Rashtrapathi Bhavan; India Gate

Yesterday Usha and I were caught in very heavy rain when we went out to dinner, and of course we had no umbrella,. We've been lucky so far, doding the downpour when it occurs, these days about 9 pm.  So, contrary to our preconceptions. the monsoon so far is not an unpredictable event here in Delhi, The shower occurs every evening, and during the day it's bright and pleaaantly warm. In fact, from what Marty tells e about the heatwave in Savannah, I'd say it's 10 degrees cooler here and considerably less humid! I have to say, if this is at all typical of recent Delhi monsoon weather, I believe this is quite a good time to travel here, certainly in the early part of the season.

Well we are far behind on our blog, primarily because blogspot.com is slooow in uploading photos. So this entry was from about 5 days inot our trip.

Here are photos of the Indian capitol Rashtrapati Bhawan, and opposite from in on the long boulevard, the India Gate:

It was pretty hazy that day from the heat.




We began at the Bhavan end.

Aren't the elephants on the right great?

I think of this area as a gift of majesty to all Indians.



Another view of the capitol on the left.  The lion emblem on left is on the gate.

These wide boulevards are the view from the Bhavan.

You see all classes of people here, for instance this little family on their motorcycle. 

And here are Usha and I, just regular tourists.

Then off we went to the India Gate on the othe side of the great lane.  

This was before the monsoon, so the grass was negligible, but I tell you, people were still out and about, although after the monsoon began and the weather cooled off, it got considerably more crowded in Delhi venues.

Mahatma Gandhi's Memorial (Smriti)

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The same day we visited the Nehru Museum and the Indira Gandhi Memorial, we went to the Mohandas K. Gandhi Smriti,.or memorial.

There is also a museum across the street, but late afternoon Usha and I were worn out from the heat. Maybe next week,

Here is the walkway leading to the Smriti. Withn the archway we had to remove our shoes.



This is past the arch into the central grounds, There were lines of cloth put out to walk on to keep our feet from burning,. I accidentally got off one of those cloths - OH MY WORD, IT WAS SO HOT.  I was afraid I had burned my feet, but fortunately not. 

And here is the memorial itself. Isn't beautiful?

I'm halfway through an Indian-printed English language of Gandhi's autobiography My Experimoents with Truth. Actually I wonder if it was originally in English. Quite the inspiring read, despite the typos in this edition.



Indira Gandhi Memorial; Delhiwalla.com

I had been checking out this blog called Delhiwalla.com by a Delhi waiter before we flew over here. It's the perspective of a true city resident, and it is just lovely. The fellow eventually got a book deal, the writing is so good. For anyone's information. "Delhiwalla"  is a playful name for a resident of New Delhi (corrections welcomed from more informed readers!!) 

Have a look:    http://www.thedelhiwalla.com/

Now about the Indira Gandhi Memorial, which was originally her residence. It was free and air-conditioned, so naturally it was crowded with visitors, in fact more crowded than the much larger but un-air-conditioned Nehru museum No matter how one feels about Indira Gandhi, the memorial was quite interesting, although in my opinion not as beautiful, detailed, or inspiring as the Nehru site. 

In the last two photos. see how green the landscape is, even in the middle of a heat wave and delayed monsoon - really, no rain in the two weeks we've been here. Not good for crops or water tables. They expect a light drizzle and some cooling off later this week - we'll see.

 Here is a bust of Indira Gandhi, which I quite liked.

Apparently Mrs. Gandhi was a devout Brahmin woman, as seen by her home shrine on the right, and sone shrine items on the left. Based on her politics, I would not have guessed such.

Here is the sari she wore when she

was shot. It was originally yellow

before the blood stained it. In the section on her son Rajiv, also a Prime Minister who was blown up by assassins, this exhibit showed what was left: rags of his clothes, his sneakers, and his socks.

This was the path she took for her daily morning walks, leading to the spot where the bodyguards shot her. The walk was preserved in glass. On the right is the glass-covered spot where she was shot.

Jawaharlal Nehru Museum

Well, Usha and I have been here for over a week in the middle of "non"-monsoon season. That is to say, monsoon is late in northern India. We may not get it till the beginning of the week. So it is in fact hot and dry here. However, we have been taking it slow, walking about half the day rather than the whole day.

I can say now that southern India would probably have been a better choice this time of year - somewhat cooler and just a little rainy (their monsoon starts later in the summer). However, Delhi is in fact a stunning place, certainly one of the great cities in the world.

We have some catching up to do with photos - so here is one of the first sites we visited, the Jawarhalal Nehru museum.

 Here are other photos from that lovely place - photos, documents, his iconic suit with the usual rose, and reconstructions of his living space (behind glass.)

There was also a display of the
beautiful gifts from nations and
Indian states given while he was
Prime Minister. Here are a few
of them:

But I adored his enormous collection of books most of all. Nehru read everything, even for the usual well-read lawyer. Despite the wealth of his family, I think he was more interested in scholarship and service. I would love to have a library like his, crammed wirh books and decoratged with art and photographs of his family and also his heroes - Gandhi and R. Tagore.