Adi's Big Day at Delhi

Adi’s dream came true and finally has his hard earned laptop all for himself and we are so proud of him. The prime motive of this trip was to attend the SOF award ceremony which was scheduled on 30th May where Adi and other toppers were being invited from all over India to receive their awards. If it was not for this, we would never consider making a trip to Delhi reason being, Delhi in itself cannot be treated as a quiet retreat and secondly the weather was absolutely not favorable considering the weather-wise pampered Bangaloreans. However, we booked our flight tickets a month earlier and after much debate over how to make the best of our trip, we decided to make a 4 day trip to Delhi which would give us time to explore the neighboring attractions too, the closest being Agra.

As the day of travel approached, Adi fell ill, which slashed our excitement by half and we even considered canceling our trip when his fever reached 102 the previous day. However the helpful doc gave him a strong antibiotic and suggested to carry on with our plans as it was not all that serious. Well the plan was, Atul would be taken care of by my mom while we go and have a good time. I wasn’t all that rest assured by leaving Atul behind and taking a sick Adi. My mum told us not to worry about Atul and while I was confident that she would take good care of him, it was Adi I was worried about considering the heat in Delhi. But as it was a once in lifetime occasion for Adi and for us, we opted to GO.

So we set off early on the 27th morning and Adi did well throughout the flight, plus point being that he ate well as compared to what he would have done at home. Thanks to his opinion that anything other than his mama’s food is appetizing .It was 3 PM when we landed Delhi airport and the minute we stepped out from the air condition airport environment onto the road looking for our prepaid taxi, the heat wave struck us with a vigor that took us by surprise. It was like we were suddenly pushed into a tandoor. The 5 minute wait was enough to burn our skin and as we stepped into the AC taxi, it was paradise. On our way to the hotel, I was trying to coax Ajith into canceling our trip to nearby attraction but he convinced me that Adi would do fine wandering around than being locked up within the four wall of a hotel room and so I gave in praying that all would be well. We rested that night in the hotel room and the next day we booked a taxi to took us round Delhi. Will take you through some pics


Rashtrapathi Bhavan


Birla Mandir


India gate


Parliament House




Qutub Minar


In front of India gate


Red Fort


Rajghat

By the end of it we were exhausted and after a scrumptious dinner of parathas , palak paneer and pepper chicken , all three of us slept like babies in our hotel room . The alarm went off at 5 AM as we had to catch the Bhopal Shatabdi express (fastest train in India, I am told) to Agra at 6AM. As we reached the station, I must say it is one of the worst I have ever seen. Let me warn you all never to look at the tracks as they are covered with shit and smells awful. Dirtier than Chennai , Bangalore I must say is comparatively better than these two cities. Mind you, am not talking about the Metro station in Delhi which I heard is the best of its kind. We wanted to experience the AC chair car on Shatabdi which is quite popular and it was definitely a pleasant journey to Agra which is four hours away from Delhi.As we got down at the Agra station we were received by this huge mob of tourist taxi drivers howling and fighting with each other to grab on to tourists like us especially foreigners. What irked me most was that, there were these two little beggar girls who were pulling each other’s hair with an intensity which could snap their necks off. Both were howling, crying and a man who tried to interfere to make peace between the two got scratched badly. Now I know why these people go back and give a bad picture of India. We managed to get away from this mob and booked a prepaid taxi to tour us round Agra. The first destination being Fatehpur Sikri which is a city and municipal board in Agra district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. The historical city was constructed by Mughal emperor Akbar beginning in 1570 and served as the empire's capital from 1571 until 1585. Though the court took 15 years to build, it was abandoned after only 14 years because the water supply was unable to sustain the growing population.[1] The surviving palace and mosque are a tourist attraction and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The site itself is a ghost town.


Inside Fatehpur


Fatehpur entry


Agra gate


Another capture inside Fatehpur


Most historic buildings in Agra are built using red sandstone. An example of this window grill carved in single block of sandstone


Anarkali's escape route after facing Akbar's ultimatum


Graveyard (Kabar) for the men in Akbar's palace. Women and kids were buried inside the buildings. We could see even a two foot long kabar, probably that of a toddler from 1500s


In front of Taj Mahal


Taj Mahal


Taj Mahal main dome as seen from the compound entry gate


Taj Mahal - part of the facade


Agra Fort


Mumtaz Mahal's kabar - Each flower on the white marble is made out of multi-reflector stones

We had to head back to the station by 6 PM to catch the train back to Delhi which was due at 7 PM. It was 11 by the time we reached Delhi and again we slept soundly not to mention that Adi did extremely well all through the journey and we kept him hydrated throughout the trip provided he ate well too. Fever was gone and now we had to deal only with some mouth blisters. Good enough bargain!

Finally the day arrived and Adi jumped off the bed early in the morning with anticipation carved all over his face. He chanted laptop for the whole 3 hours until we reached the venue . It was a beautiful morning and we were at the Chinmaya Centre of World Understanding auditorium dot 10AM. It was a huge place and was decorated very well for the occasion.We were received by the SOF volunteers and as we entered the reception we saw a group of equally proud kids and parents. On entering the auditorium, the kids were asked to sit on one side of the auditorium while parents sat on the other. The dignitaries soon followed and the function began and we got to hear some inspiring speeches of these dignitaries followed by prize distribution and lunch. The pics will explain the rest.


















After returning home to Bangalore we unpacked his precious gift to find this beauty





Adi Khush hua :)))