I wrote this travelogue back in 2007 when I visited Incredible India for the very first time. I am just publishing it again without making any changes to what I wrote 11 years ago. Things might have changed in India by now but this is what I remember of that place. Please excuse me if you don’t find this relevant to our times – This is a young girl’s “dear diary” kind of a post !

Making your first international trip on foot is an experience that is worth penning down. On 9th February 2007, I became a part of such an exclusive trip that ended up making me see one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Yes, I made a trip to India!

According to the plan, we had to cross Pak-Indian border on foot where, afterwards, a local bus was hired by the group leader, which was supposed to take us to Delhi from Atari. Btw, around seventy Pakistanis crossed the Pak-Indian border on that day. The bus, quite unexpectedly, was a ride that made the inventor of heavy automotive twist in his grave. The six hour journey from Atari to Delhi was completed in twelve hours time whereby the Indian women, wearing colorful saris, kept on overtaking our bustanic (inspired from Titanic) on their scooties every now and then.

From Atari to Delhi, the roads reminded me of what Lahore-Islamabad GT road was ten years back. Except for the Hindi scripts written on the walls and the females riding scooties, everything reminded me of Lahore. The climate, people, dust and even the weak regulations of traffic signal systems seemed so much alike that it was hard to digest the fact that I was in a different country!

I reached Delhi at 3:30 AM and the first impression was the realization of the fact that India is a BIG country. One can easily define Delhi with long traffic jams on four-way roads, huge population, long-storey apartments, lots of foreigners and the dazzling Delhi Metro.

Having spent rest of the semi-cold night of Delhi in a much warmer and cozy apartment of our family friends, living in Noida, I was all set to explore Delhi on the very next day. We started off with the Lotus Temple – a meditating centre of Bahai community. The temple was situated amidst of lush green lawns. A lot of foreigners and school children were mesmerizing the beauty of the temple. It was indeed a marvelous piece of architecture and a must go for all tourists!

File Photo: With Ami and Abu Kabir – Lotus Temple behind us 

After having seen the temple, our driver elated my father with the never-ending stories of the Kaali Mata (Black Mother) whose temple was situated adjacent to the Lotus Temple. On hearing that the statue of Kali Mata (Black Mother) got shrunk miraculously a month ago, nothing could stop my father from seeing Kali Mata. A ten minutes walk took us at the very temple which was crowded with locals, who were engrossed in performing rituals. To our dismay, there was no such statue present. Instead, some stones were erected in the middle which were being worshipped and kissed by the local community. As a tourist, I wont suggest anyone to pay a visit because of lack of relevancy or interest.

The trip to the Kali Mata’s temple made me take a genuine break by then. It was around 1 pm and seemed like more than a day had passed. Partially because it was a rainy day and the grey sky had covered the sun and partially because I was very tired. But my day did not end here. I was taken to the Nehru’s place, now converted into a museum. The house, despite being my shabby health conditions, was able to grab all my attention. The rooms were preserved the way they were used by Mr. Nehru. His books, personal letters and clothes were deciphering the story of a Hindustani leader. Overall, the place was good and I bid farewell at around 4 pm. My next stop was at KFC where I was very much delighted to have an extended Zinger offer for IND Rs. 60/- Only. After eating my heart full, I was convinced that my first day’s touring becomes incomplete by not having an element of shopping. Luckily, my father told me that we were present in Delhi’s most popular area, called CNOT Place, which is famous for having the India’s largest underground market, known as Palika Bazaar. Having heard that, I re-gathered all my energy and set my foot to the underground market.

Palika Bazaar offers Indian’s traditional clothing at a much cheaper price. The hand-made bags and jewelry are worth buying. I remained at Palika Bazaar for hardly an hour and then headed towards my residence. The day did not end there as our host had invited us over a cocktail party that was to be honored by Daler Mehdi.

Asoka Hotel reminded me of Hotel Serena, Islamabad. The gigantic ceilings and the placement of Bhugwan’s statue (Hindu gods) every now and then made the overall ambiance exuberant and extremely flamboyant. The party was wild with Mehdi’s bhangra songs, dances and exotic lines of culinary. It stayed till wee hours and was thoroughly enjoyed.

While we were heading out of the hotel; I saw an Indian Wedding arrangement, whereby the Mundit (fire-centered place around which the groom and bride completes seven circles and perform their wedding rituals) was set with a groom sitting at one end. It was told by a local that it would take more than an hour to start the rituals as the arrangements were not fully complete. The all-set Indian wedding was a nice experience to witness and finally my day ended there.

Since the prime purpose of the trip was shopping, we were basically inclined towards the malls and local bazaars. During the next day, we restricted our shopping activities to the main market of Noida. Excellent saris with much difference in prices, as compared to Pakistan, instantly swayed the breath away. After spending almost a day and half our pockets, we rushed back home where our hosts was waiting for us to take us for the dinner. It was hosted by a lovely lady and her two sisters who used to live in Pakistan before independence. It was indeed really pleasant to know about Pakistan and especially Lahore from the people, who were once a part of the same community. They all remembered Anarkali and the Mall Road and at the same time gave me a hard time in recalling the location of the colleges and schools where they used to study. Of course, the name had changed, the actual sites were lost somewhere but the glimmer in their eyes was still alive. The dinner was enlivened by the ghazal session that started after food was served. This reminded me of Shabana Azmi’s movies whereby the hero or the heroine was spontaneously asked by the friends to sing a song and they were all set to sway the party with their melodious voices. After having spent a quality time at that place, we moved back to our house at the late night hours of Delhi.

The third day was spent at Chandni Chowk, which is famous for possessing the largest collection of varying kind of embroided and heavily embellished clothes and saris. After taking a ride of Delhi Metro, truly a master piece, conceptualized and made by a Korean Company, we were up-grounded (as the metro network is laid two storey beneath the ground) right at the centre of Chandni Chowk. Btw, Chandni Chowk was the first place and Taj Mahel was the second, where I heard Azan. Except for these two places, the city remains silent during the Muslims’ praying time. We got all varieties of heavy clothes from Chandni Chowk. The bazaar resembled like our Shah Alam market located in the inner city. The cranky streets and infinitesimally sized shops contained the region’s most exquisite clothing material at a much cheaper price. We were finished with our shopping by eight pm and that was essentially the end of another hectic, yet a fruitful day.

It had started raining since the morning. The sky was filled with grey clouds and the Delhi was soaked with mud and dirt. This was precisely because of the work undergoing for laying infrastructure for Metro train system. During those days, phase three and four were under construction whereby the first two phases were fully functional. After sleeping for good ten hours, I was again ready to explore yet another market place. This was Delhi’s very own Carole Bagh. This was our last day of shopping. Although, we were already done with quite most of it, the list of presents for our relatives and friends were taken out and the market was explored mainly to buy something for our loved ones waiting anxiously on the other side of border. Carole Bagh is best for buying finished goods, may it be clothes or anything that is related to home accessories. We were done by six pm.

Another, interesting thing to notice about India was the very frequent display of diamonds, be it on a fourteen year old girl or the tiny, squeezed shops. 13th February also became one important factor for seeing crowd of people on diamond counters and/or shops. We were knocked by the instant realization that diamonds are sold in India at much cheaper price than they are sold in Pakistan. Unluckily, that was the last day of our shopping and we were almost bankrupt. However, the desire overruled the monetary constraints and we were able to buy some finest piece of jewelry on our very last day in Delhi. For all diamond lovers, it is duly advised that diamonds must be bought as soon as you reach the Indian soil. The quality is good and the designs are marvelous!

13th February did not end here. We, then marched towards a multiplex to have an experience of watching an Indian movie in an Indian cinema. After spending an hour or so on the Delhi Roads, we were able to find one Cineplex (more like our Sozo World) where “Guru” movie started at 9:30 PM.

It is worth penning down the story of Guru here as it is about Indian’s richest industrialist, Dheeru Bhai Ambani, owner of Reliance Group. The story starts off as how a young boy challenges the circumstances around him and rises from the league of ordinary people to the ones who dare to dream and remain perseverance in achieving their goals. Young Bachan acted really well and took the movie to its height because of his great acting. The message conveyed was that dreams are always fulfilled, only if one dares to dream and secondly if one works harder for it. Slowly and gradually making up the story-line, the movie was able to grip all my senses for good three hours until the show was over in late hours. That day we reached home at around 2:30 AM. Last day at Delhi was no doubt tiring but had left incredible marks in my life. The 14th of February, incidentally fell on the time when we were scheduled to pay a visit to Taj Mahel, Agra. On a quicker note, I would rate the four hour journey to Agra as somehow long and tiring but the eventual heavenly experience definitely over shadow the hassle of journeying on scorching, sunny day. Agra is itself a small, stingy city but Taj Mahel is surely a queen of hearts.

Crowded with lots of foreigners and newly-wedded couples, Taj Mahal was royally perched amidst lush green grounds just like the Aphrodite, Greek goddess of white beauty. Years ago, the crystal clear marble slabs started turning pale with dust and pollution and the Indian government banned CNG/petrol driven vehicles from within the premises. As a result, animal-driven carts became popular. We took a ride on Rickshaw from the car parking area to the main gate and hired a Tonga on our way back.

Taj Mahal is truly a master piece and definitely one of the wonders of the world. The flagrant symmetry of the four pillars, the placement of the tomb, the flowing of Ganges River next to the Mahal presents a picturesque view on this phase of earth. We spent almost three hours at Taj Mahal but the heart remained fervent to mesmerize this beauty for eternity. Foreigners from different parts of the world, may it be Tibetans or South African, were gathered to appreciate world’s renowned piece of architecture. It was indeed the apex of our trip. Surely the visit to India is incomplete without paying a tribute to Taj Mahal.

The journey from Agra to Delhi took far less time than expected and we reached Delhi at around 9 PM. The night was spent while wrapping up our stuff. Over a couple of days our luggage had grown to tremendous heights. It took us good two hours to figure out how our clothes can be fitted into the tiny crevices of the suit cases that we had brought. At last we were done with our packing by 3:00 AM.

We took Shadabi train for reaching Amritsar. Our train had to leave Delhi at 7:10 AM and we woke up at 6:00 AM. Considering the time taken to reach the Railway Station and the time required in dressing up, we surely beat the supersonic waves and took our seats just on time. The experience of taking a train ride went really well. Everything happened with a clock precision, be it the delivery of services or the two-minute stay at some sub-station. We reached Amritsar in exactly six hours. From Amritsar to Atari, we hired a cab that took us to the border in almost thirty minutes. Without getting our luggage checked, we were cleared by the custom police of both the countries in almost half an hour and at 3:30 PM (PST), we were heading towards our home.

Summing it up, I would say that India is a great shopping resort. I couldn’t visit Gandhi’s tomb, Red Fort and Nizam-ud-Deen Olia’s tomb, something I would regret. But as my primary objective was fulfilled, I was happy to put these visits on a pending state until my next trip to India.

PS: Featured Image sourced from none other than www.wikipedia.org