Recovering back in Delhi

After the excitements of Jaipur (including a certain controversial incident involving Rob and a rickshaw that I have sadly been banned from describing in this blog) the last two weeks have been a lot quieter. The weeks have mainly been spent working and organising travel for the end of March and April. The temperature has got a lot hotter in the last few weeks, with 30°C upwards becoming the norm and so this has reduced our activity at weekends.

A rickshaw

Last Saturday we visited Akshardham Temple. This building is fairly recent, with it being finished in 2005 and has attracted controversy as to whether it was the best use of resources as it was built in an area of the city without proper access to hospitals and other amenities. The temple is genuinely impressive, built in a style similar to the older temples in India, but so much more recently. In a way that is the problem with it. Whilst buildings like the Taj Mahal are justifiable in the context of their time, it seems more difficult to understand why such a richly decorated building is really necessary today. Of course it will attract tourists, but the commercialisation that goes with that means that the temple loses something in terms of spirituality. There are also no pictures to show you because cameras were not allowed in. In fact, you were only allowed your wallet and a bottle of water, which all seemed a bit ridiculous given that the site was clearly more of a tourist destination than valuable as religious site. So overall, whilst the building was very impressive, it did not feel quite right and so my emotions were more mixed than if it had been an older building.

Akshardham Temple- from Google as no cameras allowed

On that evening we went to the Sound and Light show at the Red Fort in Old Delhi. This was advertised as being state of the art, while the reviews on Trip Advisor said that it is one of the best things to do in Delhi. I’ve no idea what I expected, but it was certainly not what we got. In effect the show was an audio history of Delhi, while they would occasionally light up a different building. I had not really considered the light bulb to be ‘state of the art’. The highlight, and this is stretching the definition of the word, was when the audio history described one of the emperor’s wives as being a ‘common slut’. I can only think that this bit was included to wake the audience up. Not only was the tour dull, but there were also major gaps missing (but this may have been an advantage as at least that reduced the length). For example, they managed to skip through the struggle for independence (while pronouncing ‘English’ with the same level of disgust that James May uses when pronouncing ‘Germans’) without mentioning partition or Pakistan, which I thought was fairly impressive. Overall, if you are in Delhi avoid the Sound and Light show at the Red Fort.

On the Sunday I went to see the Gandhi Smriti. This was one of the places that I visited as part of my whirl wind visit to Delhi in 2011, but as the place where Gandhi was assassinated it was nice to see it properly without being rushed. The garden is one of the most peaceful places in Delhi and there is also a museum about his life. Part of the museum is interactive, with flashing lights and sounds, which seems a bit unnecessary given what the museum is dedicated to. But apart from that it is a good museum and was certainly worth visiting.

At work this week I was told by one of my colleagues at Sannam S4 that there was going to be an international jazz festival going on this weekend. So on Friday, after work, we decided to go. I knew it was in Nehru Park so expected that when I found that it would be easy to find the jazz festival. Walking round the park we came across a police station, a temple and a dark unlit path that did not seem to lead anywhere. It was only after we had walked round the entire parameter of the park and were close to where we had started, that we found it. It would have been much easier to find had we walked the other way, but for a reasonably big event it was really badly signposted. I’m not exactly a jazz connoisseur, but it did seem to be reasonably good to listen to. The only issue was that by the time we had found it there was only one act left before it finished for the night and we had to go home.

I think we have now pretty much got used to living in Delhi and found most of the amenities that we need in the local area. In the local shopping mall there is a little store, lots of food places, an amazing bakery that we are now using very regularly and two ice cream shops so we are very well catered for. We have also found a vegetable shop round the corner which makes it easier for us to get food. At work I am now writing newsletters on each sector in India to encourage foreign companies to enter the Indian market. From the research that I have done for this I will leave you with some interesting (or otherwise) food related facts;

•        India is the second largest producer of potatoes
•          Approximately 90% of Indians buy biscuits (and so I’m in good company with my biscuit obsession)
•         The Indian ice cream market is worth US$ 199 million per annum (and that was even before I arrived)