DISCOVERY OF INDIA -I

PART 2 continues......

A FOODIE TREASURE HUNT IN OLD DELHI

Most people glimpse Old Delhi from the famous Red Fort at the foot of its main road, Chandni Chowk, or from the minaret at India's largest mosque, the Jama Masjid. But Old Delhi at street level is an experience. The atmospheric lanes are full of famous street food and fine restaurants alike. There are whole alleys known as galis, devoted to specialties: gali kebab, south of the mosque, includes a restaurant whose owners descend from the chefs to the Moghul emperors as far back as Babur. Nearby in the spice bazaar (an adventure in itself!) there are galis for pickles, chutneys, and sugar. The latter, gali batasha, sells sugar in every shape from powder to rock icicle. Many travellers taste their first sizzling parantha (stuffed fried flatbread) in - you guessed it - gali paranthawala. Back on Chandni Chowk, a sweet shop voted the city's best was named for its most famous habitual customer, an elephant housed at the Red Fort stables in the 1790s. Old Delhi is said to be where some of India's most famous foods - tandoori, kebabs, kulfi - were invented. Finding the source is an adventure, a history lesson and pure gastronomic pleasure.


DON'T WASTE TIME IN DELHI

In a typical day of sightseeing around Delhi you'd anticipate exploring the many bazaars, visiting the Red Fort, and enjoying the colourful chaos of the city - but would you expect to go to a toilet museum? The complex evolution of sanitation dates back to 2500 BC and the museum is virtually overflowing with exhibits from around the world sampling our soiled past. Not only does the exhibition get to the bottom of chamber pots, commodes and cubicles but also appropriate toilet etiquette and codes of conduct are discussed. On display is a French portable toilet that's camouflaged as a stack of books and an Austrian-designed coloured cistern. So next time you point anything at the porcelain consider where it's come from and where it's going, and be sure to check out this remarkable display when in Delhi.

MAKING THE SILK OF EMPERORS

One of the oldest continuously occupied cities on the planet, Varanasi, is best known as a sacred Hindu city. With pilgrims and holy men thronging temples and lining the banks of the river Ganga, it might be easy to overlook the fact that Varanasi is also a significant Muslim centre. In the eastern part of the city, near a cinema, 15 minutes by auto-rickshaw from the old city, there is a Muslim enclave of weavers spinning the expensive brocade silk saris that the city is famous for. Wandering the narrow lanes, peering past weathered wooden doorways, you can see men seated at huge handlooms in every corner. The looms' clack-clack has echoed here for generations. In fact, these weavers are said to be descendants of the weavers to the likes of Akbar the Great, who required the finest, most elegant silk for court and palace. Inside a spare lantern-lit stone room, you may even be invited to try spinning with one of these master craftsmen.



This is OUR INDIA.COME N NJOY!!!!