Chandni Chowk

From Saturday November 6

In Old Delhi, exit the Red Fort through the Lahore Gate, turn left and head due west and you will run into Chandni Chowk, the main street of Old Delhi and the name of the surrounding neighborhood. This is the heart of the old city teeming with little shops and hundreds of people. The exit from the Red Fort is a super-wide path in the middle of a grassy park fronting the fort. As you walk you are confronted with an impressive view of the Digambara Jain Temple, which sits at the intersection of Chandni Chowk and a major street that circles the Red Fort.

Path of Chandni Chowk Walk

Our next scheduled activity was billed as a city walk of the Chandni Chowk area. The word chowk means crossroads or intersection and often refers to an open square where markets often develop. Chandni Chowk was once the most important market in India. Today it remains a vibrant and important area of Delhi. Now, I didn't learn any of this from our city tour. Unlike the city walks we are accustomed to, this one had no commentary or explanations. It consisted of a forced march on a circular route along the main street and into the narrow winding lanes of the neighborhood, ending at the Jama Mosque. As we hustled with gape-jawed wonder at the unusual street scenes there was barely time to take pictures, but I did manage a few. Enjoy them on Flickr.

Our route was circuitous, I think, because Janesh was leading us to an intriguing food experience. I had asked Janesh yesterday about a snack vendor at India Gate who was selling little puffy pastries, fresh fried in his cart, filled with some sort of liquid. Janesh told me this wasn't for us as the filling was made with local unfiltered and unboiled water. Reid overheard this exchange and I heard him tell Janesh that if he noticed a food vendor where it would be safe, the group would appreciate the experience. Today Janesh marched us to this funky little place that made common Indian food and specialized in Paranthas, one of the panfried, stuffed Indian flat breads. Best food yet. We weren't even two hours past breakfast so the whole group, which filled up the little seating area of the food shop, shared a couple plates of the curries. Anyway, the food was very authentic and way too hot for most of the group. Here is a picture of the kitchen (at the front of the restaurant), our chef and cooking crew.

Our walk ended at the Jama Mosque, an active 17th century mosque that is still the largest and most important one in Delhi. Structurally, the mosque was a repeat of the more interesting Qutb Minar. Culturally, we had to endure the zenophobia, antipathy and mysogyny of modern (and ancient?) Islam.Of all the mosques I have visited this was the worst for how they treated un infidels. All the women in the group were made to wear these ridiculous looking clown smocks, even though most of them, Carol especially, were dressed modestly. Carol for example, was wearing a skirt almost to her ankles and had a shawl that completely covered her shoulders and head. Still they made her wear this smock. Outwardly, we all took this in stride and with good humor, as you can see, but as I was snapping this picture it came to me that the officials at this mosque were deliberately insulting and humiliating our women. I also witnessed one of the hall monitors in the mosque severely berating a young woman for not wearing her clown smock in a proper manner. I was so disgusted that I left without seeing everything. I vowed this was the last active mosque I would ever visit. But what to do about Egypt; I do want to see the pyramids before I die.

We left the Jama Mosque to climb into bicycle rickshaws to tour the rest of Chandni Chowk in style. We went two to a rickshaw, except for me, who had one all to myself. Pity the poor soul who would have had to squeeze into the spare space left by my fat butt. But alas, the way around the neighborhood was blocked by a traffic jam that had everything at a dead stop, forcing our caravan to back out and proceed to the bus parking area. But Carol and I got some interesting pictures, available here along with photos of the mosque and restaurant.

Phil's Unfortunate Rickshaw Driver