The Wild Rose

There’s nothing like taking a nice stroll through a garden, admiring the the exotic plants, watching the children play games and getting ambushed. That’s right, ambushed! But we’ll get to that in a minute. First lets take a look at, what really is a beautiful park, Lodhi Garden.

Sprinkled with 15th and 16th century ruins, this site started out, more or less, as a cemetery for Lodhi dynasties, and during the British Raj was landscaped by Lady Wellington. The original name for the park was Lady Wellington Park, but after independence, it was re-landscaped and called Lodhi Garden.

This park is a hot-spot for Delhiites, and with the temperatures getting in the high 70’s the park was packed. We saw everyone from picnickers, to walking clubs, to impromptu cricket matches. If you have time to spend leisurely, then Lodhi Garden is the place to go.

It’s a nice break from the chaotic and crowded streets of Delhi, and the serene views are enough to relax even the most tense of people. We were thoroughly enjoying the tranquil and peaceful landscape.

That is, until we were ambushed. We had decided to cut through one of the green areas and stray from the main path. Big mistake. All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a couple of picnickers get up and head in our direction. Thinking nothing of it, we kept on walking. Well, it wasn’t a full minute before a group of teenage girls had reached us, and grabbed both of our wrists. While one girl held, another tried to paint henna on our hands, and shove rings on our fingers, and they second they get anything on you, you then have to pay. At first we were both a little stunned, having our wrists grabbed, but once we figured out what was going on we fought to get our hands back, untouched by henna or rings. It sounds easy, but these girls were tough, and they weren’t going to give up without a fight. We weren’t afraid of making a scene, so we flailed and twisted and pulled with all of our might, until we were free from their grips. We then booked it back to the main path and made our way out of the gardens. Both of us managed to pull away unadorned; or in my case, flail wildly enough so that it was impossible for them to get anything on my hands. However, the sleeves of my shirt, where the girls had grabbed, were covered in crumbs of some kind. This didn’t ruin our trip, but here’s a fair warning to anyone, especially women & girls, planning to visit Lodhi Gardens: Keep your hands in your pockets, and stick to the main path! Other than that, enjoy!