Delhi for a Day

It was a meticulously planned exercise–so much so that how much time will go into seeing what was decided beforehand and the average time for each stop was also calculated. Everybody’s interests and demands were taken into consideration–Prerna’s fascination for dolls, hence the Dolls Museum, Khalid’s enthusiasm for Maths and Science, hence the National Science Centre, my inclination towards things artistic, hence the National Gallery of Modern Art and well Abhinav’s residence’s proximity to Chanakyapuri and hence the Rail Museum.
In the midst of all the planning and enthusiasm, the weather Gods decided to play spoil sport–morning came with a dust storm making it hazy and dusty. Two cars were pressed into service, but parking problems on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg were well anticipated, and therefore one was parked at Mandi House. Chivalry took a back seat and so did two of the men as the sole woman of the group drove us up to BSZ Marg, only to find that there was no parking left at all. We cut across the by-lanes of BSZ Marg, much like a Mumbai criminal evading arrest in the by-lanes of Kurla. We finally found a spot, parked the car and got out to know that the place was “reserved”. Abhinav used his persuasion skills and struck a deal with the attendant. Once inside the museum, perhaps one of the first things we all noticed was the neglect the museum was subjected to. Though the museum had dolls from some of the remotest parts of the world, they were decades old and many of them were in such dilapidated condition that they resembled characters more from a horror film than dolls children could play with. Nevertheless, we had fun, indentifying the clothes of the dolls with our cultural knowledge of the world. While Khalid had fun looking at the ‘tau’ dolls from Haryana, I had fun looking at the Native American dresses dolls from South America were wearing. We were done soon and headed towards the National Science Centre.
This place has changed little since the last time some of our team members visited it; that was the 1990s. Though there were some new instruments like the stringless piano, the main area looked more or less the same with age-old scientific tricks. We later discovered that they have added an entirely new section dedicated to innovations in information technology that could help a novice understand the computer and digital technology better–a must visit for those of us who are curious to know how a command given to a computer gets converted into action on screen. One could also find a dummy replica of the Morse code machine–the instrument that helped ships in the nineteenth century to communicate and send SOS signals.
After a sumptuous meal at the Sri Ram Centre’s canteen we headed to the swanky new wing of the National Gallery of Modern Art. Opened in 2009 by the UPA President Sonia Gandhi, the gallery has works from medieval India to works of some of India’s best known modern artists like SH Raza, Satish Gujral, MF Hussain, Amrita Sher-gill, Raja Ravi Varma, and many more. A visitor is treated to four floors of art and paintings and that is excluding the old wing of the gallery. While the new wing’s exterior depicts traditional Indian use of red sandstone, the interiors of the gallery are designed totally in European architectural form (this contradiction coupled with traditional Indian art on display inside and the sitar music in the background makes the visitor bewildered about the ambience the gallery is trying to create). Nevertheless, we completed our sojourn well within the average time we were allotted.
Our last stop was the Rail Museum though it was initially distracted by a brief windstorm. Inside the museum we saw remains of some of the most luxurious compartments of the Indian railways during the Raj. Trains of Patiala State Monorail Trainway, Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, the majestic Fairy Queen of the East Indian Railway (rolled out in 1855) and many more. Our trip ended with a ride on the toy train and a visit to the museum (that had miniature models of levers and pulleys used to change tracks as well as railways seats from the old era).


While our choice of places to visit reflected our individual choices, they were also chosen because some of they are longer on the upper-middle class Delhites radar, but are worth (read required) a visit to understand a Delhi beyond the glitter of shiny malls and hotels. All in all a good trip spoilt partially by the weather gods but saved by our enthusiasm. I highly recommend everyone to visit some of these places when they get a chance.


Jasmeet Singh