The Craft Museum consists of outdoor
workshops and indoor exhibits. The indoor exhibits are mostly a dazzling
array of textiles. Amidst all the bright colored blankets under glass
there is this reconstruction of an elite old Delhi household.
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Somehow I manage to avoid taking any pictures
of the many textile exhibits and instead snap these two guards talking
by a window.
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The museum gift shop sells just about
everything you see in the museum except the textiles.
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Here is a small example of
how we're still far from home. Everytime I try to turn on a light here I
have to stop and think, and usually try every switch but the right one.
Seeing a price in rupees and converting it to dollars is a little easier
now. But there are a million other tiny differences that are constantly
confusing.
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Julie tries her charm offensive to convince
me that it is a good idea to buy this bench and carry it home with us.
It doesn't work.
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On the way home from the Craft Museum, we see
the ruins of Purana Qila, the old fort. We come back the next day and
explore. We arrive early enough in the morning that the light is very
atmospheric. Here at the Dala I Kuhna Masjid mosque, there is no
one to greet us but a gaggle of cheeky green parrots.
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| Steep stone stairs lead up a narrow passage
to the upper chamber of the mosque, but it is closed to those who don't
have their own set of wings for transport. |
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| This is the library where the magnanimous
Mughal ruler Humayun is said to have fallen to his death in 1556 while
running down the stairs to perform his prayers. The doors are bolted so
we could not see the stairs. |
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| Exploring the walled fort (one of the
many gates is pictured here) we found what looked like an empty
streambed. On one side was a 30-foot wall, evidence that Delhi has been
continuously inhabited for 3,000 years. The top of the wall shows
the 20th century, with Mughal details lower down, then the
Sultinate period, and at the base, evidence of the earliest inhabitants.
The Old Fort itself is a relative latecomer, about 600 years old. |
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Here is more of that rich "atmosphere" that
makes the photos so lush and makes me sneeze black goo.
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