Delhi: India's heartthrob

"I asked my soul: What is Delhi?

She replied: The world is the body and Delhi, its life."   

              -Mirza Ghalib  (Persian and Urdu poet, 1797-1869)

Since  you will be landing and spending some time in Delhi, it is only fair to this magnificent city that you should know certain interesting things about it. 

India Gate...Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the India gate was built in 1931 to commemorate the 90 000 lost lives of Indian soldiers in the First World War and the Third Anglo-Afghan war.   

Completed in 1986, the Lotus temple is notable for its flower-like shape and is a Baha'i house of worship.

Delhi, or Dilli (in Hindi) or Dehli (in Urdu) literally means the heart. As history bears testimony, Delhi has seen the rise and fall of many empires which has left a plethora of monuments, highlighting the grandeur and glory of bygone ages. Indeed, the remnants of the glorious past of the city in the form of important monuments sprawled in different parts of the city bring evidences to the eye how historically, the city has since long been on the forefront in terms of political importance with successive dynasties choosing it as their seat of  power.

The Jama Masjid in Old Delhi is the largest mosque in India built by Shah Jahan. The construction work started in 1650 and took 6 years to complete. The court-yard of the mosques can hold up to twenty-five worshipers at a time.

Built years after Humayun's death, the construction work was commissioned by Humayun's first wife Bega Begum and was the first of its kind of the Mughal architecture in India, inspired by Persian architecture.

Legend has it that any man or king who creates a new city in Delhi will not be able to last his rule. With the passage of time, Delhi has moved on from being a city which has been destroyed several times and has emerged into a real melting pot. Some factors which contributed in changing the very fabric of the city's population was the massive influx of refugees from across the border after the Partition and later on., the people from other states who came in search of jobs in the Delhi.

Travelling throughout Delhi, one has the feeling of shifting through different worlds. Each village, each area, each street has a story to narrate.