Street Markets and temples, Delhi, India, November 2019
I chose to take a guided tour with "Reality Tour and Travel". Meet Stanley at Connaugh Circle for a short metro ride to Chawri Bazar in Old Delhi...
Chawri Bazar is divided into several areas where each area is reserved for one type of market. You have the hardware market (our arrival), spices, fruits, clothes, ... From there, a short rickshaw ride to get to the spice market. A modern rickshaw as most are electric, what a relief for Delhi's pollution. The spice market is also the dried fruit market, a feast for the eyes and for the taste buds. In this magical place, everything is colour: from red to orange, passing through yellow, the eyes no longer know where to wander. Our nostrils are titillated by all these smells diffused in the streets like a perfume flavoring the succulent Indian dishes. There is so much to see and discover.
After this colorful dive, we set off again by rickshaw to another symbolic place in Old Delhi: the Red Fort. This Red Fort is huge but this tour only allows you to see the outside. Having already visited the Red Fort, I give you some photos. We cross the road to pass the Jain temple "Shri Digambar Jain Lal Mandir".
We now head to the bicycle market. Stanley then leads me to an unexpected place. A dive into the basements of the market. Small tunnels then very narrow alleys. We are in jeweler's paradise. Gold is omnipresent and sparkles with a thousand lights. But it's also that of trimmings, a universe where my daughter could spend hours there. It is difficult to walk and yet motorcycles try to force their way as well as rickshaws.
We finally emerge in the open air to find ourselves in front of a huge Sikh temple: Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib. To enter, you have to take off your shoes but also cover your head. A few meters further, we arrive at the heart of the office. In this place, it is an explosion of color. Thousands of flowers are woven into gigantic colored stalactites. After a few minutes of contemplation, we head to the community kitchens (pangot). In Sikh temples around the world, every day thousands of meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) are served. This place is shared. You come to eat here for free and you also come to give some of your time, for the preparation of the meals, for the cleaning of the "Thalis" (metal plates with compartments). It's not a kitchen for the poor, as one might think. These dining rooms were designed for sharing where the rich rub shoulders with the less rich. In this place, fortune is in his heart and not in his wallet.
The tour is already over, returning to Connaugh Place with a bit of humility after this last visit.
A big thank you to Stanley, my guide, for his eloquence and the information he communicated to me. It was a real pleasure. A guide that I recommend if you come to Delhi. I admit that I did not always understand everything from the start, but this is due to my poor understanding of English.