After breakfast, we walked to the beautiful white marble Sikh temple.
We all had to wear a head scarf and only bare feet. There were pools of water at the foot of the stairs for you to wash your feet, and a huge pool to the right where you could bathe, I guess, although no one was doing it. Inside was a raised area with something large covered by a cloth and a man sitting behind it. He is the keeper of the book. There were TV sets all around with teachings displayed in various languages. Three musians played music and sang. The pillars and ceiling were covered in gold leaf. A huge crystal chandelier was over the big book. Sikhs do not have a clergy, just these teachings. there are five things a Sikh has to have. A headress/turban, a dagger, long hair, certain pants, and a metal bracelet. This will signify that you are a Sikh. They believe in welcoming everyone, young, old, rich, poor, etc.
A Sikh temple will always have a kitchen. We went to this huge room and sat among other volunteers and made chapatis. We rolled the dough into rounds. Someone came to get them and gave them to men who were cooking them on a huge charcoal grated fire. The cooked ones were put in huge bowls the size of a sofa chair. Someone was stirring a cauldron of lentils and vegetables. Other cauldrons held rice. The meal would be served in an hour or so. The temple feeds 10,000 meals per day and more on the weekends and maybe 50,000 on holidays. The kitchen is staffed by volunteers like us, continually circulating into the area.
inside the kitchen
Entrance to Sikh temple
Delhi is part old, part new. Our hotel is in the new area with tree lined avenues and street grid in contrast to the old alleyways part of the city. When we returned to the hotel we got on the bus to visit the symbol of Delhi, a World Heritage Site called Qutab Minar. It is a complex of Indo-Islamic architecture topped by a 234 foot high tower. There was another one just started but not finished. there is also a tall iron pole made from about 500 to 600 AD. Indians are known for knowing how to use metal.
The metal spire
Qutab Minar
details in the Minar
a failed minar
a tomb in Qutab Minar
We had lunch at Lazeez Affaire restaurant. It was advertised as Chinese, but I hardly recognized it at all as any cuisine I ever came across. But we all enjoyed it.
Our hour long bus rides to and fro were mostly on the Shanti Path which is a beautiful wide boulevard with lawns, flowers and trees on the middle strip, the sides of the road, and large parks in the round about areas. Even though Delhi is the most polluted city in the world, they are making efforts to plant trees and greenery. You do see trees and grass wherever possible, it is just that the leaves are dusty. Shanti Path is where all the embassies are located.
We also passed by a very exclusive housing area where a small condo/apartment style unit would be about $300,000. However, just across the corner is the beginning of a slum area. 50% of the 20,000,000 people of Delhi live in slums.
After we got back we had to pack our bags because they are going on the bus to Jaipur. But we are taking a plane. This bus will be our bus in Jaipur and also transportation to other places. So we will all have the same clothes on tonight and tomorrow.
David and I had dinner at a nearby Kwality Restaurant. He remembers eating at one in Baroda.
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