Asia Adventure 2012: Delhi

A 9:30am pick-up for today’s Delhi city tour worked well for the extra sleep in and relaxed breakfast. Altaf was our Driver for today’s tour and our Guide was Enni, a well-educated man with a keen interest in history and religions.

It was quite a whirlwind city tour. We would drive from here to there then pull up to a parking lot and wonder what we were going to see, then somehow behind the walls would be these amazing architectural wonders in the Qutb Complex. Our first stop was to see the Qutub Minar, a five-storeyed tower made of red sandstone and marble. At 238 feet in height, it is the tallest brick minaret (a tower from which a Muslim priest calls his people to prayer) in the world. The construction of Qutub Minar was started by Qutub-ud-din Aibak in 1199 AD. But this scholarly man died just after the first storey was built when he fell down the library steps. His successor, IIltutmish, built the next three storeys (1211-1236). It was damaged by a couple of lightning strikes in 1326 and 1368. In 1368, Firoz Shah Tughlak reconstructed the 4^th storey and added the fifth storey which was made of marble. Until a few years ago, people could climb up the tower, but several children fell and died, so the climbing is now forbidden. In 1311, construction of another minar was started by Alau’d-din-Kahlji. The base and height were to be twice the size of Qutub Minar, but he died and it was left incomplete. The ruins are directly across from the Quwwatu’l-Islam Mosque built from 1193-1197. The south gate, Alai-Darwaza, is the only gate left standing. It is square in shape with an amazing marble dome.

We stopped momentarily at the Bahá'í House of Worship - Lotus Temple. The building itself is a gorgeous lotus design. Enni briefly described Bahá'í worshippers as being people who gather from all faiths/religions without denomination and all following Bahá'í laws which seem to be humanitarian in nature, or an assembly of religious strengths or best-practices of all religions.

Our next stop was Emperor Humayun’s Tomb. Along the pathway to Bu Halima Gateway (which is a gateway to a gateway), the Isa Khan Niyazi's Tomb, is currently being refurbished and unavailable to tourists. But Halima’s Tomb (her status was either a mistress or wet nurse) is to the left of the west gateway, which is now the main entrance to Emperor Humayun’s Tomb. The west gateway is an impressive 16m high structure adorned by six-sided stars, which were used as ornamental cosmic symbols used by Moghuls. Emperor Humayun’s Tomb – inspiration and precursor for Taj Mahal – was built during 1565-1572 by his wife Hamida Banu Begum. This structure of red sandstone and marble was built on a 12,000m² base. There are 100 graves entombed under the base and it is dubbed “the dormitory of Moguls”.

We enjoyed a 40-minute cycle rickshaw trip around Old Delhi Market, during which Enni advised us not to get off the cycle rickshaw and to keep our cameras attached to our person. What a blast it was on the buggy of a bicycle cab with a canopy so low, I had to crouch to see and take pictures. The streets were lined with a massive tangle of electrical wires supplying power to hundreds of small shops. Some seemed to be clustered based on products (beads, saris, jewellery, food, vegetables) and others were fairly randomly placed. It was bustling with shop owners, tap-water stations, street food vendors, customers, and wholesalers providing goods to the shop owners. Motor cycles, cycle rickshaws, bicycles, wooden carts, and the odd insane car all competed for space on the incredibly narrow streets. At one point our cycle rickshaw driver accidentally ran over someone’s foot and a loud exchange ensued. The Market is open for daily chaos!

We did a quite drive-through the government buildings and what Enni referred to as the “Indian White House”. No one is permitted to stop unless they have official government business, so pictures were taken on the fly. We also passed by the parliament building before heading towards the India Gate, another drive-by photo op. I did see people enjoying the parks nearby the India Gate, so I’m not sure why we couldn’t stop and try to take some good photos from the park. At any rate, there is a sign at the India Gate; along with soldier’s names, these words are inscribed, ‘To the dead of the Indian armies who fell honoured in France, Mesopotamia and Persia, East Africa, Gallipoli and elsewhere in the near and the far-east and in sacred memory also of those whose names are recorded and who fell in India or the north-west frontier during the Third Afghan War.’ (Puri, Reena. I . (2011-02-20). Tell Me About Monuments of India (Kindle Location 584).

Can you imagine having to get organized for a 3:15am international flight? Well, it starts with having and early light dinner, packing, then trying to have 40 winks. Altaf, our Worldwide Adventures driver arrived at 11:30pm to drive us to the airport.