Delhi : The city of kings

"are you guys crazy?". june 15th, 1 in the afternoon, we had just landed in Delhi, and my folks wanted to go Sight-seeing!. dear lord!. the outside temperature was 42 degrees. folks like me, who have lived in bangalore right through, cannot comprehend such temperatures, infact we didn't know that the thermometer was capable of reaching such temperatures. so first lesson, do not come to Delhi, in the months of may and june, or if you do, get umbrella and sun screen lotion, trust me if you don't have these two, This city will make you vicariously enjoy the insides of a tandoor, and that you don't want. the best time to visit Delhi is in the months of October, november . when the city seems like its romancing the autumn.

but no poetry for us, we did end up sight seeing, sans umbrella and sunscreen lotion. thats why the bitterness. this city has no dearth for tourist attractions. it might have a water shortage but when it comes to tombs, graveyards and mughal monuments, it can make a neat donation to other cities. thats so odd, everybody who was anybody in the mughal era seems to have tomb for themselves. and they took their tombs seriously. and people here still take their toms seriously, so much so that you need to pass through hazaar metal detectors at the entry. since we were goin to the big mama of all tombs, the Taj Mahal the next day, we skipped all the tombs.but Humayun's tomb is worth a visit.

on this trip we went to the lotus temple, which is actually a B'hai praying area, not a temple in the conventional sense. its a very beautiful structure and looks remarkably like the sidney opera house. the inside of this temple is very serene and the best time to visit it is in the morning, because one needs to enter the complex bare footed. after that we proceeded to the Qutub Minar, which is situated in Mehrauli, near Saket. its a fantastic structure, and if my history serves me right, took 3 emperors to build it. in the same complex is situated the Ashoka Pillar, which is an iron pillar which has supposedly not rusted for 800 years and legend has it that if one can encircle their hands around it, with the back to the pillar, their wishes will come true. the government of india it seems, doesn't want your wishes to come true, theres a fence around it and you'll be arrested for trying.

we then went to Chatrapur, which is like a colony of temples, there are modern temples everywhere in this area, dedicated to almost all the gods one is familiar with, the very lavish architecture in all the temples suggests that the temple trust had a lot of money, but not the soul of Bob Geldof. Sigh.

we went to the India gate and then finally to the birla temple. I'm bored now, i won't elaborate on these, i'll talk of Delhi chaat instead. its comme si comme sa, if you like pommegranates in you dahi papari, you'll relish it. and the gol gappas were a lil too thick, but on the whole pretty decent but not worth the hype.

i was with family, so we didn't go to any nightclubs in delhi. mebbe another time. surely