Helen Stephenson's India Trip - June-July, 2006 - India Gate

Saturday June 24^th ...continued

After my shopping expedition, my driver took me to India Gate. There were lots of really pushy sales people there. The women were trying to sell me a little horn of something. It sounded like henna, but what I’d want henna for, I didn’t know. [I now think it was for putting a bindi dot on my face. I got one the next day in a Hindu temple.] I kept politely refusing them. Then I was offered postcards. They were quite good sets and didn’t seem to be an excessive price, so I agreed to buy them. Then a guide book came out and I said ‘no’. Eventually the price came down to a point where I said ‘yes’. I don’t think it would have gone any lower, but I could be wrong! I was quite prepared to walk away without that guide book and the seller probably knew that. There was another seller who wanted to interest me in calendars and I kept politely refusing him and he kept following me, but eventually got discouraged.

India Gate, besides being a huge landmark, is India's war memorial, and the top of the arch bears an inscription remembering India's war dead, both in global conflicts and also in battles closer to home.

Those are not imperfections in the picture on the right. Someone was blowing lots of soap bubbles!

I think that if it hadn't been the height of summer that this structure would have had water in its base. Several places that I visited during my stay in India looked as if they had switched off unnecessary water.

I thought about putting this last picture on my "Wheels" page, as the icecream vans are interesting vehicles from a westerner's point of view. I was also entertained by the spelling, but was assured by my colleagues that it was a brand name and not someone who couldn't spell. I don't think it's a brand name that I've come across Wall's using anywhere else.