Delhi, Agra...etc!

We get to Delhi around 10am on Jan 17th 2006. We hail a CNG Rickshaw to Dariyagunj, we get to the Hotel, and not having any IDs on us are unable to get a room.We were told by "people" in Baroda to leave our IDs in Baroda. We were stupid enough to listen to them! Asgi comes to our rescue and knows the mayor of Delhi's son who gets us the best hotel in Dariyagunj. Thank you Zartaj! :)

Delhi in January is quite warm for us. Its noisy, crowded and funky smelling. We bathe, take quick nap and head out to see Jamah Masjid. Zartaj joins us and Raj arranges our site seeing, shopping intinary with him for the rest of our stay here. Wow, the traffic here is amazing..if it were like this back home, it would be a mayhem. Can you say a mutli car pile-up!!!

Jamah Masjid


We enter the mosque through Gate No. 1 and we were all awestruck by the architecture. The mosque was commissioned by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and was completed in 1656 AD. Zartaj's coming along made so much more easier for us to get in. Being so close to Independence Day the security was tight and they weren't allowing any digital cameras in. Thanks to Zartaj, I was able to take in my Canon and our Canon DC20 as well.

I went crazy with my canon, taking in the faint light of dusk I snapped as many pictures as I could before the sun set. The beautiful minarets, a window above one of the gates, sunset beyond the main minaret all became water to my thirst. I am not a professional photographer, but I do possess a keen sense of right and wrong when it comes to taking pictures. Shuara enjoyed running through the throngs of pigeons in the vast openness of the mosque. It was very peaceful there, for a moment you forget that just outside the gates there is poverty, noise and masses of local people going about their daily routine.

We ate at Jawaharlal's and the food was good. I had my favorite, butter chicken with fresh made naan. After dinner we took a stroll along the Jamah Masjid and just wondered how people live here. It was loud, crowded and funky smelling. How did they live amid the noise and chaos. I guess, its' their way of life. They choose to live there, just like we’ve adapted to our small town.

We have an early morning tomorrow and I am quite tired. We have booked a guide who comes along with a sedan. He is going to charge us 4.50 rupees per kilometer and take us around to see Old & New Delhi and then some.