I never thought my last day in the capital would be as eventful as all the past few days put together. I traveled far more on the last day compared to the past three days of my trip. My last day in Delhi is very typical of me, I am the queen of last-minute-hustles. I have planners, I prioritize on paper, I keep the list in the back pocket of my jeans and then…I end up doing exactly what I didn’t plan. No, I don’t do it on purpose, it happens to me. I guess that’s why everyone glorifies the beauty of unplanned travel plans. Some day I will learn that too. Maybe.
It was check out day. I was 30 minutes late in checking out but my hosts were not at all fuzzy, or maybe they didn’t notice. I left my luggage behind and ventured out for Akshardham temple. It was a gloomy day and my driver was pretty chatty, he told me all about the protests and which parts of Delhi were most affected and how the situation was on that day. I was too busy nodding my head while looking outside my window. Now Akshardham is huge and the area outside it is even more huge. I read all the instructions but I thought my empty bag would be allowed which was clearly not the case. You can’t take anything inside unless it is big enough to hold your keys. I have never experienced this kind of security check anywhere in my life before. The security women also made me open my jacket pockets because I had my keys in there. I had forgotten to put them inside my bag and I was in no mood to go back and deposit anything for the FOURTH time but she let me through and I was relieved. I don’t have a picture of Akshardham to show here because there are no phones or cameras allowed inside but it was an amazing experience and you wouldn’t want to miss it for anything.
The marble work is marvelous and the surroundings are beautiful and peaceful. Now I bought this one booklet there which was my guide and it explained a lot about some religious things in there which I don’t remember but I remember the Garden of India which was on my left as soon as I entered. It had the sculptures of great men, women and children of India which I found pretty interesting. There are audio stories about each sculpture as well as written description in front of each one but it’s all faded so listen to the audio. I remember something that happened there. I was alone and I was listening to each audio and after a while the security guard came to me and he asked me, “Aren’t you understanding the audio?” and I replied that I do but it’s pretty confusing because the text is faded so I can’t tell who they are talking about. So, he very kindly told me about it for a while and left. I guess this was because I was alone and looked pretty lost like always. I have an expressive face. I skipped the exhibition and couldn’t attend the musical fountain show because I had a flight to catch so I settled for what felt good at that time. The temple was beautiful and sadly I can’t show you here. I also stumbled upon the place where you can get a small puja done, I don’t know what it’s called but it was very impulsive and I said yes when they asked me if I want to do it and everything was pretty systematic. You don’t have to pay for it but you can donate whatever you wish to and the audio plays with all the mantras and you just follow whatever the 'panditji' tells you. I did that and I was done.
I headed to the tomb of Safdarjung post that and I am sure by now everyone knows about my tomb obsession. The Safdarjung tomb looks almost similar to Humayun’s tomb, in fact they look so similar I confused one picture I have with the other. The place is pretty peaceful and there weren’t many people when I visited so I was happy. I took a lot of pictures from every possible corner, saw a peacock on one of the walls and also annoyed someone to take my picture a certain way. That’s why there aren’t many pictures of mine from my travel, because I hate asking people to take my pictures and when I do, people take horrible pictures.
I checked my Google map and the closest place I could visit from there was Lodhi garden. Now I had heard about it but I never imagined it to be so huge (90 acres you guys) and filled with more tombs 😊 I am not much of a garden person but this place was huge and every corner was bustling with activities. I saw a couple of photoshoots happening, some guided tours, joggers, birds everywhere, a lake and there were a bunch of guys singing. It was a vibe, a beautiful one.
Now I had two options after exiting from Lodhi garden, either to pick up my luggage and head towards the airport or to visit one last place. I knew exactly where I wanted to go-Bangla Sahib Gurudwara. I don’t go to religious places to pray, I go for the vibe, architecture and to satisfy my craving of observing people. This gurudwara is my safe place since the time I have known about it. I visited it for the first time in 2018 and I make it a point to visit it whenever I am in Delhi and have some time to spare. Tombs, temples, gurudwaras…I have a pattern. I like peaceful places which calm the chaos in my mind from time to time. I never really stay back for long at any place which is chaotic when I am alone.
It was a close call reaching Delhi airport in time for my flight. I was running as usual to reach my gate, thanks to the massiveness of the airport and my luck when it comes to the gate number. It has almost always been in 60s or 50s and when I am early, they forget to print the gate number on my boarding pass. The boarding had just begun so I had time to buy me some food for the flight since meals were not included. I grabbed my sandwich and was happy to know that I was again lucky to have an empty seat next to me, I finished my sandwich about five minutes after the seat belt on sign went off and 10 minutes before I was served my free meal (facepalm).
I was happy to be back to Bombay traffic at 1 am in the night. It was music to my ears and home to my soul. It was a good trip and one I will never forget until I make some cooler memories in future. Hope you enjoyed this post and I would love to hear from you, so let me know your feedback. See you next Wednesday 😊
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