Old Delhi

After yesterday, Deb suggested to me that while it was a good day, she didn’t get that much of a sense of the ‘real’ India. She thought we’d looked at some cool stuff and then got back into the car and went to the next one. Today we started in Old Delhi.  Our driver didn’t want to drive his car in the old city, so he organised a Rickshaw driver to pedal through the old city. I’d did feel a little sorry for Mohammed as he pedalled without complaint with the weight of both of us as a handicap in very hot conditions.

Our first stop was The Red Fort. As Mohammed pedalled down the wrong side of the road into the oncoming traffic and explained that Prime Minister Modi was visiting the fort today so it would be too busy there to stop except for a photo. Strangely, the last time I tried to go to the Red Fort, Mr Modi was also visiting that day. I think I need to write him a letter to tell him what day I’m coming next time.

From there were rode through the streets of Old Delhi, where we made our first contribution of the day to the local economy, by visiting the preferred spice market.

A man there explained all the relevant health benefits of the various spices, none of which seemed particularly factual. So I bought a couple of curry mixes and we went on our way to Jama Masjid, India’s oldest and largest Mosque.

Jama Masjid was built in the mid 1600s and can house up to 25,000 persons  for prayer services. It was built by Shah Jahan who later went on to build the Taj Mahal (more on that later).

From there we hit the Old Delhi streets again. You see some strange things on these streets, including a few things you don’t really want to see and smell a few things you don’t want to smell. I’m not sure they have a gas cylinder testing scheme either, but suspect even if they did… these fellows would pick them up from the tip and resell them.

Then it was off to next contribution to the economy as we were taken to another Silk Market. They tried to rope me in on this one and put me in a very special indian shirt while Deb got into a Saree, which I must say was a vast improvement in the gown she was provided at the mosque to make her acceptable.

Somehow, we walked out of there with more scarves and clothes. After lunch we went to Aksahrdam Temple. This temple holds the Guiness world record for being the largest hindu temple in the world. There are many things that aren’t allowed on the premises including cameras. The whole site is amazing in its detail with the highlight being the hundreds of life size elephants each carved from 20 ton stone blocks around the perimeter of the temple.

We finished our day at Akshardam with the a lights and fountains show that has to be seen to be believed. The use of lasers and image projection on the surrounding buildings was magnificent. We didn’t really understand the dialogue as it was all in Hindi, but that didn’t really matter. We sat with a group who were especially focussed on our enjoyment as were ‘Guests of India’. They made sure that not too many people squeezed into our space and that they all sat down in front of us.

Overall, it was an interesting place to visit and I would recommend visiting late in the day to take in the water exhibition. Most of the other exhibitions are a little heavy on the ‘message’, but are well done. An outstanding question for me was that this grand temple being built among a philosophy of self denial seemed a little incongruent. Ultimately, there did seem to be a mixed message, so it is best to suspend belief and enjoy.

Unfortunately, no photos… but go to their website and there’s a few pictures there.  http://akshardham.com/

Until tomorrow!