Drive-by viewing

Some of you may know that when you travel with kids you don't always get to see everything you'd like to see. As the end of our first day in Delhi was nearing, we had to reduce our stop at India Gate to a drive-by viewing.

The India Gate is one of the largest monuments in a part of New Delhi that reminds me a bit of Washington, D.C.'s, National Mall. This is where you'll find the major government buildings, monuments and museums, along with lots of green space. Next time we're there we hope to spend some time at the National Museum and the Crafts Museum. The India Gate is inscribed with the names of 90,000 soldiers who died in World War I, the Afghan War, and Northwest border conflicts.

Our hotel in Delhi was a homestay, meaning that the hotel is really someone's house made over into a hotel. I don't know that we'll stay at this particular place again, but it was a fun experience. There was a real feeling that you were just staying at a friend's house.

hanging out in one of our rooms

breakfast at the hotel

Coming up: Gandhi, Gandhi, Gandhi!

Hazrat Nizam etc etc

Stop three on our Delhi tour was Hazrat Nizam-ud-din Dargah, the name of which we could never remember or pronounce. This stop was An Experience.

I had never heard of this Sufi shrine before this trip, but our Lonely Planet guide has it marked as a "top choice" for New Delhi and raves that "it's one of Delhi's most extraordinary pleasures to experience the buzz around the site ..." That hooked me. I was determined to see this place.

The shrine is in the middle of an ancient neighborhood just across a busy road from Humayun's Tomb. The area around the shrines (there are actually several to different saints and poets) has been settled and busy since medieval times, and my sense was that it hasn't changed a whole lot over the years.

It's impossible to navigate the neighborhood's tangled alleys by car, so our driver stopped on the main road and pointed us in the right direction. I was immediately glad that we hadn't decided to come in the evening. Here are some scenes from our walk back out of the neighborhood, when we were assured that we weren't walking to our doom and therefore felt relaxed enough to take pictures. These ones are courtesy of Caroline.

The streets were lined with vendors selling anything and everything.

This boy is carrying glasses of chai, or milk tea. I had to include this photo because the scene is so ... Indian.

Just when I was beginning to think Lonely Planet had led me into a tourist trap of a deadlier nature than usual, the alley narrowed even further. Men sold flowers, books of poetry or biographies of the saints, and chadurs (a cloth used as an offering at the Sufi shrines) from booths crammed together along both sides of the alley. The space was so tight that most of the vendors sat up on tall stools or on the display counter of their booths. People started to try to get us to pay them to guard our shoes. I relaxed. It all meant that we were nearly there. It's strange what gives me the sense these days that all is safe and normal.

A hint to anyone who might visit this place in the future: You still have quite a way to go when the first shoe guards start yelling that you have to take off your shoes. We followed the locals and got all the way to the entrance arch before we had to remove our shoes. Then we decided to go in shifts. Caroline and the kids and I went first while John stood over our pile of shoes. Then he went in after us (with Samuel, since he wanted to go again ... my little mystic).

The arch marking the entrance to Hazrat Nizam ud-din Dargah, with chadur vendors

Through the entrance are several small tombs and shrines surrounding a kind of courtyard. The golden shrine of Nizamuddin Aulia is the most prominent.

Nizamuddin shrine

porch of Nizamuddin shrine

Women aren't allowed inside the shrines, but one of the men at the tomb of the poet Amir Khusrau showed Caroline and me where we could peek in through the screening. What we saw is similar to this photo that John took inside the Nizamuddin tomb. Pilgrims throw flowers and chadurs over the burial site.

Don't worry ... John asked for permission before taking this photo.

This man is preparing to enter the tomb of Amir Khusrau. We saw several women sitting around the outside of the shrine and men just inside the wall reading the Koran or meditating.

The best word I can come up with to describe the feeling of this place is "mystical." It was crowded and a little crazy, but the pilgrims come to honor people they consider to be supremely spiritual, whether it's because of their poetry or their good works or their teachings. Men were performing qawwali music in the courtyard, which added to the feeling of busy worship.

I'll admit to having some doubts during our trek through the alleys to find this place, but I'm glad that we persevered. I'll probably never experience a place like this again. If you're ever in Delhi, I highly recommend a stop here. I wouldn't go through that neighborhood at night, though, and I wouldn't do it as a lone female. To be fair, everyone was perfectly helpful and friendly. It's just all a bit ... medieval, I guess. But we made it! And it was pretty cool.

Humayun's Tomb

Our second stop in Delhi was Humayun's Tomb. I have to double-check the spelling every time, because I kept getting Humayun (16th century Mughal emperor) and Hanuman (Hindu "monkey god" who figures prominently in the Ramayana) confused. Johnny thought this was hilarious and messed with my mind every chance he got. Result: I have to look it up EVERY TIME.

Humayun's Tomb is famous because it's the first structure to truly blend Persian and local Indian influences -- and it's big and old and pretty. The culmination of this style of building and formal gardens is the Taj Mahal in Agra.

Symmetry is a big part of this kind of architecture. Here's a photo from the side of the tomb. You can see it looks about the same as the front.

There are also matching gardens and gates on all four sides. This photo is taken from the tomb, looking across the gardens to one of the gates.

I really liked the contrast between the red sandstone and white marble. I don't understand something, though, so maybe someone can enlighten me. I always thought sandstone eroded quickly. So how are these ancient buildings still in such good shape? Thousands of people climb all over them, too.

One thing that Humayun's Tomb has that's better than at the Taj Mahal (in my opinion) is this kind of carved window.

Caroline and Johnny discovered at the little on-site museum that the windows are symbolic of spider webs. There's a story that the prophet Muhammed had to hide from enemies in a cave. When he was safe inside, a spider came and spun a web in the entrance of the cave so that the enemies would think no one had passed that way.

It was fun to peek through the sandstone windows at the tombs inside.

One of Caroline's awesome photos

The carved windows also let some light into the central area of the tomb. Humayun is buried in the center, and the other tombs are of other rulers, of the wife who commissioned the building of the tomb, and even of his favorite barber!

Another of Carrie's photos

and another

Humayun's Tomb belongs on your list of Things Worth Seeing in Delhi. My only complaint (aside from the kids going bonkers) is that Delhi is apparently really hazy in the winter. The temperature was perfect, though, and the haze does allow for sights like this:

Qutb Minar again

I just swiped some of Caroline's photos from her Shutterfly site, and I'm going to post a couple more from the Qutb Minar. These ones really highlight the amazing carving we saw. They also feature some mighty cute kids.

I had to dig out long pants and sweatshirts for the trip, because Delhi is 20 to 30 degrees cooler than Chennai. We're in the dead of winter, and Chennai is consistently in the mid to upper 80s (add the humidity and it feels hotter). Delhi was in the 60s and is drier than here, so mornings felt cold to us. The kids haven't worn cool-weather clothes in months, though, and we discovered that they've done a little growing. Johnny walked all over Agra in pants about 2 inches too short!

Qutb Minar

The best Christmas present we got this year was a visit from my sister Caroline, known around these parts as "Favourite Aunt Carrie."

She gave herself that name when the first nieces and nephews were tiny, and she's brainwashed them all into thinking that's her actual title. It was set in stone four years ago, when one of Johnny's friends told her mom she couldn't come for a bath yet because Favourite Aunt Carrie was about to read a story. Now that's success.

We met Caroline up north a few days before Christmas for a quick tour of Delhi and Agra, and then we brought her down here to see the good stuff. Just kidding! Delhi and Agra were amazing. My jaw dropped at least as often as Carrie's did.

We all arrived in Delhi in the evening, then got to our hotel (a "homestay," which was really fun) for dinner and sleep. Caroline had no time for jet lag, because the next morning we were off and running. First stop: Qutb Minar.

The Qutb Minar complex was built by the first Islamic rulers of India after they defeated the Hindu kings back in the 12th century. The most striking feature is a huge tower, 240 feet tall, that's made of carved sandstone and marble. It was hazy the morning we were there, but the tower was still pretty awe-inspiring.

At the foot of the tower are the remains of a large mosque and courtyard and the ruins of what they think was a school. The rest of the complex is peppered with gardens and tombs.

Tomb of Imam Zamin

At one of the tombs -- I think it was the Tomb of Altamish, but I'm not certain -- you can get a close-up view of the amazing carving that's found all over the complex.

The mosque was built on the foundations of a Hindu temple and made of materials taken from Hindu and Jain temples and shrines. I gather that the point was to proclaim the might of Islam and to squash the previous Hindu rulers completely. It reminded me of the Spanish conquistadores, who razed Aztec temples and built Catholic cathedrals or colonial buildings in their place. The Templo Mayor at Mexico City's Zocalo comes to mind as a good example.

You can see carvings of Hindu deities on this pillar.

Evie did not let go of Caroline for several days.

A shot of the ceiling

So the Qutb Minar complex dates to the 12th century. Ancient, sure, but that's nothing compared to the age of the awesome iron pillar that stands in the mosque's courtyard. The pillar was there long before the mosque was built. It dates all the way back to the 4th century, and historians think it stood outside a Vishnu temple. John says it's a definite example of alien technology, because it's been standing there rust free for nearly 2000 years. Whatever its origin, it's pretty cool.

A fun side story: Qutb-ud-din was the first Muslim ruler in India and the builder of the Qutb Minar. One of his successors decided to outshine him by building a tower twice as high. He got to 88 feet before his death, but then no one wanted to try to complete the project. They probably thought he was nuts. So the beginnings of this tower, called the Alai Minar, are at the complex, too.

Here's a shot from farther away to give you an idea of the size of this pile of rubble.

I went to Qutb Minar with no idea of what to expect, and I was just blown away. It was so fascinating and another reminder of India's long history.

I also learned that there's no escaping what I've started calling our paparazzi moments. Northern Indians are just as frantic to get photos of my kids as are Southern Indians, and the fact that these sites attract hordes of tourists makes matters worse. We grin and bear it and occasionally have to ask with some force to be left alone. Oh, well!

Coming up: Humayun's Tomb, Hazrat Nizam something-or-other, and the Taj Mahal! Stay tuned.

A little Christmas spirit

Way back before Christmas, we joined the consulate community in providing Christmas gifts for kids at an orphanage outside Chennai. We sponsored a 12-year-old boy. John admits to tearing up when he read the boy's wish list: shoes, belt, school bag, etc. The fanciest thing on the list was a volleyball. We decided it might be a good experience for our kids to help deliver the gift bags. It was a long drive to the orphanage but well worth the trip.

The home is for HIV-positive kids. Here's the baby and toddler room.

Santa and some of the older kids greeted us in the courtyard. Evie assured me several times that this was NOT the real Santa but was someone just PRETENDING to be the real Santa. For some reason, all Santas we've seen in India are equally creepy. It must be the mask.

The kids put on a fun talent show for us. They danced, sang, recited speeches, and played instruments. My favorites were a girl who did a great Bollywood dance routine and a group that sang a traditional Tamil call and response song. There was also this awesome dance to a jazzed-up "Jingle Bells." Wish I had a video.

Samuel got these boys laughing.

After the talent show, the kids were called up to receive their gift bags. Here are some of them anxiously awaiting their turn.

When our boy was called, I nearly fell over. He was so small! I bought a new outfit and shoes for a 12-year-old ... not expecting him to be Evie's size. Johnny was excited to give him the bag.

He'll have to do some growing before he wears his new clothes, but it was fun to see how excited he was about the volleyball and other gifts. I'm glad we helped deliver the bags. It was great to meet the kids we were sponsoring and fun to see them so happy and appreciative.