On Saturday the 7th day of November month 2009, I had to visit a place just opposite to Qutab Minar in Mehrauli, Delhi. I picked up my bike (provided by my friend)–Bajaj Pulsar–and started at around 10:30 in the morning. The road condition was not conducive for fast driving due to lot of construction work going on related to Metro Rail being laid in Gurgaon and many areas of Delhi.
I reached that place but could not get the required information that I wanted and so was guided to visit the Safdarjung Tomb opposite to Lodhi Road in Delhi. Now, this was to be the first instance when I would be driving in Delhi, without knowing much of the route and not aware how far I had to go.
Adventure, fear-overcoming, and making sure I achieve my objective drove me to the place called Safdarjung Tomb. It is a ticketed monument but I could drove my bike inside as I had to meet people in the office of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). After meeting those people, I went on to see the monument and click some photographs. Though I have visited many monuments when I was studying in 9th grade, this marked my first visit to a historic place when I was aware that I am visiting something historic and of course having a camera in my hands.
I entered the monument and noticed that it was built in Mogul architectural style, which is quite apparent in many monuments in and around Delhi. There were carvings inside which gave a sort of artistic look to the interiors. There was no way to go on the upper stories of the monument but I could freely visit all the corners of this monument. There was no eerie feeling inside the monument but I did wondered that I was standing at a place where people in past built this building and perhaps performed those ceremonies associated with interring somebody into a tomb.
After I came out, I started clicking some photographs of the monument; however, the weather conditions were hazy. I could see that the pictures were not coming clear. But to my joy and surprise, I met Frederick from Hong Kong and we started talking about this monument and of course a lot about Indian history and mythology. We sat on stairs and talked for around 1 hour and then shot some photographs.
Overall, this was a unique experience for me and I am thinking to do more of these adventure filled tours where I could visit some monuments and write about them.
Here are some pictures:
About Safdarjung Tomb (Taken from Wikipedia)
The tomb was built for Safdarjung, the powerful prime minister of Muhammad Shah who was the weak Mughal emperor from 1719 to 1748. The central tomb has a huge dome. There are four water canals leading to four buildings. One has an ornately decorated gateway while the other three are pavilions, with living quarters built into the walls. Octagonal towers are in the corners. The canals are four oblong tanks, one on each side of the tomb.
