Qutb Minar and a farewell to Delhi

Sunday 6th April

- Qutb Minar
- Baha'i Temple

Qutb Minar - more on this below!

another storm - the third and largest this week, which we understand is highly unusual, occasionally broke through our (earplugged) sleep during the night. the temperatures thus far have been, we think, in the low to mid-30s, and it's supposed to be 24C this evening, although it does not feel like it.

we leave Delhi tomorrow morning, on the 6:15am train to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. we booked this several days ago, before going on to the Red Fort. New Delhi station has an absolutely notorious reputation for scams and is reckoned to be one of the worst places to go, but maybe we went on an off day, or not much starts until after 8am, when we went. either way, we found getting the tickets quite easy, with the usual Indian barrage of paperwork and bureaucracy; $10 each to Agra, apparently.

on the way out, the 'teachers' raising funds for their invisible children had started their day's work. beautifully turned out young women with escorts / drivers were ushered past the desperate and the destitute who live here. they may be cheek by jowl, but they never seem to meet - we have yet to see them interact and, under caste rules, this seems unlikely.

determined to get an earlier start, especially with our sunrise train on the morrow, we rose at 7 and eventually made our way over 13km south of the central hub of Connaught Place to Qutb Minar, site of Delhi's 'first' city. the journey, first via cycle rickshaw - a more sedate, open-air change to the autos - and then using the latter, took a while, as few people work Sundays, here, and the streets were quieter at this hour than usual. we spoke to several people trying to get transport, who repeatedly expressed genuine surprise that we had stayed as long as we had in Delhi - the locals could not believe we had managed to find things to do here for what they considered to be a long time. our auto driver said he'd wait for us when we finally got to Qutb Minar, and we decided to bargain for the return price if indeed he was. getting to the site, we saw the same mix we had seen everywhere of street poverty and its polar opposite. Qutb Minar's vertiginous 72 metre sandstone tower announced its presence well in advance of us arriving, all the more remarkable as it was constructed in 1202.

we positively adored Qutb Minar [Edd: Mum, you'd like this place especially, i think.] in atmosphere, if not in sheer scale, it rather reminded us both of Luxor in Egypt - the beautiful dereliction of empires past. it's easy to spend considerable time just staring at the unfeasibly tall, tapering red sandstone fluted tower, deeply inscribed with Qur'anic verses, and wondering how on earth it could have been built over 800 years ago.

Qutb Minar tower and surrounds, Delhi

tower detail

however, the complex holds much more than this 'Wonder of the East,' once second only to the Taj Mahal. the tower - and the site - were built to celebrate Muslim dominance of Delhi and India and its giant gateways, again inlaid with Qur'anic script, certainly do dominate.

Philippa - in pink - is dwarfed by the gates of Qutb Minar.

detail of some of the carving

carving deep enough to make a home.

mosques and hallways proliferate, as well as the rather fabulous aborted attempt by a later ruler, pharoah style, to build an even bigger, higher tower to get still closer to Allah. maybe he ran out of cash - only the first storey was ever completed.

the unfinished minaret, Qutb Minar, Delhi

one real curio is the mysterious iron pillar that resides prominently in the precincts of the mosque. Hindu in origin rather than Muslim, it is known to have been moved here, but nobody knows from where. in addition, it seems to be from the late 4th century, but is 98% iron and rust free, a process that could not be replicated until the 19th century.



emerging from a 'major site' once more buoyed by its impact, our southward rickshaw driver had waited for us for hours - guaranteed tourist money! we had decided we had enough energy to visit the Baha'i (or Lotus) Temple, in many ways a modern riposte to Qutb Minar. imagine the Sydney Opera House rearranged into the shape of an opening lotus flower and that's exactly what it looks like.; Sunday's being Hindu public holidays in general and the site overwhelmed by those coming to pray and meditate, we decided to keep a respectful distance and admire it externally only - perhaps later in our time in India we will be less circumspect.

Baha'i Temple, Delhi

our journey back to Panharganj only sped up for the first time that day when the driver realised that we really weren't going to visit any of his recommended shops - time is money, after all.

advice suggested by all, heeded by none

walloped again by fatigue, we rested for what seemed an age, much of which Edd spent repeating to himself, "you don't have to be doing anything, you are on holiday!" Indian (cable) TV is seriously weird - it's as if it has been designed in tandem by a group of ad-mad executives and a second group of tripped-out hippies. in addition to cricket on at least one channel at all times, it's groaning at the seams with hilariously melodramatic historical tales and daily soaps, quite laughable 'dream' home shows and a torrent of on-screen and mid-programme advertising, even if this means obscuring the programme itself. These include marketing for Nivea's moisturiser for men, disconcertingly with added skin whitening elements, and one show with an on-screen advert in each of its four corners.

our last meal in Delhi we took at 'Club India,' a rooftop restaurant (and you should not be confused by the British meaning of 'club,' either), overlooking Panharganj's main bazaar. it was a marvellous way to say goodbye to a city we already didn't want to leave, for all of its incessant pace, sensory overload and general madness. we ate (slightly blander) food to a soundtrack of the market in full steam, braying cows and blaring horns, looking over the concrete and brick buildings that crowded in on it either in various stages of disrepair or half-way through a ramshackle extension project that may never be completed.


if the food is not enough to contend with, there are all of the subtle scents and overpowering odours of the street below; spices, sizzling street snacks, cow dung and the occasional whiff of open sewer. not a perfume that you would necessarily purchase, but an intoxicant nonetheless.

home happy and reasonably belly-content, we had an early night to prepare us for our dawn train. Delhi has been an impactful jolt of many images, textures, colours, flavours and scents - what would be next to imprint itself upon us?

{:-)

edd & philippa