Hiding From Holi - Our Last Day in India

Before coming to India, The Wife was most worried about our final day coinciding with Holi, the festival of colors.  During this holiday, locals celebrate by dousing each other with colored water or powder.  We had been told that the colors can be tough to wash out and can linger for days.  I really wanted to see some of the Holi celebrations, from afar of course.  But she dreaded the possibility of getting colored and spending the flight home looking like a smurf.  Worse is having to show up back to work with discolored hair or face.  That wouldn't inspire much confidence in our patients right before going under for surgery.   She wanted to avoid Holi altogether.  I reassured her that the festival wouldn't be much of an issue as long as we stayed in the more commercial areas of town.

After breakfast, we met up with our guide for a morning visit to some last tourist attractions in Delhi.  Our first stop was the Qutb Complex in the southern part of the city.

The centerpiece of this area is the Qtub Minar.

At 238 feet, It is India's highest tower.

When the Afghani slave-general Qutbuddin Aibak conquered the region from the Chauhan kings in 1193, he began construction of this "Victory Tower."  He was later to establish the Mamluk Dynasty, the first of the Delhi Sultanates, in 1206 and die in a polo accident (a not uncommon way for Indian rulers to meet their demise) four years later.

The minaret was not built all at once.  160 years and several Delhi Sultanates later, the fifth and last story was completed.  The outer surface is covered with Islamic carvings and Arabic writing.  Our guide told us that the inside of the minaret contains Hindu carvings.  She said that some of the stones used to build the structure came from demolished Hindu temples.  Unfortunately, we couldn't see them as this area has been closed to the public for over a decade.

Depictions of animals or people are not allowed in conservative Islamic decor.
Hence, most Islamic architecture in India is devoid of aniconism.

The remaining areas consisted of ruins from tombs and former buildings of worship.  They were not as interesting or intricate as the buildings we had seen over the past two weeks.

The Alai Darwaza is the main southern gate to the Qutb complex. It was built
in 1311 by Alauddin Khilji, a ruler of the second Delhi Sultanate Dyna.

It is the first building in India...

...(true arches and domes).

 ...to employ true Islamic architecture...

The Tomb of Imam Zamin, a Turkestan saint who migrated to India and died in 1539

Ironically, the Quwwat-ul-Islam (Might of Islam) Mosque contains
several Hindu motifs in the decorative carvings of the columns.

The 22 foot-high Iron Pillar of Delhi dates to the 4th century when it was housed in a Jain temple. It is 98%
iron and has resisted corrosion for over 1600 years. It is about as exciting as the largest ball of twine.

The tomb of Iltutmish, son of Aibek and second of the Delhi Sultanates

The Alai Minar was going to be a tower twice the height of the Qutb
Minar.  The first story was completed by Alauddin Khilji,
but the project was abandoned soon after his death.

Foreign tourists are not the only visitors to the Qutb Complex...

...many parrots and locals visit this clean, well kept area of Delhi.

The next place we visited was the Tomb of Humayun, the second Mughal emperor.  He had actually lost his kingdom to the last Delhi Sultanate and lived as a refuge in Persia for 15 years before retaking Delhi in 1555.  Sadly, he died only a year later when he fell down the stairs of his library carrying a load of books.  Knowledge can be dangerous.

Humayun's Tomb was commissioned by his wife, Hamina Banu Begum, seven years after his death and is said to have served as the blueprint for the Taj Mahal, a century later.  The resemblance to the Taj Mahal is striking in form, but different in most other details.  It is much smaller in scale.  It is constructed of red sandstone, not white marble.  And there are no exquisite details and inlaid gemstones in the walls.   What is left is a nice UNESCO site, but a very underwhelming monument compared to the Taj Mahal.  I think we would have appreciated this place if we had seen it first.

The gateway to Humayun's Tomb

This tomb is a smaller, simpler, and red version of the Taj Mahal.

The surrounding buildings and gardens...

...are nowhere as nice as that of the Taj Mahal.

Unlike the Taj Mahal, photography is allowed inside Humayan's tomb.

Decorative jialis (screens) are common in Mughal architecture.

Our guide suggested that we visit the National Museum since I am interested in learning about pre-Mughal history.  We also had an hour or two to kill, and it is an air-conditioned facility.  Plus there would be a zero percent chance of being doused by an urchin with dyed water.  Their collection is pretty large consisting of small pottery fragments and tools from the B.C. era.  The artifacts from the first millennium are mainly elaborate sculptures and base reliefs (many taken from ruined temples) of gods and goddesses.  Unfortunately, the descriptions of the pieces are very brief and really do not help convey the history or culture of these ancient civilizations.  There is an audio tour that can be rented, but it only covers select highlighted displays.

There were several centuries-old reliefs and statues on display in the National Museum.

There are also small exhibits such as the maritime history of India.  Sadly, India has always been a pretty insignificant Naval power, so there isn't much there.  As an American, it was interesting to learn that the first British naval vessel ever commisioned in India was the HMS Minden, on its decks from which Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner.

They also had several galleries on coins from the various dynasties of India.  When I was in college, I took a course on Roman history as revealed by their coinage (pretty nerdy).  It was actually surprising to see what can be learned from the portraits, images, and slogans minted on the coins.  Unfortunately, much of the Indian money seemed more simplistic with only Sanskrit writing as their only details.  Although the museum's coin collection is vast, to me, it just wasn't that interesting.

In contrast, there was a large exhibit on the different varieties of miniature paintings throughout the last 500-600 years.  During our time in Rajasthan, we rued the fact that we didn't understand the different schools of painting.  The museum does a good job of describing the characteristics of each style while showing many examples of each.  I only wish I had more time to go over that area more thoroughly.

The National Museum also has a special exhibit on the treasures of China.  I think they had some good displays there, but we didn't linger very long as we had seen similar pieces on our previous journeys to that country.  Altogether, I thought the museum is pretty good, not great.  The Wife hated it, but I think a lot had to do with their really weak gift shop.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon at the Khan Market, an upscale shopping center that caters to more Western tastes.  The streets outside are lined with Benzes, Bimmers, and other expensive cars.  You better believe nobody was going to play Holi around those pricey machines.  Still, it was hard not to notice that the country was celebrating a holiday.

Even with the rifle, it's hard to be intimidated
by this Khan Market security guard.

Tailgating India style? No lighter fluid is necessary when you have cow patties for fuel.

There are many nice boutique stores that occupied our time for several hours.  We purchased more knick knacks from Anokhi (again for the 3rd time in India), Good Earth, FabIndia, etc..  No haggling was necessary.  We did have to stop off at the McDonald's and see their menu.  They wouldn't allow me to take pictures inside (stupid corporate rules).  Since beef and pork are taboo for Hindu's and Muslims respectively, the only protein is chicken (what, no lamb?).  Instead of the Big Mac, they have the Chicken Majarajah Burger.  Instead of the regular hamburger, they have a McAloo Tikki burger made up of a potato and pea patty.  For the equivalent of about 50 cents, it was actually pretty good.

666! McDonald's is still evil no matter which country it's in.

We headed to a restaurant near Old Delhi called Chor Bizarre, that has received some nice reviews. Unfortunately, it was closed, likely for the holiday.  We needed to find some place fast so I remembered reading a good review about a place called The Great Kebab Factory at the Radisson Hotel near the airport.  We took a gamble and it paid off.

First, we had to get our car through security.  The guards checked the back looking for any firearms or bombs.  Once inside, we headed to the restaurant.  The concept was different than anything else we had experienced in India.  First we had to select from either a vegetarian or carnivore menu.  We wanted to do one of each, but since logistically it would be problematic, they decided to just bring meats mixed with the occasional vegetables.

At that point they started bringing out their different kebabs.  Unfortunately, my hurried pictures do not do the food justice.  Their specialty is a minced lamb kebab that we were told is best eaten wrapped in roti.  It resembled one of those diarrhea-inducing Taco Bell burritos.  Just as good, too.  They followed with tandoori shrimp and paneer, roasted chicken and lamb, black pepper chicken, tandoori potato, and finally lamb chop.  These were also served up with various breads that were good but filled me up too quickly.   At this point, we were asked to pick which ones we could have again.  We went for our favorites--the minced lamb, shrimp, paneer, and lamb chop.  They will continuously bring kebab after kebab until you have had enough.  It's like an Indian churrascaria.  

You definitely need to bring your A game to this restaurant.  Unfortunately, we brought our fourth string backups and were quickly stuffed.  But that was just the introduction.  The "main course" was brought in.  It is two forms of dal and ultra-smooth creamed spinach served with a lamb biryani.  At this point, I had to take an intermission and clear up more space.  For dessert, they brought their version of several Indian sweets--a pistachio kulfi on a stick, jaleebis, galub jamun, kheer, halwa, and paan.   With their attentive service, we were able to polish off all these courses in little over an hour.  Although pricey by Indian standards, the food was worth it.  The Wife thought it was the best meal she had for the whole trip.  My only complaint is that they didn't have a written menu giving us the Indian name to the kebabs that we were eating.  We tried asking some of the waiters, but we had a hard time understanding their Indian accents.

 Condiments include onions and four dipping sauces.

First course was a fruit and vegetable salad with a strawberry vinaigrette.

Their signature minced lamb kebab may look like a
steaming pile of poop, but it still tastes great.

Roasted chicken kebab

Spicy lamb kebab

Tandoori potato

 Cashew and fennel bread

The saffron bread was awesome.

Black pepper chicken kebab

The "main course" includes a biryani and two types of dals.

Kulfi on a stick

Galub Jamun

Kheer

Halwa

Jalebis

Paan

We rushed to the airport and checked in.  Our bags were over the limit, so we had to do some last minute rearranging with our carry-ons.  The airline representative was nice enough not to charge us for being a few kg's over.  In our haste we forgot to exchange our rupees back to dollars before entering the secure area.  There is one money-exchange place inside but it is reserved for only local Indians (WTF!, Why does it matter?).  So, we were stuck with $70 of worthless Indian rupees that are technically illegal to bring out of the country.  (We did put them to good use, donating them to UNICEF on the flight home).

We didn't look forward to spending the next 15 hours covered in sweat and dirt, so we went to one of the lounges to use their showers.  We are not members, but for 500 rupees/person, they offer that option.  We waited our turn.  And waited.  And waited.  Then we saw that our flight was starting the boarding process, 1.5 hours before departure.  So we started freaking out.  The friendly attendant was nice enough to knock on the stalls and get some of the folks moving.  What they were doing in there that took so long, I don't know and probably don't want to know.  Their turnover was very quick, and the private bathrooms with toilet and showers were nice and clean.  Towels, shampoo, and conditioner were provided.  I was in such a hurry, I didn't even stop to figure out how to get hot water.  Five minutes later, I was ready to roll.  And then I had to wait another fifteen minutes for The Wife to be done.

In order to actually board the plane, we had to go through the security process once again.  I don't want to hear anybody bitch about the TSA in U.S. airports.  The multiple checkpoints in India are much more of a hassle,  I can only imagine what it is like in Israel.  As much of a pain as it was, I did feel good about the added security.

Two flights, one long layover in Chicago, and two tasty breakfast items from Tortas Frontera later, we were finally home, happy we made the journey to North India.  However, I don't think we will be making plans to return anytime soon.