1000 Years In Delhi

Daddy arrived 2 am Monday morning and the rumpus began.

We all seemed to expect Delhi to be like a scene out of some arms smuggling, desert championing, jungle hunting movie. The kind where some brawny guy, in a khaki button-down on a motorbike is weaving through traffic and clamoring street hawkers and monkeys and maybe a prostitute. That kind of stereotypical image you get of streets in big cities in “the east”. 

Delhi surprised us with its state of the art airport, European boulevards, shiny new metro and western style shopping mall. But, lurking under this is the unchanging reality of poverty in a country with 1.2 billion people, a persistent social stratification and a government that funnels millions in state funds to its representatives bank accounts in Switzerland.

The Qutub Minar (tower)

We began our adventure by visiting Old Delhi and the Qutub Minar built by the slave general Qutub of the first Muslim invasion of Hindustan. It was our first encounter with the brilliant red sandstone carving that is the medium of choice for monuments, temples and palaces across the north of India. The Qutub complex contains a mosque built over Hindu temples and a rest stop for weary camel caravans. It is dominated by an enormous tower of sandstone and marble which served as both a tower of victory and a minaret to call the faithful to prayer.

We left the complex and headed to New Delhi. which was established by the English in 1911 as they were moving the seat of their power from Calcutta in the East. Delhi, has in fact been a capital of seven cities but New Delhi is the latest and it imposes itself impressively on the past. In fact, it looks a bit like Paris with its broad streets and big palace and even a duplicate of the arc’d triumph honoring the Indian soldier who fought and died alongside British ones in World War II. 

Old Delhi: A mosque built over
a Hindu temple at the Qutub Minar Complex

New Delhi: A European style palace
on the way up the main boulevard

The green spaces too, evoke the gardens of Paris. But the brilliant green parakeets and large brown kites that criss-cross through tropical trees remind you that this is the other side of the world. In one of these gardens. 

The site of Ghandi's Cremation

We saw the site of Mahatma Ghandi’s cremation, which was surrounded by a constant stream of visitors. In another garden, was the tomb of Humayan, the second of the great Mughal emperors of Hindustan.  He had succeeded Babar (King Babar, perhaps an inspiration for the leephant king) who had come down from Mongolia and conquered Delhi, putting down the rajput princes and uniting the north. Humayun, his son, fond of opium and girls had frittered away the empire, losing his seat and, in the guise of a pilgrim, pleading with the King of Persia to recapture the empire. After seven years in exile he succeeded. His tomb omits such details and instead tells a story of power and faith. Its architectural plan was actually the predecessor to the Taj Mahal.

A window into Humayun's Tomb

Mom and Dad at the gateway to Humayun's tomb

Leaving behind the tomb, we passed the red fort and wound our way into the narrow streets of Old Delhi. Jama Masjid Mosque dominates old Delhi and was built in 1656. We climbed the stps and covered ourselves appropriately. This was Shah Jahan’s last building a huge complex. The structure was mostly an open courtyard that could be covered by a massive canopy. It is worth noting, however, that the Islam of Shah Jahan was a gentler religion than the one we know today.

The Indian Arc D'Triumph

In the tradition of Mughal emperors, Shah Jahan tolerated and even encouraged the freedom of religion in Mughal India. It was only with the coming of his grandson, Aurangazeb, that Islam was declared the single religion of the empire. This intolerance hastened the empire’s collapse and Aurangazeb was its last ruler.

Mom putting her token in the metro, oops no photos allowed

We left the mosque for more secular pursuits and climbed into bicycle rickshaws to squiggle through the narrow stone streets of Old Delhi where reality seems to match more closely the exotic images of the backstreets of India we conjured on the flight from California.

After a full day of sigh seeing our guide dropped us at the Lodhi Gardens which is a beautiful park and necropolis. In 1931, Lady Wellington turned this group of tombs into a park and it feels a bit like a smaller Golden Gate Park. While the paths wind around beautiful old tombs, dating back as far as 1390 they were populated by today’s Delhites in jogging gear with western-breed dogs.  We tried to capture the sun setting over one of the tombs in an artsy moment and then headed back to our hotel via the subway, which was as modern as any metro in Athens, Rome or D.C. Of course, we still had to catch a tuk tuk to make it all the way home.

Sunset in the Lodi Gardens

It was a lovely day of adventure. . . should we tell you about dinner: it was tasty.