The day started in a state of confusion as we were trying to figure out where is the exact point we are supposed to reach. Some of us were waiting at Chandni Chowk , a few of us were trying to cal up people from the Metro station itself and for a while it seemed we were not going no where. Finally a few of us went to shop something within the metro station(Rajiv Chowk) and a few of us went to shop some craft. Finally we managed to gather at CCD in Rajiv Station and made a move after much procrastination.
The person facilitating the process seemed overtly confused and it did not inspire much confidence. Finally we made and rushed to turkman gate. Once we were there our facilitator - Nitin took the lead and started off things on a very serious note and it was something for us to think about. I have tried to jot down a few of the excerpts of what Tina shared are as follow
“ We are here for a reason. It is of relevance especially in the context of the debate going around the Common Wealth Games. The important question is the stadium that have been built for the CWG what kind of an utility will it have post the CWG. Thereafter he started sharing some of the works undertaken by the emperor Feroz Shah Tuglaq. He elaborated that Feroz Shah Tuglaq ha taken a lot of initiatives I developing public works. One such example was the construction of Canals especially the East and West canal. He further added that these canals had long term utility to the Delhi especially in reference to ensuring water availability. However today these canals have been confined to drains(Nalah). Thereafter Nitin shared a bit more about the starting point ie the Turkman Gate. He further added that Delhi had a number of Gates. A few names that he mentioned about were Mori Gate, Delhi Gate, Ajmeri Gate, Kashmiri Gate and Ajmeri Gate.
Thereafter we started the walk and approached towards the Kalam Masjid. It was shared with us that at one point of time this place was one of the highest point of Delhi. It made some sense to us since during the walk we realized that it seemed we were walking against a slope. As Nitin was explaining us about the details a crowd surrounded us and they were just wondering what these people upto.
From thereon we made the move to Razia Sultan Tomb and Nitin shared a few things about Razia Sultan. A few things that he shared has been summed up as follows
• Razia Sultan succeeded her father Illtumish
• She was one of the most successful emperors and maganed to keep the nobles in check
• There has been a lot of controversy surrounding her death.
• While a few believe that she died in the year 1239 in raids by Bandits in a forest upon battle, some think there was a political conspiracy
One question that struck us was why the tomb was unmarked and is there a specific reason for her tomb to be located in an isolated corner of Delhi. It seems a question that is unanswered with time.
Thereafter we took a walk till Chawri Bazaar. It was a nice walk and of us shared that it is a nice place to be in during Dussera(especially Food Mela). We finally reached the Metro Station of Chawri Bazaar and had to rush to the coach. The conversations @ Metro seemed confusing as some of us were wondering as to why we were going to Delhi University. We finally reached the metro station for D.U and took an auto to reach Majnu Ka Tila. By then we were really hungry and rushed to the restaurant the name of which I cant recall. The moment we entered the restaurant things became self facilitative and vegetarians and non vegetarians were divided sharing the same table and every one of us was caught up in the struggle of ordering things.
Nitin tried his best in terms of suggesting us with options and very soon we were busy in munching the delicacies that we had ordered, Soon after that we were full and due to excessive/overeating we were started feeling sleepy. With this very perspective we started Ginger Tea was ordered. Thereafter Nitin took over and shared a few things about refugee, Tibet etc.
