cost overruns, when he realized the two ends of the tunnel did not meet the middle he shot himself. it is the kind of personal accountability i would like to see more of frankly, or is that just me. but all of my snarkiness fades, and one can't help but reflect what it took to blast and drag a tunnel up this route. back in the day, a trip to shimla required a three-day trek up to the mountains by foot or

horse. the stats are impressive. the climb of around 5,000 feet over 100 tunnels. more than 800 bridges, an engineering feat, a job that when you consider the time defies imagining. in the building of this railroad many died. many, many died.

>> when you look at that painting, when you stand out front in the garden and look out at the view can you picture the way it was? >> i have been to many places where it reminded me of what it must have been when the british first came and settled here. i have a penchant for such places. it is a kind of a prop that i feel. >> fond memories of british rule, maybe not what you would expect to hear. but reggie, his family was different. indian royalty with palaces, the 1% of the 1%, so life for reggie as a young boy was relative to

the millions and millions of others his age, enchanted. shimla was from a time before partition, when nearly the entire ruling class of british india would move to stations in the hotter months. shimla was once known as the queen of all hill stations. here, the colonials created england in miniature. complete with tudor architecture, rose gardens, afternoon tea. >> my grandfather, it is very difficult to describe what did he do when quite frankly he did nothing. but he entertained hugely.

>> garden parties, fancy dress balls, elephant hunts. the remnants of british rule can still be seen and felt. this is particularly true of one house. chapsley. >> my family was very fortunate that they were able to buy this house. because it was a famous house. >> the house was purchased by reggie's grandfather, the last maharaji. >> they really left beautiful buildings. >> from a distance it looks much the same as it must have when the maharaji slept here.

check out the tub. locked in a constant battle against time and nature. barbed wire does little to keep shimla's ever-encroaching monkey population at bay. stripped of their wealth and their kingdoms, the one-time royals all across india had had to either sell their estates or like reggie turn them into ho l hotels and guest houses in order to hold on.

ring a buzzer and a servant appears. they bring you hot water bottles at night to put them under the covers. build a nice fire. >> a great facet of my childhood was how my grandfather entertained. his stable came to be known as perhaps the most famous in northern india. >> tonight, dinner at chapslee, an elaborate anglo-indian menu from reggie's childhood. my fellow guests, two of reggie's friends.

a historian on the subject of shimla, and the barrister. there is so much history here, while i take a dim view of colonialization it is very hard to resist the chargmcharms of a like this. >> that is quite understandable. you have a 100 years of history funneled into a very small place. >> this is eggs florentine. oh, that is good. this was a small town? >> a small town with a very, very big government. >> simla enjoys the unique distinction of having been the summer capital of india, and surprisingly it was the capital of burma during the war days.

>> here you have this tiny little village up on the hill connected to the rest of the world by narrow mountain path and the rule, approximately the fifth of the human race for eight months of the year. in today's context it would almost seem bizarre. >> classic example of what we think of as indian food in the west but not at all. this was originally a soup made by indian chefs to accommodate the british tastes? >> it was half way between a lentil which you would eat and a broth. basically meat cooked in its own fat. this meat is not actually mutton. >> here, back before the rail

line it would be a difficult trip. >> yes. >> but once they were up and running there were many servants to look after your every need. you had a fireplace. >> they had people whose only jobs would be to shoo monkeys off the grounds. >> this man would go stamping his staff, normally they were not even supposed to look in the direction. it was bad manners. >> it was not easy for the people who worked. it was india that paid the bill for all of this grandeur, they did it at our expense and without money. >> at the end of the meal, there

is coffee, brandy and cigars in the sitting room. as one does, or once did. >> i hope you enjoyed your meal. >> oh, very much, it was wonderful. lot of history in this house. and one can be forgiven for maybe briefly forgetting what it took to build this lost kingdom. and how much the world has changed around it.

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>> the monkey temple looks down on shimla, overrun by its name sakes. twisting up further into the himalayas, i find myself in a place known as the land of the gods. nearly every village credited with having its own deity. getting there, you might well have an opportunity to meet one of those deities.

as you tear around narrow guard-rail-free mountain roads overlooking terrifying drop-offs. i could do heights, i have done the jumping out of planes thing a number of times. but i feel it, looking over a precipice like to one, i feel it in my knees. you know like, if my knees could vomit with terror they would be. and they would be vomiting with terror right now. they should have little underwear stops on this road like where you could get a fresh pair, every couple of miles it is like ooh! overloaded buses, water trucks with worn brake pads aggressive truck drivers could come whaling around the corner at any time. and they do about every two minutes. squeeze your cheeks tight and close your eyes. oh, the champion of india.

the remote locations of these isolated mountain villages has kept old traditions alive. village fare serves an opportunity for families who live very far apart to get together, play games, eat and partake in religious rites honoring local deities. >> quite a ride getting here. >> yeah, how do you enjoy that road? >> white knuckles. meet hasheem, he runs motorcycle tours through these parts. >> it is the holy grail of motorcycling. it is so unbelievably beautiful. >> so we have vegetable curry.

>> vegetables again? surprisingly not a problem. it was good. one of the few places in the world that i can eat vegetarian every day and still be happy. most of the people in this area, farmers? agricultural? >> yes. >> what are they growing? >> a lot of corn, potatoes, peas. >> and wheat. as an export product or for personal use -- >> everything. so you think you want to go check out the town -- >> yeah, let's take a walk through town and see what is going on. >> it is an opportunity for all of these religions to come together and specialize, i mean, people are busy on their farms. they don't want to come down and socialize with people. but this, because it is autumn, everyone is done with the agriculture. now they're bearing down for winter. there is a lot of romance in the

ai air. >> i've been to mumbai, calcutta, carolla, this is a part of india different than any other part. it is fascinating, beautiful. oh, yeah. sweet. ♪ ♪ ♪ wow, it's moving.

>> end of the road.