Humayun's Tomb

wow... it has been long since I last wrote. Things have certainly been quite hectic but now I am all here to clear the arrears!

Now I know most of you must have read a lot about this very famous monument in delhi (I have) , so I wont bore you with the history.

Some basic info:
How to Reach:  I took the metro to JLN stadium and then a rikshaw to the tomb. Quite simple actually.
Entry Fee: Rs.10 for Indians and Rs.250 for foreigners.

 I really enjoyed visiting it. Being such a famous tourist spot, I had expected it to be very crowded and noisy. But there were hardly any people to be seen! Maybe I got lucky that day, havent really figured that one out.

Mughal architecture holds this special charm for me maybe because I grew up looking at it. I am awestruck every time I see any architectural wonder constructed in that era. Humayun's tomb was no different. I was overwhelmed by the simplicity that such grandeur has to offer. It is sheer magic! I mean how can something so gigantic and magnificent emanate such simplicity and tranquility? The garden and the trees surrounding it only add to its charms.

It was a nice place to walk around that day because the weather was quite nice and as I said before no crowds! Maybe that is why I enjoyed this one more than the others. ;-) Sometimes all the people around you really takes a toll when you are travelling around in India. It is quite exciting and funny in the beginning but sooner or later you'd be wanting a peaceful place to hang around. I was glad to find Humayun's tomb to be a change.

The Aga Khan Foundation is maintaining it and I must say that it is doing an awesome job. I hope they can take up a few more projects up like this one. Our heritage sites certainly need more of these privately funded restorations given there present condition.

Some pictures of what I loved :

The Safdarjung Tomb and Lodhi Garden are also nearby. A day is enough to visit all three. I could only cover Lodhi Garden that day though. Our auto driver couldnt locate safdurjung tomb (its not that well know I guess) and we were getting quite hungry so we went to Delhi Haat instead.

The Landmark forum

My best friend joined something called the  Landmark Forum and invited me to be her 'guest' on her 'graduation day'. I had no idea why a forum would have a graduation ceremony but I still went knowing she would probably kill me if i didn't. The venue was a good 30 km away from my place so my friend had quite enough time to fill me on exactly what it was.
This 'forum' is actually a sort of a personal training and leadership program with motivational speakers helping you overcome your personal and professional issues through probably sharing and rationalizing.
It was a 16 hours a day course and lasted for about 3 days.
I confess I m quite a skeptic when it comes to 'sudden transformations thru a motivational speech/program' kinda story. And this was a 3 day course . What good could it possibly do?  Anyhow I kept my opinions to myself and went into the auditorium.
 Now why did my friend opt for this program in the first place?
 She is EXTREMELY (when I write that in Caps I mean it) shy and absolutely nothing could make her speak to a random stranger ( or even an acquaintance) unless she is lost in some dark alley way past midnight.
The graduation ceremony was a little slow but what was interesting was the different kind of people who attended it. There were big execs, college students, not-so-honest businessmen (yes they confessed that on stage), even tourists! And all of them were smiling all the time and at everybody! Now you don't really find that much in Delhi. :p
 Many of them spoke about their experiences and what they had learnt. And the best part was that they didn't say how their life was transformed after a 3 day wonder course and what an amazing course it was that rebuilt their careers and relationships in 16 hours,etc.  no- instead they spoke what they had learnt about themselves that hindered them from achieving what they wanted. It was nothing miraculous that they were doing. They just showed people how to introspect. Clarity of thoughts. Honesty. It was as simple as that.

I was pretty amazed with the simplicity of the whole thing. But what was really surprising was my friend. She actually raised her hand to speak about her experience. Up on stage. In front of 500 people. Now that truly took away the last remnants of skepticism left in me.

And the effect lasted. (At least till now - and it has been 4 months) . My friend went on a holiday to Nepal last month and actually made a  lot of friends from Bangladesh and China and goodness knows where. The very friend who wouldn't even protest or do anything when a guy kept throwing sharp edged compasses at her for 3 days ( don't worry I eventually took care of him. He still is very afraid to talk to me) actually exchanged phone numbers and sang Disney songs while on top of an elephant with people whom she had met less than an hour ago.

I don't know how much such courses help while dealing with more serious issues but they certainly instilled a new confidence in her that was so necessary . I also don't know what they did or how they did it. But it has certainly made an impact!

Purana Qila

I am obsessed with forts of any kind! My favorite is the Golkonda Fort in Hyderabad. But I loved this one too. Although the architecture might not be as majestic as Golkonda (since it is much much older that it)  yet one cannot deny the charm the place still holds. I do have a few pictures to prove it!


    Qala-i-Kuhna Mosque

       A view of the beginning of the fort 

Sher Mandal : This is the very building that Humayun , the second Mughal  emperor of India fell down to his death while descending for the evening prayer. He used to use this double storeyed octagonal structure as his Library.

                                         A map of the fort

The Purana Qila has an aura of mysticism around it. Looking at the majestic architectural masterpieces scattered all around the Qila makes you believe that the Mughals and all their talked about grandeur did actually exist. The fort has seen more than its share of assassinations , murders, treason , politics and wars. Yet it is also said that the Pandavas (of the epic Mahabharata) too once lived here. 
There is quite a nice Light and Sound show (or Son et Lumeire - whatever you prefer to call it.  :p  ) at around 7:30 pm in the summer months. It is titled 'Ishq-e-Dilli"    عشق - ے -دلّی     which runs for approximately 60 minutes depicting the 5000 year old history of Delhi. It is quite long and the mosquitoes around will probably KILL you if you dont carry a mosquito repellant ( i didnt know that). Although I found the show so mesmerizing that I hardly felt the mosquitoes , the others quite ran out of patience with an hour long show. So I am not sure I'd recommend it to Non History Buffs.


The fort itself should be on your To Visit List if you are travelling to Delhi and even if history doesn't fascinate you much, there's lots of other stuff to do around the place like go boating in the little lake sort of thing , visit the zoo beside the fort or just eat ice cream! Its actually quite a nice place to hang out on a pleasant day.


How to Reach : Any Taxi would probably take you there. Or the nearest metro station would be Pragati Maidan. It about 1 km away from the India Gate.


Timings : From Sunrise to Sunset.


Entrance Fee :  Indians (you re in Luck! ) - just 5 bucks   , Foreigners (Its not that bad actually) - 100 INR
I forget how much the light & show costs but its not much.


So do visit the place! Its definitely worth it.

The Lotus Temple

The Bahai Temple of Worship!  I had initially planned to start with something iconic or historic like the Red Fort or something but the Lotus Temple suddenly caught my intrigue one afternoon and I dragged my mom along to go and have a look at the place. 

We managed to reach just about half hour before the closing time. And never had I expected to see such a crowd! There were people everywhere! I could barely manage to walk without brushing into another human. It was quite an experience ! =)

The picture above was the closest I could get to the temple to take a picture without people covering most part of the camera's lens.

Somehow after a really really long queue we were finally inside and let me tell you it all worth the crazy crowd and the wait. I did expect to see more grandeur after such an amazing exterior structure but I was pleasantly surprised. There was nothing more than simple wooden benches inside. You could choose to sit there or walk out after a round inside.  There were some praying and others just sitting in silence. The silence and stillness of the room created a beautiful vacuum in my mind-something I had been craving for a long time. I still wish I had gone a little earlier so I could have spent more time inside. I am definitely gonna make another trip there soon. I didn't get to learn much about Baha'ullah teachings apart from the little booklet they hand out when you leave. But I am quite certain that it is quite powerful to invoke such strong vibes in the place and make you never wanna leave.

What amazed me most was that no matter how chaotic the crowd outside was , nothing was able to disturb the silence within. I guess that's something I am still endeavoring to learn! 

Hello!

नमस्ते ! !آداب

Delhi is an amalgamation of the old and the new. There is so much to discover and explore. To just visit all the tourist places takes quite a few tours of the city.  How this place gained such significance to the moghuls and still remains the center of activity of  the world second most populous country without losing any of its old world charm holds a great fascination to me.

So after living here for almost four years, i am afraid I haven't even managed to see The India gate properly. And so I am now trying to explore as much as I can starting with the more known spots and perhaps later delve into the little nooks and crannies that make the City of Djinns what it is today.....