Week Ending August 4, 2019

The monsoon rains continue in Delhi making it humid but much cooler (high 80s-low 90s).  Everything is greening and the streets are washed clean on a regular basis.  

On roads all around the city we see saffron clad Kanwariya, Hindu devotees on an annual pilgrimage to collect water from the Ganges and carry it to temples dedicated to Shiva.  Legend has it that the god drank poison that turned him blue and was only cured by Ganges water.  

They carry pots of water slung from long poles balanced on their shoulders creating traffic jams and stopping at colorful roadside tents where they can eat and sleep.  Monday afternoon this small group came down our street.  

Tuesday we celebrated the birthdays of 6 girls at the Udayan home.  We made paper chains with birthday messages for each that they wore as necklaces or hats.  They are beautiful girls, each a unique daughter of our Father in Heaven.

Wednesday night we attended a delightful dance performance by the Shri Kundan Lal Gangani Sangeet Academy at the India Habitat Centre on the spur of the moment.

The teacher, on the right, and her dozen or so students performed in traditional bharatanatyam style but with a semi-classical, updated sound track with some narration in English.

I saw this encounter on my morning walk on Thursday.  It is estimated that there are over 12,000 stray cows in Delhi and they are a problem.  The city has five major gaushalas or "cow shelters" where about 600 cattle per month are deposited.  They are cared for at government expense-- about Rs40 per cow per day. Earlier this year the Delhi government announced plans to create a special home for both elderly people and thousands of stray cattle.  According to NDTV (New Delhi Television Limited):

Gopal Rai, the local development minister, said "cows and senior citizens will co-exist, taking care of each other" in the planned pilot facility in southwest Delhi. "When a cow dries up," he said, "people leave her and she ends up in a gaushala (cow shelter). Similarly, humans too are abandoned and sent to old age homes, even by rich families." 

Friday night we invited our friend Jai Prakash (aka Rohit) and his new bride Babita (seated in the center) over for dinner along with Elder and Sister Toone and Bishop Ravi Gupta and his family.  We had a lovely evening.  I was conscious of how much I love these people and how precious our time together is.

Saturday afternoon we took a fascinating walking tour of Mehrauli, an area of Delhi not far from where we live and one that has been continuously inhabited for about 1000 years  The main road is ancient and narrow and lined with all kinds of modern shops.

Our first stop was the Jahaz Mahal.  Built in the Lodi Period (1451-1526) and used as a inn for travelers from  Central Asia coming to the shrine of the Sufi saint Hazrat Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki.

It may also have been a mosque.  

The Jahaz Mahal is situated next to a water reservoir built by Sultan Iltutmish in 1230 A.D. and called Hauz e Shamsi.  Its location was shown to him in a dream by the Prophet Mohammad.  Originally it covered 100 acres although just a small, weed-choked area remains today.  You can see it beyond the iron fence in the photo above.

The Sultan Firuz Shah Tuqhlaq (1309-1388) built a dam over the Hauz e Shamsi and channeled the water into his fort.  Later, when the fort was abandoned and the waterways fell into disrepair, water started flowing into nearby areas of Mehrauli.  Taking advantage of this in 1700 Nawab Ghiyasuddin Kahn Firoz Jang diverted some water and built a waterfall along with a colonnaded dalaan or verandah with a pool in front of it.

A pavilion was added by Akbar Shah II (1760-1837) between 1812 and 1814.  A baraadari (12 door structure) was added by his eldest son and last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II (1775-1862).  More of a pleasure lover than a potent monarch, he is supposed to have composed poetry here.  Our group gathered there to hear some readings of it.

The Mughal Emperors had traditionally spent their summers in Kashmir but as their power waned and that of the British East India Company grew, they found themselves confined to Delhi in the hot summers and Mehrauli, 10.5 miles from the Red Fort, became their getaway. 

We walked a short distance through narrow, crowded streets to Zafar Mahal, the last summer palace built by Akbar Shah II in 1842.  His son Bahadur Shah Zafar added the imposing three story entrance with its huge "Elephant Gate" a little later.  The last Mughal Emperor would visit his Zafar Mahal every year during hunting season. 

A British inspired fireplace is visible in the ruins of the palace.  It was certainly not part of the design of a traditional Mughal residence. 

On the third story, above the entrance is this lovely musician's chamber where drummers would stand to announce the arrival of the Emperor and his guests.  We stopped here too for some more poetry readings. 

Emperor Zafar wanted to be buried within the confines of the Zafar Mahal along with all his ascendants.  A small graveyard contains the remains of the Emperors Bahadur Shah I, Shah Alam II, his own father, Emperor Akbar Shah II and his (Zafar's) son Mirza Faqrruddin.  An empty grassy spot marks his own intended burial place.  After the Rebellion of 1857 Bahadur Shah Zafar II was deposed by the British and exiled to Rangoon where he died and is buried. 

Our guide explained that if Humayun's tomb (1565) represents the dawn of Mughal power in north India and the Taj Mahal (1648) its prime, then the small graves of these last Emperors and the empty place for Zafar represent its sunset.

Our last stop was Dargah Hazrat Khwaja Najibuddin Firdausi, the burial place of a Sufi saint just around the corner from the Zafar Mahal.  There in the courtyard of the shrine, we enjoyed a qawwali, a musical performance of Sufi Muslim poetry that is supposed to inspire a state of religious ecstasy leading to spiritual union with Allah. It was the perfect end to our walk.