And Now We Are Eighteen

Two from Southern California, two from Texas, four from Arizona and eight from Northern California. Friendly souls all, mostly hearty seasoned travelers, each drawn to India for their own purposes. Some religious, some more traditional than others, some skeptical, all adventurous. We get to know each other at a first dinner and then its now Sunday our first day of the tour and what a tour it is. We first visit the Chattarpur Katyayani Devi (goddess) temple. This is a large complex and although looking traditional and old is actually a new (1974) temple. We remove our shoes, walk over freezing marble and get in lines to several temple rooms each with their images. We are neither specially welcomed or kept away, just part of the mass devotees there for prayers and offerings. In a large pavilion singers are chanting the Hanuman Chalista all the hour we are there and who knows how long before and after.

Devi Goddess Temple

Next on the tour is a visit to Gandhi Smriti (Birla House, the place where Gandhi was assassinated. It is preserved as a memorial. The grounds are a peaceful place. A good place to relax from the busy pace of Delhi. We have worked up an appetite and lunch is arranged a a nice restaurant. Susan and some of the group get our first encounter with a snake charmer. Susan sits and chats and gets to hold the live cobra while we snap pictures. Just like in the movies, this one. We bundle back on to the bus and go to visit a really large Sikh Gurudwara (temple) where our main focus if the kitchen. It is a Skih tradition to feed all commers for free. The kitchen is on an industrial scale although the labor is manual. They feed some 30,000 people each day, 18,000 for lunch. The place is packed as only a free lunch and devotional duty can pack in a place in India.

Women Making Bread

Our next stop is Humayun’s tomb, built in 1562 it is similar to the Taj Mahal which made later and larger in its design.  We were scheduled to visit a Kashmir cultural center but we are exhausted on our first day and decide to head home for a brief rest before dinner. And auspicious start to our journey is this exploration of Delhi.

Hanayun's Tomb