Delhi Darshan - 4

Another weekend. Another outing. I must have been really crazy to step out in the sun, but some spirit in me kept me going. On Saturday, we 3 from the guest house left for Delhi Haat, at the peak time of 1:30 PM to have lunch, as in the guest house lunch wasn't served anyday. We took a direct bus to Kidwai Nagar, which is only 3 stops from Hauz Khas and walked 2 mins to reach Delhi Haat. The entry ticket was Rs. 15 per head. There was little security check, and as we entered, there were rows of handloom and handicrafts exhibition. This place is basically an open exhibition which runs thru out the year, where people from different states come and sell their stuffs.

As we were damn hungry, we set out to eat first. At the rear end, foodstalls of majority of states of India were put up. There were Kashmiri, Oriya, Assamese, Rajasthani, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Andhra, Gujrati, Maharashtrian and Delhi foodstalls. But I couldn't see a Karnataka food stall anywhere. Deepti had been telling that Rajasthani food here was good. So, we took Rajasthani Special Thali, which was Rs. 120. They served dal-bati-churma, 2 types of rotis, 2 curries, rice, 2 sweets, raita & pickles. It was amazing, and very filling. After having that in the shades, I felt like sleeping over there itself!

After having lunch, we set out to explore the market. Apart from the normal handicrafts, the special things which I saw were the Kashmiri carpets and miniature paintings. They were so good, and when I spoke to a carpet merchant, he told that the cost of a 2ft x 4ft carpet was Rs. 8k, where as in Bangalore if they had sold, it would be Rs. 25k!

There were not many guys stuffs here, and out of which were available were too costly. The bargaining policy never worked here, and so I didn't buy anything, while the girls bought some stuffs.

We left Delhi Haat by 4 PM or so and took a rick to Ansal Plaza. This is a mall around an amphitheatre. The place was cool, but the same shops everywhere was boring. Over there, on a huge screen, the first match of IPL Season 2 was being played, and I watched it while the girls went on a shopping spree. We left this place by around 5:30 PM and reached the guest house by 6.

At around 7 PM, myself and Deepti went to Jagannath Mandir, which is very close by to our guest house. This temple was awesomely cool, calm and free from city's traffic. I wish I had taken my camera. Probably sometime later, I will revisit this temple and take some snaps.

On Sunday, I had all set plans to coverup the Humayun's Tomb and Jama Masjid. I left by 10:30 AM, changed 2 busses and reached Sarai Kale Khan ISBT, as this was the place on Google Maps which appeared to be close to Humayun's tomb. But when I landed there, people told that I had taken the wrong route and I had to cross the Nizamuddin station and take a rick or walk down from there, else from ISBT it would cost Rs. 70 by rick. So I walked down the Nizamuddin station (badly maintained!) and went on the opposite side. From there, I took a rick and went to the tomb. The rick guys didn't understand what a Tomb was, and then I had to explain what it was and how it looks, and then they gave their local name - Humayun ki Maqbara.

Well, I reached the world heritage monument by 12 PM and bought the ticket. I entered 2 big Darwazas to have the first look of the tomb. The paths & gardens were very well maintained. But it was only damn sunny.

According to the place description here, Humayun's tomb was built by his grieving widow Hamida Banu Begum. This is the precursor to the Taj Mahal and it stands on a platform of 12000 sq mt and reaches a height of 47m. This is also called 'Dormitory of Moghuls' as it has more than 100 graves within it.

To enter the tomb, there were about 20 long sized stone steps. The view of the gardens from the top was superb. Mughals had a great taste in architecture indeed. I went around the huge area on top and I found the entrance to the tomb.

I went in and found a number of small tombs here and there. The Mughal family rested here. In the centre was Humayun's tomb.

After going around it again and taking some rest under a tree, I left for Jama Masjid. After enquiry, I took a bus straight to Jama Masjid at around 1:15 PM. I had told the conductor to let me know when my stop comes, but the idiot forgot and I had to get down at the last stop. He told me a route to go to the Masjid though. I followed his advice and walked down. The area was very shabby, bad roads, and very dirty. This was the other side of Delhi, its like K.R Market of Bangalore. And worse, this was the real Delhi 6.

I moved down and surprisingly saw a Cafe Coffee Day. I was damn hungry and had a pizza. I continued and I saw the lanes having the name of Chandni Chowk. I heard the food over here was very good, but I didn't feel like having anything looking at the dirty area. There was one Gurudwara too on this road.

I continued my walk to Jama Masjid by enquiring every other person and finally reached the place, only to find that to enter the place, one had to remove shoes and if holding a camera, we had to pay Rs. 200! What the heck! Now, who wants to go over this place barefooted in this scroching sun! And the place also looked very dirty. I felt it was not worth entering it, so just took the pic from outside and thought of where to go next.

At the Jama Masjid bus stop, I thought I'll go to Karol Bagh, where I was told that there were lots of tours n travel operators. I just had to enquire about any tour to Mathura-Vrindavan, and all operators told that Agra also would be included. I collected their pamphlets and started back to guest house at around 5:30 PM. I changed 2 busses and finally reached the guest house by 7 PM.

With this, I covered all the major attractions of Delhi, baring a few like Raj Ghat, Teen Murti Bhavan etc, which is not in my tour list anyways. And this being summer time, I dont think I'll consider visiting these places. But still one thing remains in my list - Akshardham temple, which is in pipeline, as all our folks also havn't visited yet.

In the coming weeks, we are planning to have long trips (2 days max) over the weekends. Some tours which have been jotted down are: Jaipur-Ajmer-Pushkar, Agra-FatehpurSikri-Mathura-Vrindavan, Udaipur, Chandigarh-Shimla, Amritsar and Rishikesh-Haridwar. Lots of places to see, hope we can see! Looking forward for it to happen..!

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P.S.: Oh Surya Devta, thoda hum par reham karo!