Sabarish

Got back to Bangalore last Saturday night. Landed at the new Bengaluru International Airport. Was impressed with the place, considering how the old HAL airport was. The new airport is clean and nice, although I feel it could have been much better. Lets see how it copes up with increased traffic.

Anyway my Noida trip was really awesome on the whole. I managed to learn so much at work a lot of new things and processes and also managed to see so many new places in and around Noida and Delhi!

Noida was an ok place. Nothing really in it to see, apart from the Atta market and Sector 18 areas (which I did frequent a lot!).

I really fell in love with Delhi as a city and I managed to explore quite a lot of this ancient city. Its got so much history and culture in it and I had an amazing time trying to learn more about the city and checking out different places in the city. I reckon I still have a lot more to explore and it will take many more visits to see everything!

Highlights of the trip -

1. The many markets of Delhi and Noida: Connaught Place / Chandni Chowk / Khan Market / Dilli Haat / GK 1 M block / GK 1 N block / New Friends Colony / Saket / Atta Market / etc. etc. went to many such places and loved the atmosphere and mood at these places.

2. Nizamuddin Auliya’s Dargah, Delhi:Went there for the Qawwali performance that happens every Thursday evening. Imagine listening to Qawalli’s sitting in an open courtyard, right there inbetween the tombs of Nizamuddin Auliya and Amir Khusrao (considered to be the Father of Qawalli)!! Pure Nirvana!

3. All the monuments in Delhi: Humayun’s Tomb / Qutub Minar / Akshardham Temple / India Gate / Red Fort / etc. etc. In Delhi there have been so many empires and so much of history, that no matter where you go, you will end up running into some tomb or monument or some place of historical significance!

4. Taj Mahal, Agra: Finally managed to see one out of the 7 wonders of the World!

5. Fatehpur Sikhri: Amazing place, with great architecture and monuments from the Mughal era all around.

6. Golden Temple, Amritsar: Never even thought that I’d be visiting Amritsar on this trip! Thanks to some friends from Bangalore who insisted I join them, I got to go on one helluva a trip to Amritsar!

7. Wagah Border: The visit to the India-Pakistan border to see the colourful and patriotism inspiring ceremony in the evening was simple amazing. The whole atmosphere and display of patriotism by everyone was very touching and the ceremony itself was very interesting to watch, with an exaggerated march past display and well dressed, very vocal army personnell. It felt great to be so close to the border, that we could see the Pakistanis on the other side of the gate in their stands! All of it concluded with the lowering of the flag on both sides of the border.

8. Haridwar and Rishikesh: This was a religious plus adventure trip. I’ve been wanting to go to Haridwar and take a dip in the Holy Ganga and finally managed to do this in this trip. The trip to Rishikesh was more for the adventure of Water Rafting, and what an adventure we had!!

9. Delhi Metro: I had the opportunity to travel on the swanky clean Metro and I was simply blown away! The whole experience was really great and I was very proud to see the Metro. It was like stepping into another world. Considering I got into the metro after going around parts of old Delhi and the markets of Chandni Chowk!

10. Meeting friends: Most of the above happened largely thanks to me meeting some old friends and making new ones on the trip! Although I would have ended up travelling alone, I doubt if I would have covered so many places and/or had this much fun if it weren’t for them. Thanks to Animesh / Nethra / Sayor / Disha / Shobit and even Leelu and gang (who coincidentally also came to Delhi while I was there).

A very eventful trip on the whole and I return very satisfied, although disappointed as I missed out on one place that I also wanted to visit – Jaipur in Rajasthan. First the very sad incident of the bomb blasts occurred and later the Gujjar strikes removed all chances of me going there this time.

I have a whole lot of photos to process and upload and a lot of blog posts to write about the above places and more in detail. God knows when I will get around to doing it all! But keep watching this space!

Beautiful and colourful shops at Dilli Haat selling regional handicrafts.

Thanks to Niti, I got to see the really beautiful Humayun’s Tomb. It is on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Centres and is easily one of the most beautiful monuments I have come across. It is so simple and yet so beautiful and just perfect.

Perfectly aligned

I loved the build up to the monument as you walk through the several perfectly aligned gateways – how slowly the monument is revealed to you.

First Glimpse through the last gateway

Once you’re through the final gate – there the monument just amazes you.

People who visit this monument should take time out to see how the monument is so perfectly symmetrical. Everything is aligned just right. Its so simple, yet so grand. The architecture is outstanding.

This monument is very important as it is the first of its kind in India, built by the Mughals and was a precursor to the great Taj Mahal in Agra.

Humayun’s Cenotaph

The monument was built under the orders of Humayun’s wife, Hamida Begum. The tomb has a lot of graves apart from the main one of Humayun’s, which is located right in the centre of the monument.

This monument is a must visit for anyone visiting Delhi. And like Niti keeps returning to the monument, I hope to go there again sometime before I leave Delhi.

More pictures located here. Do check them out.