Sightseeing Delhi by night
Last night we finished work around 11 pm and went to grab a late dinner @McDonalds. Next, we headed for our fortnightly grocery shopping @In&Out, a 24 hour convenience store associated with large gas stations (petrol pumps) in Delhi. Those who want to save time shopping for food should try this - go to an In&Out around midnight and get your car tank filled, tires checked and groceries shopped all within 15 minutes :) Note: the store has everything from biscuits to detergent to dal to Lindt chocolates.
Post the shopping, an interesting unplanned expedition - Delhi Darshan by night conspired. We started driving towards Red Fort passing Purana Qila (where we once went for a Hariharan concert) and Pragati Maidan (where we have been several times for the Book Fair, Auto Show, etc.) enroute. At some point we got lost and saw signs for Rajghat so stop #1 was indeed Rajghat. We saw the clean lawns, the Mahatma Gandhi museum and the lone light in the dark (must be the spot of the samadhi) - albeit all from the main gates. While we were standing at the gate and peeking a cop car took a full circle of the area looking at us carefully - for sure not many people visit Rajghat at 12:30 am :)
Next we headed to the Red Fort (also called Lal Qila), which was not very visible as it was not lit up and parts of it are also hidden behind trees that line the fort perimeter. The evident poverty, the cleanliness level and the mosquito menace only deteriorated as we continued our foray in to the Old Delhi area. A classy unexpected sight we saw was the Delhi GPO (PIN 110006) - a well maintained lit up building on the outside. Next up was Old Delhi railway station from the Kashmere Gate side, we could not see much of the station from here so we moved on to Chandni Chowk. I had come to Chandni Chowk's Town Hall few months ago at the peak of traffic (7 pm) and experienced the maddening density of people, vehicles and total mayhem. In the overly populated Chandni Chowk and its ultra narrow lanes (where cars are not allowed during day) one cannot imagine a vast stretch of lawns that lay beyond the Town Hall gates. I remember being quite enamored by the Town Hall site at the Talat Aziz and Wadali Brothers Sufi concert that I had attended.
Back to our expedition, as soon as one enters Chandni Chowk on the left we see a red Jain temple aptly called the Sri Digambar Jain Lal Mandir, next in line is a Hindu Gauri Shankar Temple, somewhere close by there is a Christian Central Baptist Church - all these built in 1600, 1700 and 1800 respectively. A point of note is that this is a very Muslim area (abundant with mosques) and yet there is representation from so many religions in the religious sites built and visited here. Continuing along the road we finally parked at Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib and decided to visit since both of us had never been here. Even at 1 am the Gurudwara was open and people from all walks of life were walking in - a young girl, a family of 6, a pack of guys in their 20s, a newly married couple, etc. At least 20-30% of the people in the Gurudwara were not Sikhs, a most interesting combination was a woman in her 30s with her 6-7 year old son sitting in a corner and both reading their holy books. Many elderly men and women could be seen with their holy books in hand, while some others were organizing the nightly ceremony of taking the Guru Granth Sahib (the holy book) from the center of the Gurudwara to its sleeping room in the side. All were asked to participate in the ceremony - we took some holy pots and pans from the sleeping room to the backside courtyard of the Gurudwara where they were to be washed eventually (for the next morning's prasad to be prepared I guess) ! The backside of the Gurudwara was packed - at least a 100 people (sadhus, homeless people, etc.) were sleeping on the Gurudwara's well cleaned marble floors.
Sisganj (sis means head) is the site where Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded (on the orders of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb) in public at Chandni Chowk on 11 November 1675 on his refusal to convert to Islam. He is also known as "Hind Di Chadar" because he gave his life to save Hinduism; the story goes that Guru Tegh Bahadur was approached for help by Kashmiri Pandits who were being forcibly converted to Islam and he asked them to tell the Mughal emperor that they would convert if Guru Tegh Bahadur will, which he never did! The Sis Ganj Gurudwara has quite some history, one that impacted my ancestral community.
After Sisganj, we drove by Town Hall and then decided to check out Delhi's oldest station - Delhi Junction railway station (DLI) from the Chandni Chowk side, we could see much more from this side than the Kashmiri Gate side. By then, our late night local travel appetite was vetted so we decided to head home. I have a feeling we will revisit sometime soon to check out Paranthewali Gali and the various Havelis hidden within the walled city of Chandni Chowk.
Filed under //
Old Delhi
chandni chowk
delhi
delhi darshan
delhi gpo
guru teg bahadur
gurudwara
new delhi
night
pragati maidan
purana qila
railway station
rajghat
red fort
sightseeing
sisganj
town hall
