Some of us played a game as kids where you had to circle or put an “x” through whichever picture didn’t belong in a group of pictures? Like there would be a dog, a goat, a cow, and a car and you would happily and quickly circle the car! It was easy, fun, developmental and it made you feel smart. Well based on one day in Old and New Delhi, I don’t think you can play that game here. I am here to tell you a man walking a goat does belong on a boulevard with a Mercedes; rubble does belong in front of a series of stark and clean white buildings; beautiful and colorful saris can be draped over old rickety bicycles; beggars belong right beside elegant temples and upscale hotels.
This is not a profound observation. After all, Delhi is called the “city of contrasts,” and a couple of my Indian friends reading his blog have commented how interesting it is for them to read an outsider’s perspective on things that they take for granted. I begin to wonder about just how rich the imaginations of Indian children must be in a world where all sorts of things go together.
Like a government with a Muslim female president, a Hindu prime minister and I think a Christian vice president?
We toured New Delhi and all the beautiful government buildings including the President’s digs which has like more than 300 rooms and kind of looks like Buckingham Palace.
Okay, so a shout out is due to my friend, Arnie, who insisted that I take the evening ride on the Ganges and said the Gurudwara Banla Shahib Sikh temple was a must. Thanks to you too and Sarita and Lesli for seconding that emotion. When I arrived at the temple,
I was overwhelmed with such a profound sense of gratitude, I just had to sit there for a while and listen to the music, feel the love and peace and the good will to all folks that the Sikhs have as the basis for their religion. All white marble and clear and calm with the huge reflecting pool really moved me. I loved seeing folks preparing food for the kitchen that serves 40,000 meals a day to Indians in need- is that possible? Maybe it’s “a week?” My tour guide was this fabulous woman with a lot of facts, numbers and dates, so my head was swimming by the end of the day.
I also loved the Jami Masjid mosque – the scale is crazy, the marble and the sandstone are so majestic-- all the detail and symmetry so perfectly executed , it made me just want to bow down and pray to the West (a new and different direction for this Christian girl.) But Humayun’s Tomb was off the hook- like wow, this is where you get to go hang when you and your closest family and friends die. Most folks don’t know that the first wife of the second Mughal emperor commissioned the tomb, complete with amazing gardens, for her husband. He must have been a damn good husband. Then I saw the Qutab Minar victory tower which is so ridiculously tall and ornate, as are the remains of the mosque around it that the mughals built (on top of a Hindu temple)-- I say ridicuculous because this was all done as recently as the 12th century! You’ve got to give it to some of the mughals- they knew how to build some massive and beautiful structures, too bad they felt the need to raid or demolish all the things that came before them.
Also thanks for all who suggested the rickshaw ride through the market place/bazaar in Old Delhi; wow, I wanted to stop at every little (and I mean tiny) vendor (trims, shawls, fruit, fish, stationery, books, purses, jewelry, fabric, blankets), but I was too busy trying not to fall off the rickshaw as I took pictures. It reminded me a lot of the tiny little streets and old markets tucked behind the major sites and buildings in Beijing.
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