My favorite places in New Delhi

4 July 2011

After two weeks roaming around New Delhi, these are my favorite places:

1.       Qutub Minar complex

Other than the superhigh tower in the middle that becomes the most photographed feature of this complex, I like being surrounded by the ruins. Those ruins made me imagine how the city was centuries ago and how advanced their cilivization had been for centuries. The journey to Qutub Minar was also a relatively smooth journey. Alighting at Qutub Minar Metro station, I took a mini van (only Rs 10) to go to the complex.

2.       Tughlaqabad Fort

This is another ruin of city from 14th century. It was built between 1321-1325 and it was connected with Ghiyathu’d-din Tughqlub’s Tomb (now they are separated with the main road). Unlike Lal Qila (Red Fort), Purana Qila, and Qutub Minar which were restored quite well and had smooth path and clear explanation in each building in the complex, the well-restored part of Tughlaqabad was only the fort. Inside, there were ‘only’ ruins of palace, houses, and a huge water tank, with bushes everywhere. However, I think the ruins are the things that make this place beautiful. The lack of smooth road which made me have to climb some stairs a bit and poked by bushes was also one unique thing that I didn’t get in other sites. Unlike Lal Qila and Purana Qila which even had a huge park inside where people can sit under the trees and have a picnic, Tughlaqabad doesn’t have an artificial park. Standing there at the top of the ruins and watching the complex below me reminded me of some history lessons from text book and Prof John Miksic, my “Marketing Southeast Asia Heritage” lecturer. Yes, there I was standing in typical Indian palace with some dry ponds and water tank. Water plays an important part in Indian architecture, which explains why the Sultanate Palace in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, also has a pond and lots of water channels. Ancient temples in Indonesia are heavily influenced by Indian architecture and there I was standing, in an ancient Indian architecture. Walking through corridor that used to be a market, I imagined how crowded the market was and how the trade used to happen there. It was just a beautiful experience for me. But a question arised, “How long can this fort stand?” Looking at the bushes and wild plants around, there is an urgent need to preserve this building. Another question is, “How to market this site and other unpopular sites?” Seeing the long queue in front of Lal Qila and comparing it with the quietness of Tughluqabad (there were only me and the other 4 people whom I only saw from far away), surely this site can be marketed better, especially as a site that is even older than Lal Qila and Purana Qila.

3.       Lal Qila

i left Bahadurgarh at 6.15 am and reached Lal Qila at 9am. There were not many people inside the complex so I really enjoyed myself walking around from one pavilion to another pavilion and being amazed by the buildings in the complex. Red Fort is very majestic and there were many things to see inside. On the top of some buildings, pigeons were just flocking there or flying from one building to another building. Among all sites that I have visited, Lal Qila was the only site with a different kind of bricks: red bricks (that’s why it is called Red Fort). Purana Qila, Humayun’s Tomb, and Tughluqabad Fort seems like they were made of same types of bricks.

So yeah..those are my favorite places in New Delhi. My crazy weekend was last Saturday. I left Bahadurgarh at 6.15am, reached Jama Masjid at 8am, then took a rickshaw to Lal Qila and reached Lal Qila at 9am. In Jama Masjid, a man greeted me and “guided” me to the Mosque and explained A-Z. I already had a feeling that this guy would ask for money but I didn’t have the gut to tell him, “You can talk, but I don’t give you money!” And yeah...my intuition was correct. This man said, ‘I’ve explained these things for you, so you give me Rs 200.” I wanted to give him Rs 50 and of course he said that Rs 50 is nothing. So I said in my mom’s style, “I only have Rs 100, you want it or not?” Grrrr.. I was very pissed off till I lost my mood to spend more time there. It’s totally a different case with Tughluqabad. In Tughluqabad (the week after Jama Masjid experience), I already gestured to the old man, “No.. money..” coz I don’t want to get cheated again, but this old man is around my grandpa’s age, most likely 60 plus and even though he couldn’t speak English, he’s really helpful in bringing me around the complex. And you know what?? The man didn’t ask a single penny from me. So at that moment, I remember my dad. I just felt like I want to give, so I asked this old man to take picture of me and slipped a little bit of many to his hand, just like what my dad usually does in this kind of situation. At that moment, I was really thankful coz my dad has taught me indirectly how to be sensitive to the inner movement in my heart and how to do it in a way that will not offend the person whom we give money to.

Back to the crazy Saturday. I spent 2 hours at Lal Qila, then I walked to Gurudwara Sis Ganj, a Sikh temple. It was a small temple, but because there were not so many tourists there and the place was used for worship and prayer, I like the atmosphere there. It’s always nice to see how people are so devoted. From Gurudwara Sis Ganj, I went to Purana Qila. From Metro Station, I insisted that I didn’t want to take auto because on the map, it looked near from the Metro, but I was wrong!! After I walked and walked and walked straight, I stopped at the bus stop and boarded to the bus with two other people. Interestingly, one of them, the girl, was from IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) in Kanpur, so I told her that I had a workshop given by Prof Iyer. She knew Prof Iyer too!

I spent another 1 hour in Purana Qila and the mosque opposite the fort, then I took auto to another metro and went to Qutub Minar. Qutub Minar was amazing!! I spent 1.5 hours there, enjoying the scenes of ruins and took picture here and there. The sad thing was the two other guys, fellow NUS interns, were supposed to join me at Qutub Minar. They told me that they would be late, so I just went in myself (luckily!). Then, the guys said, “Ohhh.. we don’t buy tickets and we already walked around the complex.” Arrrghhh... it’s different!! It’s totally a different feeling to be inside the complex. I tried to ask some other tourists to take picture of me, but they rejected me..hikzzz.. so I didn’t have a single picture of myself at Qutub Minar. Sobbed...

After Qutub Minar, I went to Hauz Khas to go for recollection at Opus Dei Centre. I really feel at home when I’m at the centre. The people are nice, just like the my friends at Opus Dei Singapore. the oratory is bigger. I met another university student who regularly comes for Circle, her name is Tara. Her mother is an expert in autism!!! So cool, right?? She’s currently third year in Delhi University and she studies English.

Okay... I should stop here and talk about my Sunday in another post.. Hahaha.