New Delhi Tour
Most of the party from London did not arrive till midday. However the smog and air purity – worse than Oxford Street – made our own tour in the morning uninviting so we waited for the afternoon one organised for the group. We saw some old faces from the Cape Town tour at the midday buffet. The hotel lobby is a spacious area with Mughal carpets and artefacts. We learned that the Mughal emperors that dominated the 16th and 17th Centuries were far more tolerant to the Hindi than the Portuguese, who introduced the Inquisition in Goa, or the British thereafter.
The tour coach drove slowly down the graceful thoroughfares where fine architecture of Sir Edwin Lutyens between 1911-31 still houses the Prime Minister, the President’ s residences and the Parliament. Finest of all is the Viceroy Mansion of some 361 rooms now used by the President. We visited the tomb of the second Mughal emperor Homayoun who died young in a accident and whose second wife built the impressive tomb to him. After that we went to the Gandhi museum.
Bob Tickler seemed to take an intuitive dislike to Gandhi and as vegetarian ascetic it would be hard to find a more opposite character to Bob. Winston Churchill too must have loathed him. Gandhi came from a rich family and the “bungalow” where he stayed in Delhi and lived out his final days before he was assassinated would not be out of place in George’s Hill Weybridge. Still he was the father of modern India and we might still learn from this dedicated practitioner of non violence.
Delhi itself is now in its seventh reincarnation as a capital. The Mughals moved the capital to Agra and it has also been Calcutta. It is a city of 16m people. We only saw New Delhi not the old quarter or southern Delhi. It was certainly impressive. In the evening we ate in the Varq, a modern Indian restaurant in the hotel. I will leave Daffers to review this but I thought it way better than yer standard curry house of mixed tandoori and chicken biriani. One chap I sat next to at lunch was so scared by water that arrived in a carafe rather than bottled that I thought he would have his stomach pumped but his missus is the only casualty of a tummy upset and that she thought came from a BA sandwich in the executive lounge at Heathrow.
Logistically the tour has so far gone well. Bob’s email of concern about liaison with the airport rep resulted in him being classified as needing “special assistance” hence the uniformed Vanita. No one was lost in the afternoon tour and the guide Dillip, though not exactly objective or impartial, amused us with his commentary. The group’s stamina will be tested as they had barely arrived when there was the afternoon tour and tomorrow its a 6-30 breakfast and 7-45 coach departure for Agra. It’s always a difficult call in our industry to balance a full sightseeing day with the fatigue of the traveller, especially as ours is an elderly party. The secret is to make the transportation as comfortable as possible and of course everything is optional. My own wish is to see as much as possible. Our travel hosts Allan Lamb and his delightful wife Lindsay arrived in time for dinner. Allan is an ebullient fellow whilst Lindsay tends to take care of matters operational. This said, as in Cape Town, Allan is very much hands on not just socialising with the party but concerned and making his own input that it all goes smoothly. So far it has.
