First day in Delhi
On our first day in India (which happened to be my 13th birthday!), we explored Delhi with our awesome guide, Raj. He was incredibly nice, funny, and interacted with us kids a lot. He took us to the most popular and recognized places in Delhi, but also took us down narrow alleyways to the hidden gems of Old and New Delhi. He has been leading tours for 13 years, and you can tell! He is very knowledgeable about Delhi’s history and culture.
Our first stop was Jama Masjid. Known as the central mosque of Old Delhi, this is the largest and most well known mosque in all of India. It was built in 1665, at the time of Shah Jahan. The pink stone made the mosque really pretty. Raj told us that it can hold up to 25,000 people at once!
After we visited the mosque, we walked around Moonlight Square, the busiest and oldest market in New Delhi. There is always something happening here; motorcycles and auto-shaws zoom past, vendors sell food, drink, and souvenirs, and monkeys climb on the electric wires above!
Next, we made our way to Agrasen Ki Baoli, a reservoir built in the late 14th century for the purpose of collecting clean rain water. There are a total of 103 steps going all the way to the bottom.
Our next stop was by far my favorite place we visited in the whole day: Raj Ghat, where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated. Gandhi was known as the “Father of India,” so this place is very important for locals and tourists. Gandhi believed in simplicity, which is why this site is so serene. Although it is right off a busy street in the center of Delhi, it is extremely quiet and you feel like you are in the countryside. The gardens leading into the cremation site feature marble stones engraved with quotes from Gandhi. All of the quotes were very inspiring to me.
Hindus believe in cremation and reincarnation. When you die, your soul leaves your body, so there is no need to keep the body. Gandhi’s ashes were scattered in the Ganges River, which is the holiest river for Hindus.
Raj explained that Hindus also believe that there are three options for your soul after death:
If you were a good person and did good things in your life, you go straight to paradise.
If you were an average person, you are reincarnated to another human body with the opportunity to do more good in your next life.
If you were a bad person, you are reincarnated as an animal. You remain an animal for hundreds of years, until you do enough good to turn into a person and start the cycle again.
Next we visited the Lakshmi Narayan temple. Here we learned about Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva, and Lord Brahma, and we were blessed with a bindi by a Hindu priest.
Our last stop was Qutub Minar, which Raj says is the most popular place to go in Delhi. It is a large space with a mosque, a very old iron pole, an old tower, and a tomb. The tower and pole have possibly been the oldest things we’ve seen on the trip so far! The construction of the tower started in 1193 and then eventually finished in the year 1368. There are five floors to the tower, but all are slightly different because a different person built each one. The tomb was constructed by the person who would eventually lie within it, something that was unprecedented.
This was definitely one of my favorite birthdays! I explored a new city, all while feeling special on my birthday. The perfect way to top it off was a special dinner with my family and a surprise bouquet of flowers!