The Wild Rose

After a racing through 7 lanes of traffic on a 2 lane road equipped with cars of all sizes, trucks, motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, bicycle-rickshaws, pedestrians, wild dogs, monkeys and the occasional elephant I was beginning to feel carsick.

The closest I can come to describing Delhi traffic is understood chaos. There are lines on the road, but they seem to serve more of a decorative purpose than a functional one. The same goes for the stop-lights, and man-o-man do these guys like to use their horns! I could go on and on about the traffic, and I will, but in another post.

Our destination for the day was Rajpath, a 2-mile stretch of road that, at it’s Eastern end, houses India Gate. In order to get close enoughto the gate you first have to make your way through vendors, some of which look sanitary and some of which look…

Constructed out of red sandstone, India Gate was built to commemorate the Indian and British soldiers lost in WWI, the North-West Frontier Province and the Third Afghan War.

Directly below the arch is an eternal flame, which burns for those lost in the 1971 India-Pakistan War.

On the East side of India Gate is a massive canopy, that at one time held a statue of King George V, but it has since been moved leaving the canopy empty.

Directly to the West sits the Rashtrapati Bhavan, a palace built by the British that now is used as the President’s residence.

The impressive iron gate surrounding the complex is supported by pillars topped with elephant sculptures. It was only after a few minutes of me standing at the front gate gawking at the palace that I noticed a monkey tied to the interior of the gate, poor guy.

When heading back East from the President’s residence you can barely make out the shape of India Gate due to the heavy pollution and smoke.

While it’s very strange to be celebrating New Year’s Eve in 75 degree weather and with pop (the drinking age here is 25!) we would like to wish all of you a very successful and happy 2012!