I got Kicked out of the Golden Temple for this 🇮🇳

Harry’s first day back in India after a year, in Amritsar in Punjab, close to the Pakistan border, with Will on his first trip to the country. Most of it is a walk: a sugarcane stall he takes over for ten minutes, a stranger’s tea, a card game on a work break, a turban tied for 400 rupees that renames him Harry Singh for the rest of the video.

The Golden Temple is the destination and the part he takes seriously. He explains what it actually does — roughly 100,000 free meals a day, somewhere to sleep, open to anyone of any religion — and gets moved on by the Sikh police after swimming in the holy water while filming. His own verdict is that he should have been less obvious about it.

Two smaller things worth flagging. He is stopped by plainclothes police at the airport and asked to show them his footage, which he says has never happened to him before. And a tea invitation turns into an anti-Muslim conversation he declines to pursue.

Key moments

• [00:33] The prepaid airport taxi desk wants 750. He books a ride app instead and pays 500.
• [01:15] Plainclothes police stop him filming and ask to see what he has shot.
• [01:50] It resolves once he speaks a little Hindi and uses the right form of address — which he offers as a tip.
• [02:23] His driver buys him chai before he can buy his own.
• [03:30] Amritsar, near the Pakistan border.
• [04:43] He teaches Will the one Hindi phrase he says you need in India: I don’t want it.
• [05:13] Harry takes over a sugarcane stall and serves a customer.
• [06:16] He pays for her drink, on the principle that when people pay for you, you pass it on.
• [09:04] The Partition Museum, and his summary: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were one country until the British divided them.
• [09:39] A side street with no cars, which he describes as India on silent.
• [10:13] Will’s first impressions — overwhelming, but he doesn’t feel unsafe.
• [10:46] A stranger invites them in for tea.
• [11:18] The conversation turns against Muslims. Harry says he has been to Pakistan and found the people kind, doesn’t press further, and afterwards says he probably shouldn’t have asked the question.
• [12:31] A man who freezes completely at the sight of a camera.
• [13:17] A card game, cigarettes and chai on a work break.
• [14:30] Population growth, and its consequences in pollution and rubbish. He is blunt that it’s dirty and equally blunt that you look past it.
• [15:31] Getting a turban tied, at 400 rupees.
• [17:33] Why the hair is covered: it isn’t cut or shown, and there are many styles. His is the freestyle.
• [18:11] He is renamed Harry Singh, and stays that way.
• [19:47] Chai at 10 rupees, about ten cents.
• [22:11] The best detail in the video: he’s told his surname is a Hindi word for someone who invents their own job.
• [26:42] A shop tout who will not take no for an answer.
• [27:20] His method, stated: be persistent, and kill them with kindness. The man is forceful rather than rude.
• [27:54] Entering the temple: shoes and socks off, hands and feet washed, head covered.
• [30:00] What the temple does — around 100,000 free meals a day, and anywhere to sleep, for anyone regardless of religion.
• [30:31] Sikhism from the 15th century, founded by Guru Nanak in Punjab: one God, everyone treated equally, other religions respected.
• [31:38] Volunteers cleaning the floors, in numbers.
• [32:11] He swims in the holy water.
• [32:43] There are women bathing nearby, and he says on camera that he won’t film them.
• [32:43] The Sikh police move him on. He accepts it, and says he should have been more discreet.
• [35:54] A perfume seller mixing a scent to order out of a case of bottles, 200 rupees.

Extracted pages

• Place: Amritsar
• Country: India
• Person: Will
• Tips: Be assertive with touts, Don’t point the camera at private moments, Learn the local language