Day 43 – New Delhi
Day 43 – Sunday, 8th Dec 2013
Nothing beats being at home. Khyati and I are lucky we can call New Delhi our home as Vasant Uncle, Hema Aunty and Priyanka made our stay so pleasant and memorable.
It’s Sunday morning, we are having traditional Kutchi breakfast. Bajar ji maani (Bread made out of Pearl millet). The food is so filling. It’s 9 am and Khyati and I along with Vasant Uncle leave for Pitampura metro station. There is a Jain religious discourse at the temple and we are going to attend that. It’s organized by Gujarati Samaj in Pitampura area. Being a Sunday, I was expecting the Metro ride to be empty and hoped to find a seat. To our surprise, Sunday was the most crowded. There were lots of students traveling and most of them had competitive exams that day.
At the religious discourse, some young kids sang songs and performed a skit. It was good to see such tender kids being encouraged at such a young age.
kids performance
Jain temple
It’s 12:30 pm and we have lunch at the venue. Post lunch, we leave for some more sight seeing. We take the Metro to Connaught Place. Today, the Delhi poll election results were out and we could see Aam Aadmi Party workers celebrating their stellar show. Nobody had expected them to perform so well. Party workers were carrying the broom (party symbol) on their head and singing praises of the leader.
We ask for directions to Birla Mandir and walk towards it. For most people in India who give directions, everything is just a few hundred meters away. The actual distance from Connaught Place to Birla Mandir was around 1.5 km but we kept getting told that it’s slightly further ahead each time we ask. hehe! Imagine our plight. Khyati was seriously contemplating taking a rickshaw for the final two hundred meters but stopped when I showed her the temple dome in the distance. hah!
Birla temple
Security is quite tight at most temples and we weren’t allowed to carry mobile phones or cameras inside the complex. The temple is beautiful, parts of it was currently being renovated. Paint job was going on and we must admire the braveness of Indian workers. With minimal safety equipment, we can see them painting a dome. We are observing their work as a worker looks down and we wave our hand, he waves back. We feel a connection.
On our way back, we visit the Buddha temple, Sacred Heart Church and Bangla Sahib Gurudwara. All these places of worship are in the same vicinity. It makes us believe that God is one, it is us humans who have divided his house of worship. God is present in all of us, we just have to realize our own potential and pursue our goal towards spiritual upliftment.
In front of Buddha temple
Sacred Heart Church
Bangla Sahib Gurudwara
It’s 6 pm and we head back home. We pack our bags and have some light dinner.
It’s 9 pm and Khyati and I are on the road waving our hand at any passing auto rickshaw. None seem interested in offering us a ride but we patiently continue our quest for a rickshaw. Finally, after 10-15 minutes, we hop on a rickshaw which agrees to take us. It hasn’t even traveled 300 meters when it reaches an abrupt halt. The clutch wire had broken and he could no longer change gears. It was a busy road and cars, jeeps were honking behind us and started hurling shouts at the rickshaw driver. Poor fellow – what could he do? He dejectedly looked at us and said that you will have to find another rickshaw. We offer him some cash but he declines the money.
Luckily, we find another rickshaw which takes us to the railway station. It’s 10:15 pm and we settle in our compartment in Dakshin Express. The train pulls out on time and post ticket check, we call it a night around 11:30 pm.
Here is our train route from New Delhi to Vidisha.
Train route
This completes our wonderful journey in North India. We head to Central India and will explore the incredible land of Madhya Pradesh.
More soon, please stay tuned for future posts. We look forward to reading your comments.
Best wishes,
Paras