Helen Stephenson's India Trip - June-July, 2006 - Shri Lakshmi Narain Temple

Sunday June 25^th

The driver arrived at 10:00am. He was a different driver from the one I had the day before, and spoke less English. I really wasn’t very sure at all where I was going to end up! In the event, he started off by taking me to the Shri Lakshmi Narain (Birla) Temple in New Delhi. It was a beautiful place, but photography wasn’t allowed, so I don’t have any pictures. I could have bought postcards, and the sellers of postcards and other goods outside the temple were very persistent. I also thought that their prices were rather too high, so I ignored their blandishments. Maybe I just got a very good deal on the postcards I’d bought the day before at India Gate, but I doubt that I could bargain these sellers down below what they wanted to sell for, so the sellers outside the temple probably were more expensive.

Inside the temple, there was one room for mens’ shoes and one room for ladies’ shoes and a third room for foreigners’ shoes. This room also included a locker where cameras were taken off you and locked up and it gave access onto a gift shop. Once divested of shoes and camera, I was then free to go into the temple. I had the requisite henna dye daubed onto my forehead and acquired a chain of chrysanthemums to wear around my neck. I also acquired a guide, who conducted me around the various idols, which were very beautiful indeed.

When I retrieved my shoes and camera, I went into the gift shop, where I acquired a paper mache elephant and a chess set. I would have preferred the smaller size chess set because of the cost, but considered that the pieces weren’t distinct enough and it wouldn’t be easy to play with, so I bought the next size up. Alison and her children will get to enjoy it one day, but I will need to find an equivalent gift for Raymond and his family.

The next stop was another temple in Old Delhi. The Red Fort was opposite, but I didn’t go in, which was probably a mistake. It has a wall of red sandstone enclosing it and looks like the sort of fort you would see on the front cover of a fantasy novel, but it’s real! It also covers a lot of ground. You could keep quite an army inside.

My shoes came off for entry to the temple opposite the Red Fort, and within the same complex there is a bird hospital. All the birds have been rescued and are being nursed back to health for release once they’re well again. It was quite sad seeing peacocks in a tiny cage, but if they get released once they’re well again, I suppose the means justifies the end. I recognized some ring necked parakeets in one of the cages, but they weren’t such fine specimens as the ones that visit our back garden in London. I suppose that was understandable as they were sick.