Visiting Delhi

Both me and Ilario were rather tired after our respective trips on Saturday, but were still keen to explore Delhi on Sunday. We hired the same taxi driver I'd used for Agra for the day, since we'd gotten along very well on the previous day (in spite of his rather limited command of English...)

We started our visit of Delhi at the outskirts, at Qutub religious complex which includes the oldest mosque in India, dating back all the way to the 12th century, as well as the impressive Qutb Minar (a minaret measuring an impressive 72.5 meters). The site, with its impressive array of buildings, was originally a collection of Hindu and Jain temples, but they were all destroyed when the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque (the oldest mosque in India) was built. All in all, an interesting site to visit and walk around - in particularly Qutb Minar is a truly impressive structure. And thankfully, there are few trinkets salesmen and wanna-be guides inside the complex.

We continued our Delhi tour with a visit at the Lotus Temple - a rather impressive piece of modern architecture, located a bit outside the town centre. The flower-shaped structure (it kind of reminded me of the Sydney Opera house, actually) was built in 1986. It's a temple of the Baha'i Faith, which emphasizes the "spiritual unity of mankind" - which basically means the temple is open to people of all faiths and religions. It's a very nice place to visit, and not only because of its architectural merits. In spite of the huge amounts of people visiting the temple, it is also a true haven of peace - something one can really appreciate in a place like Delhi (which is everything but peaceful!). I also like the principle of a place of worship that's open to people from all faiths.

Our next stop on our totally unrealistic "see all of Delhi in one day" tour was Humayum's tomb, another "prototype" for the Taj Mahal (a bit like Akbar's mausoleum, that I visited the day before). Humayum was a Mughal emperor who reigned some 60 years before Shah Jahan (who built the Taj Mahal). This mausoleum is the first garden-tomb in India - and is a real prescendent for a lot of the later impressive Mughal architecture (such as the Taj Mahal). A very impressive site to visit, although not quite as sublime as the Taj Mahal (but the similarities are there clearly to be seen). Again, a pretty nice place to escape the bustle and hustle of Delhi as well...

Continuing our rather fast-paced tour of Delhi, we made a stop at India Gate, which is the National Monument of India. It is quite a recent construction, having been built in 1931 by the Brits - it's inspired by the Arc de Trioumph in Paris (pretty obvious from the picture, I suppose...). It commemorates the 90,000 Indian soldiers who died fighting for the Brittish empire - the site also has the tomb of the Indian Unknown soldier. The parc next to it seems to be a popular place for locals to chill out, and get away from the heat (there were even plenty of people having a swim in the pond next to the monument). Apparently the gate is very impressive night-time - I guess we'll have to leave that for my next Delhi visit!

After a rather tasty lunch of butter chicken, we headed on to Old Delhi, which we'd saved for the end of our Delhi tour. As we got closer to Old Delhi, the traffic got more and more chaotic and noisy (and the modes of transport got more and more diverse - plenty of more bicycles, ricksaws and even the odd animal sharing the streets with the cars and buses), and the street scene also got more colourful - back to "The Real India", one could say. After some rather impressive manoeuvres, our taxi driver was able to get us to the famous Great Mosque and even park his car! (I was particularly impressed with the parking space he chose - I think he wouldn't have gotten away with that here in Europe!)

The Mosque, or Jama Masjid as it is known in the local lingo, is quite a place, I have to say - going there really gives a pretty good idea about what India is about - with all its contradictions. The mosque is surround by what can only be described as a massive bazaar - once we crossed that (amazingly, without ending up buying anything), we arrived at the steps of the mosque. The crowds occupying the steps gives an indication of what an important place of worship this must be for the sizable Muslim population (by the hordes of people sitting on the steps leading up to the mosque). Apart from the architectural virtues of the mosque (or rather the complex), there is a real sense of spirituality about the place.

I mentioned contradictions of India earlier - and you do get to see quite a lot of misery and the other negative aspects that comes with it - beggars, trinket salesmen, wannabe guides, and other dodgy characters... We were also tricked into paying a non-existent entry fee...(these guys are real pros, they had a sign up, gave us entry tickets, and everything!). But when they wanted to charge me for using my camera as well, I said "enough is enough"... It's a bit sad to see that sort of stuff going on at a place of worsip... Anyways, getting back to more positive stuff...
The view up from the minaret over the mosque, the surrounding Old Delhi and towards the red fort really was impressive to make us forget about getting ripped off earlier (mind you, we again paid an entrance fee for the minaret - not sure how "official" that one was either, in spite of the tickets we were given...).
 

We finished our day in Delhi with another classical site - the Red Fort. This fort, which was built by Shah Jahan (yep, the guy who built the Taj Mahal) in the 17th centure, when he moved the capital to Delhi from Agra. India was ruled from here until 1857, when the Brits took over... Architecturally speaking, it's very similar to Agra Fort that I visited the day before. I think I enjoyed the Red Fort more than Agra Fort - perhaps because of the less oppressive heat and stunning light (nice for an enthusiastic photographer such as myfelf...) that came with the fact that it was getting pretty late... A nice way to end a rather hectic, but very fascinating visit of Delhi.

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped by at a shopping mall in Noida, for a bit of late shopping, and dinner. What a contrast to the Old Delhi we had just visited! This shopping mall is all about the new, modern and succesful India, with its braded fashion shops, western-style cafes and so forth. An interesting experience in its own right! Thankfully, in spite of all the Starbucks, McDonald's and other chain restaurants, we did find a traditional Indian restaurant also where to have dinner. Believe it or not, dear reader, but I really struggled to finish my meal, good though it was! (I think my stomach was starting to rebel against the constant assault of curries!).

On Monday evening we were kindly invited over for dinner by our colleague Sandeep, who lives near our office in Greater Noida. Another fascinating cultural experience  - and we got the opportunity to try some Southern Indian cuisine as well (Sandeep and his wife both come from Southern India). We also met a friend of Sandeep's who spoke Italian! (he was moving to Milan, so was quite keen to get pointers from me and Ilario about life in Italy).

We wrapped up our trip the next night with a meal together with all our colleagues in Noida - Claire who had just flown into India also joined us. Time for one last proper Indian meal then - I tried some hotter curry this time to see how I could handle "food for locals" and was surprised that I could handle it rather well (I even impressed my Indian colleagues by foolhardily eating some fresh chillies..). A great way to finish off a memorable week in this fascinating country!