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

Sunday June 25^th ...continued

I connected back up with my driver and the next stop was the Rajghat, where there is a memorial to Gandhi. You can visit the shrine in the centre of the garden, and have the choice of paying to leave your shoes behind a counter or leaving them in open pigeonholes for free. I elected to leave my battered old Nikes in a free pigeonhole, with the toes turned out so everyone could see where Sam the cat’s claws had been!. My shoes turned out to be quite safe in the open pigeonhole, and I noticed that some other westerners who were in the garden at the same time also elected not to pay to have their shoes minded.

My most enduring memory of the Rajghat may well be this picture of a couple strolling in the outer areas of the Rajghat. It's a rather romanticised image of India, with him in his summer whites and her in her brightly coloured sari, surrounded by palms and other trees.

Here are some more general views of the Rajghat. There was security at the entrance and I had to pass through a security "doorway" to gain access to the Rajghat. I'm glad I took a digital camera with me, considering the number of such devices I encountered during my sight-seeing expeditions in India.

The picture on the left shows the view from the entrance towards the inner memorial area. There are built-up banks around that area, and you go through a tunnel to get into the inner memorial garden. The other two pictures were taken where you leave your shoes. I was entertained to have travelled so far to find bizzie lizzies growing!

I've included the next picture mainly because I'd like to point out the final rule on the board!

It was possible to view the inner memorial area from the embankments, which had a path running along the top.

I photographed this tree from the top of the embankment as well.

Then I took off my shoes and went inside the memorial garden, where I photographed this Indian crow, which was apparently picking up dried leaves from the lawn. My visit was at the height of summer, which doesn't seem like nest-building time, so I don't know what a crow wanted with dried leaves!

The memorial shrine has piles of chrysanthemums on it, and there’s a small table at one end where there’s incense burning.

Here are some close-up pictures of the piles of chrysanthemums.

Finally, here is the metal bowl surrounded by chrysanthemums, and in which incense is burning.

After that, my driver tried to take me to a large temple to the east of Delhi, but when he got there, the huge parking area was full and there was a queue to get in, so I told him to take me back to the hotel. I’d had enough sight-seeing by then anyway.