New Delhi, India

New Delhi, Old Delhi, Delhi ... ? New Delhi is the capital city of India, located in the megacity of Delhi, located in the National Capital Territory (NCT) of India. Old Delhi is, well, the old part of Delhi.

New Delhi is the centre of government, a quintessentially bureaucratic city with a highly educated, urban population. The NCT has an area of 1,400 square kilometres and a population of 20 million people.*

We haven't seen any street cows in New Delhi but we have seen plenty of street dogs. Our guide KK tells us there are 8 million street dogs in India. I mentioned previously that people feed dogs and cows as a good deed; they also feed birds and monkeys. Pigeons are everywhere!

Before British rule, Old Delhi had been the political and financial centre for centuries, including under the Mughal Empire. Under British rule, Calcutta (Kolkata) was the capital — as a trading power, Britain needed a city on the sea, for its port facilities. But in the early 1900s, the British became alarmed by rising nationalism focused in Calcutta. In 1911, when King George V and Queen Mary were crowned as Emperor and Empress of India, the king announced that the British Empire was moving the capital of the Raj from Calcutta to Delhi.

Sir Edwin Lutyens, a noted British architect, was given the task of designing this new city. Lutyens is pronounced lootens — a fitting pun on what Britain did to India, as a friend has pointed out (thanks, J). Today Lutyens' Delhi is a little island of broad, leafy green boulevards, and unsurprisingly, it's one of the most expensive areas in India. A bungalow in this area recently sold for more than for $US50 million. A bungalow is a single storey house on a bit of land.

Though the British are long gone, this area continues to house India’s government. This salubrious area is where the prime minister, parliamentarians (each of them gets a house in this area as one of their perks) and foreign diplomatic corps live, as well as the super-wealthy. After the plethora of street dogs, it's startling to see house-staff in this area taking pampered golden labradors (we saw only golden labradors, for some reason, and plenty of them) for daily walks.

The photos below show the Indian parliament, the headquarters of the Indian air force and India Gate, all in this area. India Gate is a 42 metre high arch memorial to almost 75,000 Indian soldiers killed in the First World War and the Anglo-Afghan war. Beneath the arch, an eternal flame burns, a Tomb for the Unknown Soldier.

We're staying at the Oberoi New Delhi , which overlooks the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Humayun’s Tomb on one side and a golf course on the other. The Delhi Golf Club costs $10,000 per year and has a 25 year waiting list. We're in a triple bubble: a tourist bubble within the Lutyens' Delhi bubble within the New Delhi bubble.

So let's go back to pre-British Delhi, when it was the capital of the (Muslim) Mughal Empire for centuries. Humayun’s Tomb, erected in 1570, was the first Mughal garden tomb in India — and a model for the Taj Mahal. Humayan's Tomb is really a mausoleum: the whole complex contains a number of tombs. Humayan himself was an unsuccessful king (he was too kind, they say) but his enduring legacy comes from a fall down the stairs, and subsequent death. His wife (one of the ten) commissioned his tomb.

The whole complex is set in the most beautiful gardens. Canals and fountains divide the lawns intro geometric designs; each of the multiple smaller tombs are little works of art on their own. The garden was originally planted with fruit trees and food plants. In Islamic belief, heaven is a combination of life and death, so a tomb (built for death) must have gardens capable of sustaining life.

As serene as this all looks, Humayun's Tomb has a turbulent modern history. During the Indian Mutiny/First War of Independence in 1857, the leader of the rebellion sought sanctuary here before being captured and executed. The British were, in our guide KK's words, extremely agitated by this whole event and brought in a bulldozer to break down the walls harbouring rebels. This is the wall, below, that was smashed by the bulldozer. The British also ripped out the fruit trees and planted ornamentals instead. No sustenance for the dead under British rule, okay?

In 1947, Humayun's Tomb provided shelter for a massive influx of refugees who were fleeing the violence and displacement of the Partition of India. Families found temporary homes within the gardens. Again the gardens were changed — food crops like turnips were planted to sustain the people. So while the design of the gardens has not changed over centuries, the contents of the gardens certainly have.

One of the highlights of our time in Delhi was our visit to Old Delhi. Traffic in Old Delhi is indescribable. The old city is loud, frenetic, dirty, a bit battered, but it's full of life, energy, colour and smiles. We went into Old Delhi by bus ...

... then we hopped into a bicycle rickshaw. And off we went.

I recommend these videos that I took on the rickshaw ride. The sound is a critical component. We loved this experience.

After a thrilling ride through the traffic, we reached the Chandni Chowk market. There are no cars inside the market so it's marginally calmer.

There are friendly children wherever we go.

We have seen a handful of beggars with babies but have been warned not to give money. It's all an organised racket, says KK, the babies are borrowed. If you give them money, you'll put more on the street. Apparently the government is trying to end this practice altogether. (KK also says that most of the beggars are Bangladeshi illegal migrants. He's pretty scathing about India's neighbours, and Pakistan is The Devil. I'll get to some of that in a later post.)

Traffic may be eye-glazingly horrific but here's an interesting car-related fact. About 5 years ago, the Indian government brought in smart number plates. (KK: We have to use India's IT skills for the right reasons.) Every number plate of every car has a chip embedded. If a driver runs a red light, a traffic fine is immediately sent to his/her phone. Multiple offenders have their licences cancelled. Private cars have white number plates; commercial vehicles have yellow plates; electric vehicles have green plates. All have chips located above IND.

Everything we've heard so far suggests that Modi is a very popular prime minister. The other hugely popular politician — more like a legend now — is Mahatma Gandhi. When he was assassinated in 1948, his body was cremated next to the Yamuna River here in Delhi. His memorial is a park called Raj Ghat. I wanted to go closer to the walled enclosure around the black marble platform (or as KK pronounces it, plinch) where Gandhi was cremated. It's open to the sky while an eternal flame burns. However, it was midday and the eternal sun was burning too. Visitors have to remove their shoes and KK was very reluctant for me to do so in the heat. So I submitted, looked on from afar and saved my soles. Ha ha.

The lovely young girls wearing red and white were visiting Raj Ghat from one of the eastern states. Yesterday was Gandhi's birthday and a public holiday, and many people were paying their respects at the memorial today.

We had a quick lunch/coffee stop at Khan Market in the heart of the city, surrounded by residential complexes.

In many cities, visiting one World Heritage Site a day would be significant. But not here in Delhi. There's another one just down the road!

World Heritage Site number 2: I'm going to show my ignorance, but I had never heard of the Qutab Minar (Victory Tower) temple complex. It contains mosques, tombs and towers. The complex was built in the 1200s and reflects the beginning of Islamic architecture in India. The mughal (Islamic king) had 27 Hindu temples destroyed; the ruins were used for constructing the 'new' complex. Verses from the Quran are carved into its red sandstone. 

Ken and I were blown away. It was like Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt rolled into one.

The Victory Tower is 72.5 m tall, 5 storeys high, made of red sandstone. It's the world's tallest minaret. A minaret is the tower associated with a mosque, where the imam calls the faithful to prayer. So, I wondered, could we walk up inside the tower? No. It's now closed inside after a stampede in the 1980s, when dozens of schoolchildren were killed.

There's calligraphy engraved on the tower, as there is throughout the site, which is incredibly beautiful.

A later sultan wanted to build an even taller tower on this site. This is how far he got before he died.

Finally, there's an extraordinary iron pillar from the 3rd or 4th century CE. And it hasn't rusted! It's about 7 metres tall and weighs about 6 tons. It's made of high-phosphorus iron, and the high phosphorous levels have prevented rust.

It wouldn't be India without another temple on the way back to the hotel ...

Like the one we went to in Udaipur, this one is dedicated to Lord Vishnu aka Jagannath. Jagganath is the Lord of the Universe and all-powerful. When I hear a Hindu-speaker pronounce 'Jagganath', I understand why the word juggernaut came into English to mean unstoppable force.

Driving out of Delhi on the way to Agra, we pass along broad highways next to high-rise residential buildings and the HQs of multinational companies. Some of the high-rise apartments, like these below, have been hit by Modi's reform of the shadow economy, what was called demonetisation. In 2016 people were given 90 days to deposit all the cash they had under their beds into the banks, then certain high-value banknotes were decommissioned and ATMs were (KK's term) decollaborated. The aim was to reduce cash hoarding and remove counterfeit notes from the system. Since then, the cash economy has reduced from 90% to 35%, but there have been casualties (amongst others) in the form of dodgy (cash) builders and thwarted home buyers.

The grand buildings that look like a palace are actually a park built by India's first Dalit female president. Despite this high-profile appointment, the caste system is still very prevalent, particularly outside of the major cities. (Turns out she was corrupt, anyway, and was booted out of office after building this park.)

Only 8% of Indians pay income tax, but that's up from 3%, so it's improving. GST is 18% and is added on at purchase, which is annoying. There's a lower rate for food.

We're arriving soon in Agra — it's been a 4 hour drive with good wifi on the bus, so this has been fun — and I'll end here for now.

Next: Agra

*Compare this to Canberra in the ACT. The ACT has a population of 500,000 and an area of 2,400 square km.