Delhi, New and Old
Our tour of Rajasthan ended, and we arrived back in Delhi just in time to see crowds of Hindus starting an annual pilgrimage. They were mostly dressed in orange and each carried two small jugs of water which will be deposited at a temple 200 kilometers away. The other major activity in town is construction. They are getting ready for the Commonwealth Games in October and have a lot of streets to fix, hotels to upgrade, subway lines to build, and various other infrastructure projects. There is much speculation, and little confidence, by the Indians over whether or not it will all get done on time. To add to the drama, the local news is starting to report on scandals related to the various inappropriate ways money is being spent on this project.
In addition to constantly wandering though construction sites, we tried to see some of the popular attractions in town. The center of New Delhi, Connaught Place is a big, circular shopping center filled with nice shops. Neighboring streets were filled with the usual tourist trinket shops, quite a lively area of the city. We spent the next afternoon visiting the Red Fort. Although we preferred some of the Rajasthan forts to this one, it is still very impressive. It was built by the Mughals and served the functions of a fort and a palace.
Religion was also a big part of our wanderings through the city. Hindus make up the vast majority in India, but it is a very diverse country and there are no shortage of Buddhists, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, and Bahá’ís. We got a chance to visit a Sikh Gurdwara and observe their daily worship ceremony. A stop at the Lotus Temple gave us a quick intro on the Bahá’í faith. The huge mosque, Jama Masjid, was also an impressive sight. It’s nice to see such peaceful coexistence of so many different religions.
The last day in town, we took the subway to Old Delhi, the part of the city that was not built by the British. This area is full of things to see, including the Fort and Mosque mentioned above, but has a totally different atmosphere than the ‘New’ part of the city. It reminded us more of the streets we saw in Kolkata, and is apparently not impacted by the Commonwealth Games – there is no construction here. We also found a great place for lunch in the Muslim neighborhood near the mosque. They had delicious grilled meats, although beef was still absent from the menu.
The monsoon is finally over, for us anyway, we’re leaving India tomorrow morning and heading to the desert.