Two weekends ago we (meaning my housemates Ranjanpreet, Sehris, Beenish and I) decided to escape Lucknow for a couple days and go to Delhi. So, several hours of theater-of-the-absurd bureaucracy later, we had train tickets and were on our way on the overnight express. The process of buying the tickets was completely insane - an elderly employee trying to type in our names on a computer that had to be even older than he was, being unable to spell even the Indian names; being shuttled back and forth at least six or seven times between different ticket windows; being told we could pay by credit card and then being ordered to do so in cash, for which we had to go to an ATM and withdraw these huge fistfuls of money because of course the ATM dispenses in 50-rupee notes when you need over 6,000; but in the end getting on the train off the waitlist because we were foreign tourists. Sometimes it's an advantage.
Arriving in Delhi the next morning, we quickly discovered that the 118+ degree heat was a record high, but being the hardcore foreign tourists we are we decided to do all our sightseeing anyway. So - off to the Jama Masjid, where the stones in the mosque courtyard were so hot than after washing our feet in the ablutions pool we could hear the water sizzle off our soles as we scampered onto the carpets that had been laid out for people to walk on. We got lunch at Karim's, a famous Delhi establishment that serves delicious Mughlai meat and kebabs (a Times of India review was hung up on the wall whose headline was 'Of Khusro, Ghalib, and Karim's!'). Afterward, we went to a famous Gurudwara (Sikh house of worship), which was very soothing in its harmonium-based chanting and its cool interior. Braving the sweltering afternoon sun, we saw the Red Fort (Lal Qila) and were able to get me in for the Indian price by inventing a complicated story about how I was the child of missionaries from Tamil Nadu (explanation for why my Hindi was accented) but had gone to boarding school in Delhi, etc etc., and got away with it, which was pretty great. The Red Fort's Diwan-i-Am was surrounded by Indian tourists taking hilarious family photos of themselves (I was very tempted to sneak some pictures and then upload them to awkwardfamilyphotos.com).
At this point we needed to take refuge in our air-conditioned hotel room or shrivel up on the spot (I probably drank about 3 or 4 liters of water and never went to the bathroom), and so we rested until dark before going out to Connaught Place to find a fancy restaurant to eat at and celebrate Beenish's acceptance to SOAS. We found a vastly overpriced Chinese/Thai restaurant that nevertheless was a lot of fun, and then walked around this fashionable circle in the relative cool of the evening. Connaught Place is a real insight into the "new" India - endless lines of designer stores that even reasonably wealthy Americans might have trouble affording.
In the morning, we had planned on visiting the Bahai Lotus Temple, but it turned out to be closed, so instead we went to the (air conditioned) National Museum, stopping to see the India Gate along the way. The museum was mainly archeological in nature, and the pieces that really struck me were the Gaudharan statues from northern Pakistan and Afghanistan that were Hellenistic in style because of the influence of Alexander the Great. It was completely unexpected to find something that looked ancient Greek in a South Asian context.
Mid-afternoon, we headed home and got there in time to try to frantically do the homework that was due on Monday.
Arriving in Delhi the next morning, we quickly discovered that the 118+ degree heat was a record high, but being the hardcore foreign tourists we are we decided to do all our sightseeing anyway. So - off to the Jama Masjid, where the stones in the mosque courtyard were so hot than after washing our feet in the ablutions pool we could hear the water sizzle off our soles as we scampered onto the carpets that had been laid out for people to walk on. We got lunch at Karim's, a famous Delhi establishment that serves delicious Mughlai meat and kebabs (a Times of India review was hung up on the wall whose headline was 'Of Khusro, Ghalib, and Karim's!'). Afterward, we went to a famous Gurudwara (Sikh house of worship), which was very soothing in its harmonium-based chanting and its cool interior. Braving the sweltering afternoon sun, we saw the Red Fort (Lal Qila) and were able to get me in for the Indian price by inventing a complicated story about how I was the child of missionaries from Tamil Nadu (explanation for why my Hindi was accented) but had gone to boarding school in Delhi, etc etc., and got away with it, which was pretty great. The Red Fort's Diwan-i-Am was surrounded by Indian tourists taking hilarious family photos of themselves (I was very tempted to sneak some pictures and then upload them to awkwardfamilyphotos.com).
At this point we needed to take refuge in our air-conditioned hotel room or shrivel up on the spot (I probably drank about 3 or 4 liters of water and never went to the bathroom), and so we rested until dark before going out to Connaught Place to find a fancy restaurant to eat at and celebrate Beenish's acceptance to SOAS. We found a vastly overpriced Chinese/Thai restaurant that nevertheless was a lot of fun, and then walked around this fashionable circle in the relative cool of the evening. Connaught Place is a real insight into the "new" India - endless lines of designer stores that even reasonably wealthy Americans might have trouble affording.
In the morning, we had planned on visiting the Bahai Lotus Temple, but it turned out to be closed, so instead we went to the (air conditioned) National Museum, stopping to see the India Gate along the way. The museum was mainly archeological in nature, and the pieces that really struck me were the Gaudharan statues from northern Pakistan and Afghanistan that were Hellenistic in style because of the influence of Alexander the Great. It was completely unexpected to find something that looked ancient Greek in a South Asian context.
Mid-afternoon, we headed home and got there in time to try to frantically do the homework that was due on Monday.
That sounds like an amazing adventure! MOA actually has some very lovely Ghandaran statues. As it is Minnesota there are only three or so, but still very nice.
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