Arrival in India- First day in Dehli

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A long but fairly comfortable flight transports us from Newark, New Jersey to Dehli, India. Our continuous14 and ½ hour flight eastward resulted in a loss of 10 and 1⁄2 hours so we had some serious jet lag to make up. However, everything went smoothly - our taxi was there and we got to our hotel before midnight ready for a good night’s rest.
We woke up to a different country and culture in a city of 17 million people. We are in Dehli which is the capitol of India since 1911 when the British shifted the capital from Calcutta. Dehli is a cacophony of sights and people with the new and old mixing constantly. With 17 million and growing, there is urban sprawl with shanty settlements next to affluent residential pockets.
The street scenes are incredible with every type of vehicle on the road- horse drawn carts, bicycle powered carriages, tout-touts or autorickshaws which are motorcycle powered taxis with an open seat in the back, regular small cars, buses, and then the people walking and “trying” to cross the street. A road built for two lanes routinely becomes 4 lanes of traffic or more. Riding on the roads is an adventure in itself with 2 objects seemingly occupying the same space thus defying the laws of physics.
Everything happens in the street- lots of street vendors and bazaars of all sorts, people always coming and going, eating, hanging out. As you can see from the pictures, we spent some time in “Old Dehli” today soaking favorite activities in all countries.
Dehli was also the center of the Mughal Empire and was the Muslim center for several centuries. The height of the empire was in the 1600s when the Red Fort was completed- The Red Fort is a World Heritage site and was where the Emperor Shah Janan lived, entertained, and held court. The grounds have been restored somewhat in the last 50 years showing the great expanse of the fort and its buildings. There are also many mosques in Dehli where Muslims continue to pray. The largest mosque in India is Jama Masjid which is in the Old Dehli. Muslims constitute about 15% of Indian population but there seems to be a larger concentration in Dehli due to its history.
So we are learning to negotiate a new country, people, currency, food, customs, which is tiring but invigorating as the journey continues

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Comments

[Lynne]

How Exciting
Margaret, You are a great writer....and photographer. So nice to see and hear your first day story. I again love the colors.....thank you for bringing me along on your journey..... Lynne

[Jesse Brown]

Pictures are GREAT! I will be following you two until you return home.

[Howard]

Muslims in India
You mention that Muslims constitute 15% of the Indian population. On one hand that seems relatively small, but for a country of a billion people, it constitutes the 2nd largest Muslim population in the world.

[IndiaMargandStan]

Muslims in Inida
A person giving a presentation on India stated that India, as a country, has the largest number of Muslims in the world. I have not done independent research on this, but it seems possible due to the total population.

[Howard]

Muslims in India
According to Wikipedia, who cited a few different sources, here's the top 4 countries: Indonesia - just over 200 million, Pakistan - about 160 mil., India - about 150 mil, and Bangladesh - just over 130 mil. I remembered Indonesia being #1, but didn't know Pakistan was #2.