I am Write!

After a trip to the Purana Quila and Humayun’s tomb, and a day’s rest, I decided to move onto the Red fort, Jama Masjid and possibly some street food and photography at Chandini Chowk.

Up and out by 10, it was a better start than the previous tour. Once again, with an able and equally free partner in Priya, an auto-rickshaw was taken (considering that the buses were full with office going crowd) for 70 Rs. from my place.

Once at the red fort, and tickets bought, bags deposited, and frisked by the security, the number of tourists thronging the place was noticeable. A definite more than sum of the number that I saw at Humayun’s tomb and the Purana Quila.

The Red fort was built by the great grand son of Humayun (of Purana Quila fame) - Shah Jahan, and was the second attempt to have capital in Delhi, after Akbar and Jehangir set base in Agra. What is interesting is that the moat is still not covered up, though it’s kept in a dry state. Restoration work is always on at the fort, whenever one would go to check, considering its historical importance, adding to it the importance that the fort sees on the Independence Day - the venue for the Annual Prime Minister speech to the common man.

Two towers have been introduced to accommodate old PMs to get to the top of the fort to address the nation. Well, obviously, the towers have lifts!

A little walk inside, and one passes through the Meena Bazaar, a market during the historical times, and a place to get mobbed by shop keepers selling mostly souvenirs from all around the country.

Once through the main gate to the interiors of the fort, and getting the tickets checked, the 1st thing in sight is the Diwan-i-am, the common man’s court - where the king would sit and listen to all the problems of the crowd. The noticeable architecture - in red, with the center throne in white are the main stays of this chamber. The onlooking lawns are a pleasant sight, no doubt.

Once off this pleasant building - which happened to one of the few that we were allowed to walk into, we reached the set of buildings in the red fort, which are not in red. Most of the buildings in the fort are in white, and add an interesting contrast to the blunt red, which gets to person sooner or later The one right behind the diwan-i-am, is the Rang Mahal. One thing that did strike me during my trip around the red fort was the fact that across India, almost all historical places are laden with gardens, fountains and water ways. But, none of them are really in the best of condition, with the waterways and fountains, hardly in functional condition ever. The water ways and fountains at Red fort are no different.

All the white buildings that stand on this raised platform (as does the Rang Mahal) have a connected stream of water - that (as I overheard from the many guides around ) was fed from the then next door Yamuna. Now, there’s a road next to the east wall of the fort On the north of the Rang Mahal, stands the main palace - Khas Mahal - was the place where the king put up, and has a lot of detailing in the ever degrading walls.

Next to the Khas Mahal is the main court of the king of the land - the Diwan-i-khas. Another place with loads of detailing, and not permitted to enter, leaves most of the souls who walk into the fort asking for more. The most luxurious job here is probably of the cops, who man these pieces of land - ensuring that buggers like us don’t really enter.

Post the mahals and the diwans, are the baths - the hamams. And nothing new, we aren’t allowed to enter. To make matters worse, there are no viewing points, and we have to rely on our peeping skills through the windows (I wonder why there are huge windows in the hamams!) to see what eludes us.

All along this walk with no permissions to explore the interiors, we moved onto the Moti Masjid - another building that’s closed, and then to the gardens that cover most of the north side of the fort. With 3 pavilions around the place, and again, no water in the channels, the place looks a little unkept - even after this place being always well manned.

Some more buildings in white, and the pavilions in red, one wont miss the English construction on the north face - what I think would be the then barracks, now in an abandoned state. The red pavilions, white diwans and the grey barracks (possibly) make the most of the garden’s landscape. Obviously, spotting the odd couple in love isn’t too much of trouble, though the guards here are a lot more peaceful to their presence than they were at Purana Quila.

With most of the place restricted, I felt a little let down, and so resorted to the old way of getting my accomplice to pose Priya by now has gotten used to it, and thankfully doesn’t mind it so much any more She did a few, though reluctantly, considering the number of people who saw her pose too

Finally, with nothing much to see, other than the remaining museums, we walked to the Mumtaz Mahal, now the museum for the history of this fort. Camera prohibited, I covered my lens, and absorbed this history that the small but well equipped museum had on display. What the entrance had on display was the view of the buildings in white. I avoided the panorama shot, considering that I haven’t been stitching them for quite some time now, and took a single shot, hoping that it turned out well. Not too sure I am though of that!

With more than 3 hours spent in walking around the place, we moved out, and stood by the exit, contemplating what next to do - lunch or cover the Jama Masjid. While the woman decided - or rather fought with herself, I managed to take some shots of people walking by, and this time with the zoom lens, to assist in not getting them too close. The decision taken, we agreed to move to the Jama Masjid, and then hopefully for lunch.

Final walk out of the fort, and collecting our bags from the lockers (Rs. 5/locker) and a final snap of the red fort with the Indian flag flying high, we strolled out. A little bit of the “Bombay Bhel Puri” followed with loads of water to cover the burning sensation of the chillies, we made our way to the Jama Masjid. The Masjid entrance is filled with hawkers selling biryani, kebab, sherbet, and other delicacies with the mughalai touch.

What took us by surprise was not the removal of footwear, but the charging of Rs. 200 for any kind of camera usage inside the Masjid complex!

Entering the complex, one will not be left in doubt why this place is the biggest mosque in the country. It is grand, and huge, and left us spell bound by its grandness! The small chhatris on the corners of the boundary, and also on the gate, other than the 3 dome mosque - like all in the Mughal times (other than the one in Purana Quila by Sher Shah Suri) look lovely, and somehow add to the beautifulness of the mosque.

On my way into the mosque, I captured a woman in my camera, to which she seemed very pleased! Inside, the quietness and calmness seems to have gotten a special place in my heart, considering the loudness with which operations happen in temples. Churches are also on the quiet side, which leads to a comfortable place to sit back and read, if not pray. Jama Masjid, with all the grandness, and the inflow of tourists still maintains that same quietness, and peacefulness as in most mosques.

Jama Masjid also has the luxury of permitting people like us to go up one of its minars, which is a lovely place to catch the glimpse of the Old Delhi. At 10Rs. a ticket, its totally worth the climb. Around 120 stairs in a cramped circular staircase, with hardly place for two people to walk together, its a climb that got not just us, but quite a few dizzy! From the top, a shot of the Old Delhi buildings, and a clear picture of how the red fort stands gave us a breathtaking view. A lovely breeze in the middle of the hot day added the pleasant stay on the top of the cramped minar.

Done with the two legendary buildings of the Mughal time, and the watch reading 3 PM, we moved to Chandni Chowk, and started finding the parathe wale gali. Once located, and a few parathas down each of ours throats, we decided to call it a day early, considering that the parathas only induced us to get lazy and sleepy!