December 2009, New Delhi.

It has been a long time since my last post so here is something I shot towards the end of 2009 to kick start things again.

August 2008, Delhi.

Towards the end of our stay in Delhi we went to stay with a friend on the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University. The above photo was taken while exploring the campus one night. With this photo my mini-travelogue comes to an end. I hope you enjoyed reading it.

(To read this mini-travelogue in sequence from the beginning please go here.)

August 2008, Delhi.

After visiting the Jantar Mantar I made my way to Raj Ghat. Raj Ghat is a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi and also the place where he was cremated. Nowadays, it has a mostly ceremonial function, used by politicians from India and around the world for photo opportunities. It is a pity that Gandhi and his philosophy of non-violence have largely become irrelevant in contemporary India. Even more shocking is the contempt with which most Indians of my generation view him. He is blamed for everything from the partition of India, appeasement of Muslims to not doing anything concrete for the Untouchables. In a world being torn apart by religious extremism and unnecessary wars I feel that his teachings still hold great relevance.

In an interesting side note, I met a lady from Aachen (which is about 30 minutes away from Cologne) at Raj Ghat. She had come there with her husband to pay her respects and we got to talking a little bit about India and Germany.

(To read this mini-travelogue in sequence from the beginning please go here.)

August 2008, Delhi.

I made my way to the Jantar Mantar on a hot Monday morning. The Jantar Mantar is an observatory consisting of a series of scientific instruments built in the form of buildings and used to make astronomical measurements (the huge block you see in the middle of the above photo is actually part of a giant sun dial). It was built by Maharaja Jai Singh II of Jaipur from 1724 onwards. A total of five such observatories were built in various cities in North India of which the ones in Jaipur and Delhi are most popular. Incidentally, the area to the right of Jantar Mantar is the officially designated area in which protests/demonstrations can be organized in Delhi by anyone with a grievance. The day I was visiting the observatory there were a group of Hindu holy men protesting and criticizing what they called ‘the appeasement of Christians and missionaries (while being hard on Hindus)’ by the current Indian government.

(To read this mini-travelogue in sequence from the beginning please go here.) 

August 2008, Delhi.

The Hazrat Nizammudin Dargah is the mausoleum of one of the most popular Sufi saints in India, Nizamuddin Auliaya, who is revered by not just Muslims but also by many Hindus and even Christians. The same dargah complex also houses the tomb of Amir Khusro, the famous poet and musician as well as father of qawwali, who was a disciple of Nizamuddin. Fittingly, every Thursday there are Qawwali sessions organized in the verandah before the mausoleum of Nizamuddin Auliya. The above photo is of one of the qawaali singers, from one such session we attended, as he took a break from singing.

(To read this mini-travelogue in sequence from the beginning please go here.) 

August 2008, Delhi.

The day after we returned from Mussoorie I fell sick. It was a viral fever. So another painful decision had to be made. We decided to cancel onward travel to Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh. I had been looking forward to visiting Ladakh but luck was or rather health was not on my side. We pushed back to Delhi so that I could rest and recover. The above photo was taken outside Delhi Haat, an interesting place where you can find traditional art and food from almost every state in India. The day I went there was the first day of a crafts exhibition of artists living below the poverty line. And the dancers above were there to welcome visitors to the exhibition in their exuberant way.

(To read this mini-travelogue in sequence from the beginning please go here.)