FRIENDS & FAMILY | NEW DELHI
Dynamic Delhi
India’s daunting capital city fascinates visitors of all ages. BY RICHARD NEWTON
Layers of History: (Left to right) Agrasen Ki Baoli step well near Connaught Place, Iron Pillar of Delhi, and Humayun’s Tomb PHOTOS: © SAIKO3P | DREAMSTIME .COM, © DMITRY RUKHLENKO | DREAMSTIME.COM, 0
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elhi is a lot. For first-time visitors it can be too much. With a metropolitan area estimated to be home to more than 23 million people, in some parts of the city you’ll believe you’re meeting all of them at once. Personal space becomes theoretical. Peace and quiet seems impossible. Where can a visiting family begin to get a handle on this exhilarating, maddening, challenging, rewarding city? My own preference is Connaught Place (also known as Rajiv Chowk). This traffic circle effectively serves as the hub of the city, with the dense chaos of Old Delhi lying to the north and the leafy, relatively regulated order of New Delhi to the south. The circular roads, fringed by white colon-
globaltravelerusa.com AUGUST 2022
naded buildings housing many Western stores and restaurants, enclose at their center a tranquil green park. Here you can flit between international familiarity and the sensory bombardment of India. At Connaught Place, start with the venue that provides both cool respite and preparation for everything to come: Museum of Illusions. The immersive exhibits literally turn the world upside down and inside out. After the surreal experiences of the museum, the city itself might appear a little less daunting. Besides the crowds, the traffic, the noise and the smells, Delhi also proves chronologically disorienting. At more than 2,000 years old, the city offers visitor attractions that span most of that long, colorful history. One of the oldest attractions is the Iron Pillar of Delhi, a solid iron column thought to have been constructed in the fourth century and miraculously resistant to corrosion ever since. The pillar sits in the ancient Qutb complex in the south of the city, which also features the famous Qutb Minar, a breathtaking brick minaret 200 feet tall, constructed 1199–1220. From height to depth: Southeast of Connaught Place, look for the Agrasen Ki Baoli, a 14th-century step well with 208 stone steps down
