Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Heritage Walks: Building my Itinerary

  It's been a long time I have been sitting more or less idle; trying to figure out how to go about content marketing for youth diaries. It's high time I should think about more direct revenue models and salaried procedures. Through the course of writing 'Arth Unearthed' I believe travel has become more or less my routine and I guess it's here when I should take travel writing more seriously. So where to start; but home itself. The next ten-fifteen days of my life would be concentrated upon discovering Delhi, and its culture as much as possible; and that's my pledge. 

  As most of us do know, Delhi is cities of cities. Well; built over seven cities. And I thought to myself the best way to explore Delhi is starting from the first city (Qutub and Mehrauli Archaeological Complex) and then moving on consecutively. However it didn't start at the first it started at the last mausoleum built in the Mughal architectural style (Garden tomb, as that of Humayun's tomb): The Safdarjung Tomb, a mausoleum of the viceroy of Oudh (Late-Medieval constituency in U.P) under the reign of Muhammad Shah (1719-48). In-order to build my itinerary I needed the Archaeological map of Delhi, which I lost a few months back. So I went back to the place from where I first bought them, however then I was updated that those books and maps are no longer available at Safdarjung Tomb; and now are available at the Red Fort, Qutub Complex, and the Humayun's Tomb.

  So I decided that I would just walk around the gardens and the Tomb that evening. It originally did remind me of the same architecture used in the Taj Mahal and Humayun's Tomb. It's a square tomb, with symmetrical sides; and a trail of fountains leading to the four Arch-ways of the tomb. The main entrance gate to the complex is a magnificent one to the east; which neighbors a courtyard of apartments and a mosque to the right. And though prohibited area to tourists; I somehow managed to catch a glimpse of the central washroom next to the courtyard (Pretty much reflected on the late medieval life-style). The tomb is built on a platform; and even though we observe a single grave in the central chamber; it's believed that the graves of Safdarjung and his wife lie underneath that chamber. There is a library also; which until my own experience realized was again restricted to tourists. Caught in the enthusiasm and heavy rain, that evening; I realize maybe I should just lose myself in my idea for the next few days, and then conceptualize whatever I would then learn.


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