Delhi Stories and Tips

Quote: Every time my husband and I go travelling in India and we wonder whether we should hire a tourist guide at a major attraction, I’m reminded of an experience at Fatehpur Sikri. Fatehpur Sikri, near Agra, is a very major site – it was established…

Quote: While rabri, kababs or even puri-aloo are available outside Delhi, Daulat ki Chaat is a very uniquely Delhi delicacy. And both rare as well as unknown even to most Delhiites.Chaat is the name given to a range of tangy and spicy snacks that are widely…

Quote: We found our carriage. We checked our names were on the manifest. We checked the numbers on the side of the carriage – 1 to 72. We assumed that 1 was at the left end of the carriage and 72 at the far right. So…

Quote: ~Flying to India~We've previously flown to India by Gulf Air via the Middle East and direct by both BA and Virgin and had issues with all of them. We thought it was time to give Kingfisher, India's only "Five-Star" rated carrier a go. We…

Quote: Last spring, an American friend of mine had come visiting India and stopped a few days in Delhi. I took her shopping, and then out to lunch. When I asked Greta whether she’d prefer Indian food, or something different—like Italian—she chose Italian. "I love Indian…

Quote: The last Mughal Emperor was the ill-fated Bahadur Shah II, an accomplished poet who used the pen name `Zafar’, Bahadur Shah `Zafar’ had the misfortune to be the de jure ruler when, in 1857, the Mutiny broke out. Once it was quashed (and very violently…

Quote: The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) has chapters all across India. The Delhi Chapter has its work cut out: Delhi has over 2,000 listed historical structures, many in constant danger of being razed, encroached upon, used as a garbage dump, or…

Quote: The Qutb Minar, Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, Alai Darwaza and the tomb of Iltutmish are the most striking of the monuments in the Qutb Archaeological Site complex, but that doesn’t mean these are the only structures here. There are other buildings here as well, not as beautiful…

Quote: Walking past the sarai and then the Alai Minar, the first building you’ll come to is the Quwwat-ul-Islam (`might of Islam’) Mosque. This name appears to have been applied to the mosque only from the 19th century onward, but the mosque itself is much, much…

Quote: The `Qutb Minar and its Monuments’ (as listed in the UNESCO World Heritage sites list) were designated a World Heritage site in 1993, conforming to the criterion that it is "an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which…