The group consisted of 12 travellers (including myself) plus our group leader, Vivek. Our nationalities were 5 Australians, 3 Argentineans, 2 English girls, a Dutch girl and a young New Zealander. Some were in couples, others were travelling alone; some were in India for the first time, others were old hands; some were in their twenties and others in their sixties, with a range in between. Over the next 15 days I was to become very close to them all and share some great experiences.
We started out on the first afternoon with a walking tour of Old Delhi. As is common in India, absolutely nothing went according to plan, but we ended up having a great time nevertheless. We went to the Metro (underground railway) station but the queues were enormous even by Indian standards and there appeared to be no movement of any kind. So Vivek suggested that we catch a local bus instead. There was an enormous crush of traffic, not just the usual Delhi chaos, so after an hour in the bus and still a kilometre and a half from our destination, we hopped off the bus and started walking. Pushing through the ever-thickening crowds (see photo above), we finally made it to the Jama Masjid in Old Delhi. By this time it was 5pm and prayer time, so we simply walked around the outside waiting for it to open again. By the time it re-opened, there was only 20 minutes left before closing time.
Readers of earlier posts to this blog will recognise that visiting the Jama Masjid was an unpleasant experience for me, and so I had no intention of paying Rs 200 to repeat it. I waited outside with Vivek, who also refused to go in as he had also had unpleasant experiences there in the past. Of course, our experiences were not like the two tourists who were shot on the steps of the Jama Masjid just before the Commonwealth Games, nevertheless it is an unwelcoming place. In some ways I was glad to hear that Vivek had had a similar experience to mine – now I know it’s not just me!
Vivek is an incredibly good group leader – very knowledgeable about everything around him, well-organised, cheerful and most importantly, flexible. After the rest of the group had visited the Jama Masjid, we traipsed through the packed alleyways of Old Delhi. It would have been good to spend more time exploring the tiny shops but it was now dark, as it had taken us so long to get to Old Delhi. Vivek found a miniscule shop that sold parathas (fried unleavened bread with vegetable fillings). The group shared a long table with bemused Indians, who stared at the funny foreigners sharing their hand sanitizer lotion whilst making hand motions as though they were worshipping the food.
Although it was now pitch-black, we headed off to the gurdwara (Sikh temple). Again, we only had a few minutes because it had taken us so long to travel there. The gurdwara feeds anyone who is hungry and asks for food, so we visited their enormous kitchens to see the food prepared. The photo is of a machine that makes 100 chapattis a minute, and there were vats of boiling dal that were large enough to hold several people.
When we made it out to the streets, we could not move for all the people, and we saw an enormous procession of dancers, bands, puppets, people carrying what looked like lit chandeliers (see photo below) and trucks packed with Hindu statues. We had stumbled upon a religious festival to commemorate one of the incarnations of Vishnu, and this explained why the traffic had been so appalling, even by Delhi standards. The police had blocked most of the roads around Old Delhi. The streets were a chaotic mass of people in various costumes, doing various unexplained things and the noise from the crowds and all the brass bands was deafening. This is life in Delhi.
The next problem was trying to get back to the hotel. We tried the Metro again, but as before there was a seething mass of literally thousands of people trying to get tickets. People were pushing and shoving, and it looked like a fight broke out at one of the ticket counters. There was a lot of shouting. So we retreated to the crowded streets. No buses seemed to be running and we walked for a kilometre or two in search of some form of transport. Eventually Vivek found an auto-rickshaw driver who was willing to take us to Karol Bagh (where we were staying) for an exorbitant fee, to which we all agreed immediately. So there we were: 7 passengers, plus the driver, stuffed into an auto. Now these vehicles are about the size of two large washing machines, so you can imagine how cramped we were and how many body parts were sticking out of the vehicle. It was the most uncomfortable half hour of my life, but it was also tremendous fun. There was lots of laughter and general hilarity as we tried not to poke each other in bits of the anatomy that hurt most. It was great fun and everyone was in high spirits despite the discomfort, the lateness of the hour and the ridiculous price we paid for it all. I knew I was going to get along with this group.
No comments:
Post a Comment