odzer's blog

After looking through the garden I had this extreme need to use the toilet but I could not find one in the garden anywhere so I went to this area and to my surprise I found a Bonsai garden titled “National Bonsai Park”. The miniature trees in the park were well done and they also had a Japanese sand garden. The only disappointment was that both these gardens were extremely unkempt. The sand garden which is supposed to be clean was full of fallen leaves and other debris. The bonsai’s were shaped properly but they were put in just ordinary pots thus destroying most of their beauty. I joked with my friend that the only reason the bonsai garden had a wheelchair access was because Japanese people must faint when they see this garden and have to be taken out on a wheelchair.

So after making some enquiries about where the toilet was which happens to be just outside the exit we made our way out but not before we met a peacock roaming around happily. I must say that the toilet outside the Lodhi Gardens is one of the best I have seen among public toilets in India. They even had an aquarium inside. I wonder why they can not just build more nice things like that and maintain them too. Just next doors is the Lodhi Garden Restaurant. An open air quite posh mostly used by expats type place. We had our lunch there and I could even eat a steak, something that is quite forbidden in Chandigarh owing to the ban on beef. I throughly enjoyed a variation after almost an year. I kept wondering if I should hang around so many white people though considering the risk of being shot these days. Oh well a good meal is worth being shot. The food there was quite alright and I must say not that expensive either. The service was good. My only complaint is that they need to have more variety in non alcoholic drinks. I am not the kind of man who usually drinks in the afternoon in an alien city.

At the beginning of this month I had the chance to travel to Delhi on a really nice foggy and cold morning. So I gathered my courage took myself out of the layers of blankets at 4 am and caught the 6:50 Am train to Delhi. The friend that I was meeting there decided to take me to the Lodhi gardens for a shpotzir. Now even though I have been out and about Delhi a couple of times I have never been to this particular garden.

I must say that I was not very impressed by the way it is kept but the buildings in the garden are very nice. Time has taken a heavy toll on these tombs and structures but I can imagine that because they have been standing here since the 15th Century. The gardens themselves were created by the British administration in India in 1936. It was personally landscaped by Lady Willingdon the wife of the Governor-General of India.I found many types of trees and plants in the garden but one of my main complaints is that the garden like most gardens in India is so spread out and full of grass that it does not focus much on individual plants. I also find the lack of proper signs on the plants quite distressing. If one is not a skilled botanist it is almost impossible to make out which plants are what.

As I mentioned there are some historical buildings of interest in the garden. Most of them pretain to the Lodhi and the Sayyid dynasties that ruled North-India a long time ago. One of the buildings there is called the Bada Gumbad or literally the Big Dome while the other is called the Sheesh Gumbad or the Mirror Dome. A lot of graves are unknown in these complexes and there is also a mosque. What struck me was the brilliant colours that must have covered these buildings at one point of time and also the construction of the structures themselves. You can see a mix of Hindu and Muslim architecture though I may not be completely right in this respect. A lot of windows and doors to me appear like they came right out of a Hindu temple where as the rest of the building seems rather Islamic.

I found many families and some school groups enjoying the garden and one person even playing golf in this garden. Delhi’s municipal corporation is far more lax with gardens than ours is. Apparently you can even walk your dog in the garden and as I described also play sport! We can not even play a friendly game of football in our neighbourhood park here! Chandigarh seems to be fast running out of places to play neighbourhood sports. Anyway I guess Delhi needs to keep the dogs out of the parks and we need to allow some small parks to be used as playgrounds. I hope you enjoy the pictures a lot of them are hazy, well due to the HAZE!

I visit Delhi sometimes for business and sometimes for pleasure. It is the nearest metropolitan type city from where I live. Arriving in Delhi is always a culture shock. Although as for me it is pleasant as well as interesting. One of the first things that one notices when you get off the railway station is the smell. Delhi has strange overpowering and strong smells unlike here. The other thing you notice is the sea of people at the station. As soon as you leave the station you have the opportunity for your first interaction with the local people. Usually Taxi or Auto drivers. They take you for a ride and they can tell immediately that you are not a local. If you stand in the pre paid taxi line you will also experience a one sided conversation  from vying cab drivers about the demerits of the pre paid system.

Many parts of Delhi have these amazing jungle of wires hanging above. Mostly telephone wiring but sometimes also power lines. How they repair these phones is beyond me. I always like going to old delhi. One of my favourite activities is going down to the Red Fort area and the markets just opposite it. There is a whole labryinth of streets and small shops there that have existed there forever. I also like going to the connaught circus and before the metro was built there was a very nice park there which seems to have become smaller to me or less shady. I am not sure though. Sometimes I take the metro down to Majnu Ka Tilla or Changpura as it is called in the local slang. It was an area famous for the production of illicit Tibetan beer called “Chang“. These days mostly it is a den of interesting illegal activities for this is the only Tibetan Ghetto I know of. I enjoy visiting some of my friends who live there and eating Tibetan food that I can not find here in Chandigarh. Just near the Bus Terminal on Bela Road is an area called Ladakh Buddha Vihar. It is an excellent place to shop for some cheap clothes.If you just walk from Changpura to Buddha Vihar you may have a chance to see some “Akharas” where they practice Indian wrestling called Kushti. Both of these places are on the banks of the dirty smell yamuna and are infested with mosquitos so if you are planning to stay a night bring plenty of bug repellent cream. It can smell very bad so never take a room facing the river, especially in the summer time.

If you want to buy things in wholesale you can always head down to Sadar Bazaar. It is a chaos but its just like another planet out there. Over all I have always enjoyed being in Delhi though it takes a toll on the senses. It is a city that you can enjoy best when you have no where to go in particular and nothing to do but walk around. I love watching the way people go about there and the speed of life considering here it is so quiet.