Prior to my arrival in India, I had been in touch with Ellen of A Reason 2 Write. We emailed back and forth; me, with a gazillion questions and her with more than just answers. She also provided me with information on which markets to shop at, where to eat and places of interest to see. Then, in addition to all that, she offered her time. Ellen and her driver picked us up at our hotel and took us to Old Dehli and I’m so thankful to her for it. Had Paul and I gone there on our own, I think we would have lasted about twenty minutes before calling it a day.
Navigating the streets of Old Dehli can be quite overwhelming. Instead of trying to put it into words I’ll let these pictures speak for themselves. The first photo is of Chandi Chowk , the main street in Old Dehli, which originally had a canal running through it long ago. The rest of the pictures are of other 'streets' we walked through. They were quite narrow, and though a car could not fit it was amazing how many bicycles, carts, cows, dogs and motorcycles did with all the people. But that is India. BTW, that's Ellen and I in the second picture to the far left. And I mean FAR left. We were trying to get out of the way of the guy on the motorcycle! Also note that other than us, there are only three other women you can see in these photos.
Yes, a picture can paint a thousand words...or in this case, show thousands of Indians going about their daily lives.
Now in the midst of all this chaos is Naughara Lane, in which there are nine Havelis, or private mansions, that were built in the 18th century (Naughara literally means nine houses). And believe it or not, a few of the original families still live there.
One of these havelis is owned by Mr. Atam Agarwal who is a manufacturer and exporter of home décor. We had the pleasure of meeting him on his way out and he asked us to stop by a little later for a cup of Chai, but we didn't have time.
Another of the havelis is now a silver shop owned by Mr. Ashish Nahar and Ellen had made an appointment for us with him. The following picture doesn’t do justice, but we bought all of this for under $200 U.S.!
As I mentioned prior there are just too many photographs to share in one post. Therefore I’ll end with “To be continued…”
3 comments:
That was so fun! I was glad to get the chance to meet you and Paul!
Wow! I think what grabbed my attention the most, for some reason, was the tangle of wires above the crowds. Insane. I can't wait to read the rest of your posts. :)
ashish nahar is way tooooooooo expensive...he literrally looted me...wen i went to delhi...simply not sggested he is jst too sweet to talk to tats it....
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