There is Such a Thing as a Free Lunch!

On Saturday, after Emma had been into the hospital (just for those of you who think we don't do any work!) we went off to South Delhi to explore. First we had lunch at Karim's, a kebab restaurant that took a bit of finding, but it had been very highly recommended to us by just about everyone we spoke to. We weren't disappointed - the food was amazing! The restaurant is Mughal in style, and their speciality is tandoori, so we had some of their spicy tandoori chicken and some melt-in-the-mouth mutton kebabs. 

Towards the end of our meal a group of four men with business papers sat down at the adjacent table for what looked like a lunch meeting, and struck up conversation with us. It turned out that the group comprised three government officials and a politician from Manipur, a state in north-eastern India, and they were very interested in what life was like in England. We exchanged email addresses and the politician gave us his business card, and before we knew what had happened they had instructed the waiters to give them our bill! We tried to insist that we couldn't possibly accept their kind offer but they wouldn't take no for an answer, so we thanked them profusely and left the restaurant not quite believing what had just happened - apparently there is such a thing as a free lunch! 

Michaela surveying the feast!

 After our slightly surreal lunch experience, we headed to Humayun's Tomb for a bit of sightseeing. There are several different tombs in the surrounding area which mostly date from the 16th century. We first came across Isa Khan's tomb, an octagonal building with a mosque adjacent to it and a handsome wall encircling the site. Isa Khan was a noble in Sher Shah's court, the man who built much of Purana Qila, and he must have had huge wealth and influence - the site is so large that until roughly 100 years ago there was an entire village living inside the walls! There has been much restoration work carried out on the whole of this site over the past few years, and the  area looked really impressive as a result. The gardens had all been planted with flowers and trees that were popular with the Moghuls at the time, and the buildings had all been cleaned and restored as much as possible. Looking at pictures of the area before the improvements were started, it's almost unrecognisable today.

Isa Khan's tomb

Here you can see the three arches that have been restored

Ceiling inside the tomb

 The main building on the site is the Emperor Humayun's tomb, a visually stunning structure that really causes you to catch your breath. It is described as the precursor to the Taj Mahal - both have a huge base with a square building on top, giving the illusion from a distance of being even taller and more imposing than they are. We plan to go the Taj Mahal during our last two weeks, so it will be interesting to see the comparison. It was one of the most beautifully symmetrical and aesthetically pleasing buildings either of us have ever seen, and Emma spent quite a bit of time trying to get the perfect photo of it! It is sometimes referred to as the dormitory of the Moghuls, as it is thought that over 150 people are buried there.

The first glimpse of Humayun's Tomb!

One of the waterways leading out from the tomb

 

View from on top of the base

The beautiful gardens surrounding the tomb

 Inside the tomb there are lots of stone latticed windows that produce beautiful geometric patterns of light dancing on the floor. These are called "jaalis" and are linked in with the idea of light as being divine, but potentially overwhelming in excess, so the latticed pattern is designed to allow the perfect level of light in. We spent a long time walking around the sight just taking it in, but eventually managed to drag ourselves away from the intoxicating beauty.  

One of the jaalis

Obligatory tourist photo outside the tomb!

 We needed to leave as we had been tipped off that the next place on our list was best visited just before sunset. The Hazrat Nizam-ud-din Dargah is a shrine to the Muslim Sufi saint Nizam-ud-din Auliya and is a point of pilgrimage for Muslims. It was a hard place to find, and to get to it you had to walk through an ever narrowing tangle of bazaars selling rose petals, perfumes and offerings. Leaving our shoes with a stall holder (this was apparently the done thing) and covering our heads, suddenly a marble courtyard appeared out of the chaotic stalls everywhere. As we entered there were lots of people sitting on the marble floor listening to the Sufi singing, which included drums and a keyboard instrument with bellows that we hadn't seen before. 

It was a busy and noisy place, with lots of people queuing up to enter the centre chamber where the tomb of the saint was. People would place coloured cloth and rose petals over the tomb as offerings and say prayers. Outside the chamber, women were tying coloured thread to the latticed windows and reciting parts of the Qur'an. There were also two prayer rooms - one for men and one for women, as well as people giving out free food for the homeless and an adjoining free health clinic sponsored by the shrine. It was a real hive of activity, and we sat on the marble floor listening to the singing and watching life happening all around us.

 

Looking towards the main shrine in Hazrat Nizam-ud-din Dargah

Sufi musicians

The entrance to the shrine

The last thing on our list for the day was another tuk-tuk ride away, next to Lodi gardens where we visited on our first weekend in Delhi. Lodi Garden Restaurant is apparently one of the most romantic restaurants in Delhi, and although we always appreciate a good girly date, this wasn't the reason we were visiting! Apart from the description of beautiful surroundings, the guidebook contained rumours of a cocktail happy hour that we wanted to check out. It hadn't exaggerated - it was a beautiful restaurant, surrounded by gardens with globes of light shining the way along the path. Two relaxing cocktails after a long day exploring were very welcome and we returned home feeling that we had a day well spent, experiencing contrasting aspects of life in India.

Well deserved cocktails!

The atmospheric restaurant garden