India with Sanjeev Bhaskar by Sanjeev Bhaskar

Author:Sanjeev Bhaskar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

A town within a city

I wanted to get under the skin of the city that my father was evacuated to, a city that was a seat of power for over a thousand years, a city I had visited numerous times but, I was realizing, I still hadn’t experienced. I had been told that to really see the hidden beauty of this modern urban sprawl I needed to head into its ancient heart – Old Delhi. This is, after all, a country where ancient tombs are gradually transformed into roundabouts and the monuments of past civilizations are visible at every street corner, and in Delhi the outline of countless royal palaces can still be seen poking through the detritus of modern life.

This is more like it – at least, more like the India of the imagination: teeming markets and traditional dress, a million exotic smells and lurid colours. In many ways, Old Delhi is a surviving ancient Mughal town, hidden within the modern city.

What better place to start I thought, than the focal point for the many Muslim residents of the old town – the mosque?

Every Friday, this medieval town within a city bursts into life at Jama Masjid, India’s largest mosque. This huge place of worship was built in 1656 and can accommodate over 25,000 worshippers at one time. It is a sign of the times that as I enter by gate number 3, the sign also says in a much smaller font ‘courtesy by Hovel Autogas’. The imagination boggles. The sheer size of the prayer hall is exemplified by the enormous arch at its entrance, which dwarfs the Mullah reciting the daily prayer, despite standing on a wooden platform. I take in the sheer sense of history of the place, doffing my baseball cap in acknowledgement of the Emperor Shah Jahan, responsible for commissioning this impressive building, as well as that other little lean-to in Agra called the Taj Mahal.

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