Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Dilli Darshan!!

Day 1:

We landed in Delhi at 7.00 in the evening. We were completely taken aback by the cold chill which greeted us at the air –port. We had to wait for our baggage for over 30 minutes, courtesy Air deccan. A low cost airline at the cost of service is not a good idea. We were lucky that Meenu’s brother and jijaji were there to receive us. It avoided unnecessary hassle for Taxis.

First day we decided to venture out with Didi’s kids. The kids were very enthusiastic to join us for some sight seeing. We boarded Delhi Metro to reach Central secretariat. I was very much impressed by the Metro train service. It was some kind of unbelievable experience traveling in this train. The ride was so fast and yet so comfortable. Kudos to Mr. Sreedharan and his team for this wonderful job. During my stay in Delhi I didn’t miss any opportunity to use this train.

From central secreterait we reached Jajpath. Every time I see this majestic setting I just marvel at the view of Rastrapati bhawan flanked by North and south blocks. The whole view of Rajpath with India gate at one end and Vijay chowk at the other is breathless.
We were prepared to view the Mughal Gardens. We were informed that its entrance is from the backside of the parliament. As we were already late we dropped the idea for some other day. More about Mughal gardens later in Delhi Darshan series.

I must confess that I am some kind of walkohlic( what ever it means!). I love traveling on foot. Others who accompany me have to pay the price for this habit of mine. We almost covered full Rajpath from India gate to Rastrapati bhawan twice on foot. It was too much of ask for kids. They started complaining of stress in there feet. There were pacified by liberal dose of coke, lays, kurkure and some other unbranded snacks.

Lastly we went to Janpath for some shopping experience. My wife really enjoyed this phase of day’s travels. She couldn’t believe her eyes at the sheer variety of nik naks available on this street. It was almost dark when we decided to give relief to our burning stomachs. We feasted on kachouries and samosas to our content. All in all a good day for Delhi darshan.