20 January 2018, Delhi, India

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We leave the streets of Old Delhi and ascend to the rooftops.

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Here some friends of Dhruv Gupta are having morning tea.

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They keep pigeons, which is a popular pasttime in Old Delhi.

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A flock of pigeons is released, fly around for awhile and the come back (to where they get fed).

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Here Neville is talking to Dhruv Gupta.

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Next we visit Fatepuri Masjid. This was built in 1650 by Fatepuri Begum, one of the wives of Shah Jahan, who came from Fatepur, a town in Rajastan. Despite its age, this presents as more of mosque for ordinary people than a tourist attraction.

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One of the four entrances to the central square of the mosque, from the inside.

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Next to the mosque is Khari Baoli, a street known as the site of Asia’s largest spice market.  Here, we are in a flower factory, producing  garlands and no doubt flowers for religious festivals and other purposes.

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This group of young people pulling and pushing a cart were very happy to be photographed.

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Guardian of the chillies.

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Street tightrope boy.

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Here we are drinking tea in Dhruv Gupta’s immaculately restored haveli:  David, Maree, Neville, Bernie, Ian, Di, Andrew, Emma, Dhruv Gupta and Jools.

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In the afternoon, with a different guide, we visited Humayan’s Tomb.  I have a fuller coverage of this in a post from my 2014 visit to India, including a brief history of India up to the time of Humayan.

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On the way in….

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The elegant ceiling of the tomb.

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Later, in the Nizamudin area, where outside photography was not encouraged.

(Help is at hand).

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