The conundrums- A camera , and the view from 70 m above.

The following morning I began my expedition a little later, after a rather strenuous day, going through different portions of the city, as mentioned earlier, and covering almost 30 kilometers by foot;

However, the hot milk , in Delhi , kept me going , and ofcourse the lovely food enriched with cream, quite the savoury. The eateries , in Delhi are a part of its culture, too. Street food ,hotels, restaurants which are over a hundred years old , all spread in different parts of the city forming an exquisite mix. But here I must mention , I left the food bit for the next journey , or my second half of survey , intended after my semester exams. I have inserted a few pictures to remind readers about the previous day:

Exit - Chandni Chowk metro station;
Picture taken 8:00am , December 20th ( previous day, to the description)
by Shankar Roshan Valiathan

The route I took was the exact one , as the previous day.

The mosque has a spiraling stairway, one which takes some effort climbing. Wrapped in warm clothing, well layers of warm clothing;

Old Delhi Railway station;
by Shankar Roshan Valiathan

I walked , for about twenty minutes, climbing stairs with risers, 30 centimeters, in height, as I neared the zenith, a sense of veneration gripped me , I was going to view the Old city , its monuments and elements from a circular grill like structure, which was part of the umbrella like chatri , common to all palatial structures in Mughal India, derived from Hindu temples.
The temperatures at those altitudes are unbearable, and that coupled with the winds , make it impossible to view anything for longer than 5 minutes without wrapping yourself up again;

8:30 am , Near Old Delhi Railway station , as of previous day to the description ,
by Shankar Roshan Valiathan

Street activity at 830 am morning dull ,
by Shankar Roshan Valiathan

I barely managed to take my binoculars , and being intransigent and more than determined to do the requisite research work , i pulled my sketch book out as well, ( a scanned image from the book is given below), taking down the street structures, the urban and architectural changes in character, carefully mapping pedestrian and vehicular traffic systems ; and decipherable street mapping. Over two hours i stood , constantly being asked questions, by tourists and natives, about my profession, whether I was an artists, photographer, and much more. Giving curt replies , i kept concentrating on my work , gathering mental pictures of the bazaars, the slum , the shrine , the monument, the park , the garden, the literature bazaar, the police station , the school , the metal workshops , the crafts market , the Red fort, the main street about 200 meters away, all this being done in frigid weather. After every 2 minutes , I had to keep rubbing my hands together, keeping it warm , covering my ears and doing everything i possibly could while sustaining my gaze, to the great city.
A quick view reveals the abominable changes the city has undergone, things out of our control , but as inspiring as the ancient stories may be, I had to succumb to the fact that the place was deplorable, no one wanted it anymore. The economic rut , it had fallen into , just pummeled it into the state it is. The next few hours were marked by two of the most inspiring meetings I had in Delhi;
One with a Dutch native, a physics undergrad student , on tour. What immediately caught my eye was the Dutch resistance to cold, abashed about the amount of clothes I was wearing , I looked at him , astonished;
He was in a tee, a simple cotton tee shirt!Yes, thats it!
A brief conversation with him , and we set forth , together , sharing our experiences and view points about education and the diversity of culture, found in India. He narrated his visions about what the place could offer, to the toursits, ( some valuable input) . I'd like to mention here, that I took over a hundred interviews with different kinds of tourists in all of Delhi, but I haven't penned down anything to keep my writings short.

The sketch done, from around 70 m above the ground level, all i could
manage in the cold, by Shankar Roshan Valiathan

After a heavy lunch at Karim's , Jama Masjid ( a restaurant whose traditions date back centuries), we set off, to Darya ganj , to survey the other part of Shahjahanabad , one that had further secrets, perhaps. The city in two days revealed itself , its character its multiplicity, in architecture , urban design , and culture. A keen eye and a camera to record , instances within the streets, the primary , secondary, tertiary, and in this case , even quaternary, are indispensable. These helped me to accurately predict and relate to the stories, factual and invented, all narrated by the users, old and new. One such user, an inhabitant of the Mecca Bazaar, which runs perpendicular to the South gate of the jama masjid, was named Mohammad Hamza; a college goer, who spoke broken-English, with highly unstructured grammar and was ill verbose, yet , within a few minutes he told us over fifty stories; starting from the early 20th century, his forefathers , their literature, their art, and the ruins, the hidden scripts which still exist! (Some of which are buried under floor slabs.)  What immediately struck me and my friend from Netherlands, was the fervour with which he spoke, the admirable enthusiasm, with which he advertised his literature, language , and religion....

Yes, carts use the main roads too!
by Shankar Roshan Valiathan

That moment you realise what exactly the city has actually 'lost' , what it has 'erased', from its history.The enthusiasm never ceased a fraction for the whole journey starting from the Urdu Bazaar Road( near the Jama Masjid_ , through the roads he took us through , till the end, when we reached the metro station, and bid adieu to Mohammad Hamza, thanking him for his inputs and invaluable suggestions on his, and his friend's opinions.

At about 3, we set off to Humayun's tomb; caught the metro at Chawri bazaar, and we reached the magnificent tomb, in a few minutes. The tomb represented yet another manifesto , of the Mughal;
We reached the entrance to the tomb , at around 3:00pm , and while I had to pay a meagre sum of 10/- Rupees , my friend, had to pay around 500/- Rupees to see the same monument.

After an hour of clicking dozens of pictures , posing with my friend ,for school kids, families and a few other strangers, and ofcourse, putting my binoculars to good use, we started studying the monuments, the proportions of the gardens , the wonderful sequence , entry to tomb, articulated by the regal Mughal empire and their planners. That is the thing with Mughal architecture, its quite repetitive, but whats most fascinating are the subtle differences in workmanship , which are quite palpable , if observed well. Humayun's tomb is one such example, where the efficiency of the Hindu craftsmen and their variations during the process of construction and inlay detailing can be seen.

After spending over two more hours in the complex ,we left for Khan Market , the upmarket shopping streets in Delhi. The scale, material usage, detailing and everything else here make you draw comparisons to Old Delhi, and you find that , what essentially distinguishes them is the class of society catered to ( Quite an obvious observation, one might say).

After a quick bit , at the A-grade restaurant there, which drilled a hole in my pocket , my friend and me parted ways. I scurried to, the nearest metro , yet again and scooted back home , for my last day of stay in my seniors house. After a light dinner , i packed everything for yet another adventure;
which would include a trip to the other end of Delhi. More on that in my next post !!!