The first day of our recent visit to India were spent in Delhi, the capital of this vast populous country. The only way to describe the experience is that it was a total assault on the senses. With a population of 33 million, I was expecting a significant contrast with home, but nothing could have prepared me for the onslaught.
Arrival
On leaving the airport, the first shock was the constant traffic noise interrupted only by a continuous orchestra of out of tune piercing honking horns warning anything in their path to get out of the way. I am left with so much admiration for Indian drivers who, in charge of anything from motor bikes and cars to tuk tuks and heavy trucks belching black smoke, manage to somehow miss each other by millimetres in what seems to be a solid mass of mechanical metal.
With out time clocks still not being adjusted to the new time zone, we woke early and took the opportunity to take a walk round the immediate neighbourhood. A green leafy park located across the road from the hotel, was a popular place for the locals. There was a group of women meditating to the sound of rhythmic hand clapping, a group of men exercising in a circle and others briskly walking round the perimeter, singly and in pairs.
Out on the street, we were introduced to the poverty of those living on the street and to the local custom of feeding scraps to the many cows that we found meandering down the street.
Our Tour Group
After breakfast we met our fellow tourists. The tour was advertised as having a maximum of twenty, one of the attractions of us booking it. As it happened, there were only another four in our group: an elderly couple from Brisbane, a solo female traveller from Syndey and another solo female traveller from Melbourne. As the day progressed, it became clear that, despite the mix of ages and backgrounds, everyone fell into a harmonious relationship.
Bazaar
Our sightseeing day commenced with a visit to Chandri Chowk, one of the many city bazaars, where the air was filled with the scent of fruit, spices and curry, with the ever present underlying essence of astringent diesel fumes with the occasional whiff of raw sewage. It was difficult not to touch and feel the quality of the brightly coloured fabrics hanging from the stalls and impossible to avoid coming in contact with sweaty bodies as we dodged our way along the narrow laneways. Passing the kerbside food stalls, we could almost taste the richness of the curry, the sweetness of the bananas and the spice flavoured chai tea, the drink of choice for the locals.
Monuments
We found some relief from this chaos when we moved on to visit a series of historic monuments, temples and other tourist attractions. This gave our guide the opportunity to show off his deep knowledge of local historic attractions and the country’s history from pre-colonial days to modern times.
The first of these was Raj Ghat, the memorial garden and site of the cremation of Mahatma Ghandi who, through his nonviolence resistance, successfully campaigned for India’s independence from the colonial rule of Great Britain.
Humayun’s Tomb was next on the list. Set in magnificent extensive grounds this tomb was entered through a grand gate (that I though was the tomb) and along a wide walkway. Before entering the gate, we detoured to visit Isa Khan’s tomb.
Humayun’s Mausoleum introduced us to the wealth and power of India’s historical emperors and maharajahs that created such grandiose architecture. We were to see more of this during our next few days’ travels.
Our final destination in what was turning out to be a very full and tiring sightseeing day was Qutub Minar, a magnificent 72.5 metre high tower erected in 1199 AD. The tower is set in an extensive archaeological area that features a number of minars, mosques and other structures in various stages of collapse, all now stabilised and protected since the site was awarded World Heritage status in 1993. The stone carvings on the tower and surrounding remains are a testament to the skills of the artisans when it was built. I was left with a feeling of awe, wondering how such a tall tower could have been built.
And so, our first day in India came to an exhausting end. With the prospect of a six hour coach journey to Agra the next day and still suffering a bit of jet lag, we fell into bed early for a great night’s sleep.
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