Delhi Escorts
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DELHI All of the contrasts familiar to travelers in India are in full force here in the nation's capital: rich and poor, old and new, chaos and order. Delhi maintains a dignified front as a proud metropolitan center of government and commerce, with its official-looking edifices spanning the broad green blocks that provide clean air and empty spaces to the city's south-central districts. Behind this facade of order and control are Delhi's other streets, crammed with the city's legendary slow-churning traffic and threaded by careening auto-rickshaws. The large majority of people populate these streets, and you'll find turbaned Sikhs, dreadlocked sadhus, and down-and-out pavement-dwellers all rubbing shoulders and sharing space, if not conversation. It is in these streets that North India's heat and humidity are refracted through layers of polluted air only worsened by the generators and air conditioners that provide electricity and cool relief for the city's wealthy elite. Although Hindu mythology records a settlement along the banks of the Yamuna River as far back as 1000 BC, the history of Delhi begins in 736 AD, with the founding of Lal Kot by the Tomara clan of Rajputs. Their tumultuous and gory rule was abruptly ended in 1192 by Mohammed Gauri and his slave general Qutb-ud-din Aibak, who swept in from Central Asia and conquered great stretches of North India, introducing Islam and founding the Delhi Sultanate. For the next 300 years, Delhi was wracked by political instability, especially in 1398, when Timur, another Central Asian warlord, attacked the city. By the early 16th-century, the ruling Lodi dynasty had made its share of enemies in the region. Too meek to challenge the Sultanate on their own, they requested help from Timur's great-grandson, Babur. Babur beat the Lodis into submission and launched the Mughal Empire, which would unite much of South Asia for the next two-centuries. The Mughals repeatedly shifted their capital between Delhi and Agra, leaving both cities with monumental tombs, palaces, and forts. Old Delhi's grandest edifices were built during the 17th-century by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. However, Mughal strength began to wane during the 18th-century and the British moved in to fill the void. In 1911, the British announced that the capital was to be moved here from Kolkata, but it was not until 1931 that Delhi was finally inaugurated. For the next 16 years the city served as a focal point of the independence movement, and Indian nationalists vowed that the flag of an Indian Republic would one day fly from the Red Fort. Every year since 1947, modern Delhi has fulfilled the nationalists' hopes, as Independence Day is celebrated with a speech by the Prime Minister delivered from the Red Fort and a tremendous parade in front of the city's most important British buildings. With a population of 14.1 million, Delhi is an enormous microcosm of India's religious and social diversity; here Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs (not to mention Buddhists, Christians, and Jews) live side by side in relative harmony. Modern Delhi has become the nation's cosmopolitan hub, celebrating multiple faiths and cultural backgrounds while serving as a major gateway for travellers. In many ways, this concentrated mix of colors, creeds, and classes is where today's India begins. HIGHLIGHTS OF DELHI 1) Old Delhi is packed with bazaars and monuments, including the Red Fort and the Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India. ORIENTATION South of New Delhi Station, the center of New Delhi radiates out from Connaught Place, a circular hub of two-storey colonnaded buildings. Connaught Place is the heart (and capitalist soul) of New Delhi. Of course, with tourists come touts and tricksters - Connaught Place's hustlers are aggressive and exceptionally savvy; ignore them. Off the radial roads to the south of Connaught Place sprout the high-rise office buildings of India's most powerful banks, airlines, and international corporations. The inner and outer circles were given new names in 1995 (Rajiv Chowk and Indira Chowk) but everyone still calls them collectively Connaught Place. Of the streets that radiate from Connaught Place., Sandad Marg and Janpath are the most crowded; Sansad Marg leads to the Raj-era parliamentary buildings on the end of Raipath, which runs 2km straight east to India Gate, bisected by Janpath along the way. One kilometer southwest of the parliamentary buildings is Chanakyapuri, home to many foreign embassies. South Delhi begins just south of Chanakyapuri. Except for Ring Road and Mehrauli Badarpur Road, South Delhi's major thoroughfares run north-south. The central thoroughfare, Aurobindo Marg, connects Safdarjung's Tomb with the Qutb Minar Complex. In the east, Mathura Road slices through Nizamuddin and turns into Dr. Zakir Hussain Road as it proceeds northwest back up to India Gate. LOCAL TRANSPORTATION RICKSHAWS BUSES BICYCLES |