I went for the Delhi Heritage walks this Sunday 10 July, beautiful weather a perfect day to be outdoors. This Delhi Heritage Walks was started by young enthusiasts in 2009 and they organize one walk every Sunday and sometimes on weekdays on special requests. The walk which I went for was the Lodhi Walk and to my pleasant surprise the walk started bang on time.
The girl who took us for the walk was young postgraduate she took us around the monuments scattered in the garden. I might have seen them many times but today they seem to come alive with the narration. Lodhis mainly built mosques and tombs, the garden has Mohammed Shah’s Tomb, Sikander Lodi’s Tomb, Sheesh Gumbad and Bara Gumbad. These are architectural works of the 15th century Sayyid and Lodis, a Pashtun dynasty which ruled much of Northern India during the 16th century. This site is now protected by the Archeological Survey of India.
The walking group was enthusiastic but had the typical Delhi air to it so we did not exchange notes and kept to ourselves. There was a young couple with a tripod and a 2 year old kid who tried to keep up with the group and then there were a group of some middle aged ladies who possibly were escorting some foreign guest, then there was this German girl living and working in Gurgaon, overall an eclectic crowd. The walk lasted for around an hour and a half and costed Rs. 200. The key difference is that I have never paid for my kids anywhere in Europe, accompanying kids are not charged as a general rule.
Overall it was a nice way to see things in a different setting and perspective. I was happy to see the trend catching up in India. Walking tours are a great way to discover places and best way would be to make them more accessible. I foresee a future when this current 50 tours annually become 50 monthly which more itineraries discovering the Phoenix like nature of Delhi.
The guide however in my opinion had to be more engaging. Being a walking tour enthusiast I could not but help compare her to the guides of London or Oxford or Granada or Berlin …
The Other Home is planning to cover various heritage walks around India and launch photo tours of key heritage walks in different cities in India.
If you want to be notified next time, subscribe to the RSS feed or say hello via Twitter @theotherhome. You can plan your dream holiday with us, visit The Other Home.
(Photo courtesy: pedretlaura3ra, Pooja Mitra)
No comments:
Post a Comment