Delhi Darshan - 1

Weekends in Delhi have begun. And with it, also comes my Delhi Darshan trip blogs. Friday the 10th April, being a holiday for Good Friday, and a long weekend, set the stage to the Delhi trips.

Myself and Deepti started from the guest house at around 10 AM for Birla Mandir. The previous day in office, I had looked around the Birla Mandir place for the nearest bus stop, and some site showed that the closest place was Connought Place, or CP. We got into bus No. 520 (here, over internet sites, only bus numbers are mentioned for searching and searching between start and destination is not available!) heading towards CP. The first feeling in Delhi bus I got into was not good. The conductor & driver were dressed very casually, in jeans and t-shirts! Bangalore BMTC folks are 100 times better. Also, the ticket he gave me didn't have any info. It was only 7 written all over in a hopeless thin brown colored paper. BMTC is definetly better than DTC! Anyways..

On the way to CP, I saw AIIMS, India Gate, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Central Secretariat, Rail Bhavan, Jantar Mantar and residences of many famous politicians. We reached CP at around 10:45 and from there took an auto to Birla Mandir. Here, as I heard, its better to pay the auto guys how much ever they ask with little bargaining, else if we go by the conventional meter, it would cost us double the fare he mentioned, as he would be taking us for a ride! We agreed to pay Rs. 30 from cP to Birla Mandir. We reached the Mandir at around 11, deposited camera and mobiles and went in. Photography was not allowed inside the temple :(

Birla Mandir, or Laksmi Narayan Mandir is fully constructed with marble. Only 3 prominent colours could be seen everywhere - marron, white and light yellow. In the main temple, there are 3 Gods residing. In the centre is the beautifully decorated Laksmi-Narayan, towards its left is Godess Durga and towards its right is Lord Shiva. All the 3 dieties were decorated very nicely. Outside the main temple, in 2 corners facing the Lords were the dieties of Ganesha and Hanuman. We circled round the temple and next went to Gita Mandir which is next to the main temple. Here, the main verses of the Bhagavat Gita and its explanations with pictures are written on all the 4 sides of the hall. On entering directly is the marble idol of Sri Krishna which is very cute. Besides the Gita Mandir, there was a mirror room, where a small Krishna idol stood in the centre with mirrors on all sides. It was just marvelous.

We came out of the Gita Mandir and saw the Dharmasala, and then decided to go to the park which was behind the temple. This was park was so green and was nice place to rest. There were the Sai Mandir and a small Shiva temple. In some distance was a model of Ganga pouring water, which came directly to Godess Lakshmi on the other end, along a water deck. But, there was no water anywhere. Along the path were carved some of the eminent faces of Mahabharatha, like Yudhistir, Bhisma, Arjun, etc. We roamed around the place for sometime, and found it truely amazing. This is one of the best temples I've ever visited. We came out of the park and were deciding where to go next. We crossed the road thru the subway and got to the other side of the road, as we had to pick an auto from the opposite side. It was just amazing to see again the view of the temple from the opposite side..

For more info on Birla Mandir, click here.

Next, we decided to go to Jantar Mantar, as we had seen it enroute to CP, and caught an auto. The entry ticket was Rs. 15 per head, and good - photography was allowed. There were some structures all in red, actually making no sense to us regarding how to calculate time. It was built by Maharaja Jai Singh, who at that time didn't have a watch and used precission techniques to calculate time. Also, as it was nearing lunch time, we didn't try to explore how this works. Anyways, without permission, we went to the top of the high-rise ramp, and the view from there was just superb. Here are a few snaps..

For more info on Jantar Mantar, click here, and here.

We left Jantar Mantar at around 1 PM locating a hotel nearby. All the hotels in that area seemed to be very expensive, and Deepti told that there was a McD nearby CP. We went in search of it, thouroughly exhausted. We had to encircle a portion of Palika Bazaar, and finally found the McD store. We had burgers and french fries, halted there for sometime and again were thinking where to go next. We could see a metro station opposite McD and thought that we would try this mode of transport also. The metro station was at Rajiv Chowk, and from the map, we could find that Central Secratariat was only 2 stops ahead on the Yellow Line. We decided to go there, and bought tickets. In metro, tokens work, just had to swipe the token while entering and drop the token at exit for opening of gates. This was cool, unlike London Underground where paper tickets were used. The Delhi Metro is modelled similar to London's Jubilee line, and I couldn't find much of a difference between both metros. The station was clean, well maintained and security and traffic guys were also strict. I just took a snap of the metro line, and suddenly a security guy came and asked me to delete the pic I took. Hmm.. security issues :(

It was a 5 min ride to Central Secretariat and we got off there. Walking a little distance, we could see the Parliament House. Its just fascinating to see it from outside, where inside all rubbish things happen which can be seen on TV.

Besides the Parliament House was the Central Secretariat's office. I walked to the middle of the road and as could be seen during Republic Day, I took a snap. Its just cool.

Straight was the Rashtrapati Bhavan and on the sides were the North and South blocks. We headed towards the Rashtrapati Bhavan, under the scrotching sun. We could go upto the gate and saw the place. Straight from the Bhavan was India Gate. This sight is so impressive, the Prez must be having a good time ;) Sir Edwin Lutyens has desinged Delhi superbly.

Next, we went to India Gate taking an auto. This structure is the face of India. Truely gigantic and amazing. I got a feeling of how proud is it to be an Indian looking at this. This place was often telecast on Republic Day on TV, and now I was here! The cap over the upside down gun and the words 'Amar Jawan' is good. On the walls of India Gate, many names of soldiers who died in different wars are carved. We had a look of India Gate from all the sides, and were truely mesmerized.

For more info on India Gate, click here.

From India Gate, we enquired where could we go next from the police. They told that Old Fort, or Lal Quila, or the Red Fort was just nearby within 2 kms. We decided to go there in an auto, but the auto guy charged more. So, we thought of going by bus and took bus No. 502 to Red Fort. In course of the journey, I could see the National Stadium, where Chak De India was shot and Raj Ghat's bus stop. By the journey, I could make out that it wasn't 2 kms in any way, and in many places where I'd previously asked for distances, all would tell very less distance, but in actual it was double than they had told!

The bus driver didn't stop at the Red Fort stop for unknown reasons, so we got down at the next stop. From there, walking for a little distance, we could see the post office bearing the PIN code 110006. Delhi 6 :)

From there, we took a man-driven open rickshaw to Red Fort. We reached Red Fort at around 4:15 PM. The crowd was good, and the view of the Red Fort was awesome. We took tickets and entered. For some distance there were a line of shops. Then we saw the building of Diwan-I-Aam. Diwan-I-Aam, or the Hall of Public Audience was used by the Mughal Emperors for holding Durbars and other state functions. In the centre was the throne.

Walking further, behind the Diwan-I-Aam, were the buildings of Diwan-I-Khas, Khas Mahal and Rang Mahal. Diwan-I-Khas or the Hall of Private Audience was used by the Emperors for giving private audience and state guests. It seems the celebrated Peacock Throne stood in this hall.

For Rang Mahal and Khas Mahal, here goes the description and photos..

We then entered a museum where all old daggers, clothes, vessels etc used by Mughals were displayed. Barely 10 mins after entering, the bell rung as it was 5 PM and the guards asked us to vacate the place. We just had a glimpse of everything, and moved out. We then started to exit the Ref Fort, and we saw the place where the Prime Minister unfolds the National Flag on Independence Day.

For more info on Red Fort, click here.

We then returned to the bus stop and fortunately got a direct bus from Red Fort to Hauz Khas. It took around 45 mins to Hauz Khas and finally arrived at the guest house at around 6:30 PM.

An hour later, we started for Indira Gandhi Intl Airport, as we had to pick up Deepti's sis-in-law in an auto. We reached IGI Airport, but didn't enter it. We just stood at ouside and waited for her sis-in-law. Finally she came at around 9:30, and we took a prepaid taxi to the guest house. We reached the GH at around 10:30, had dinner and crashed on bed.

Overall, it was a super day for me. Started the Delhi sight seeing! Delhi truely rocks..!

More on way... Stay tuned....

And ahoy! This is my 50th post :-)