The Qutub Minar Complex – Tomb of Iltutmish

Posted on July 25, 2018July 25, 2018 by indtr

Shamsu’d-Din Iltutmish succeeded Qutub-ud-din-Aibak on the throne of Delhi and therefore he was the second Sultan of Delhi. He was the one who took over the construction work of Qutub Minar and managed to complete 3 more floors after Aibak’s death.

The tomb of Iltutmish was constructed by himself. It has a tomb chamber with a central cenotaph. There are exquisite carvings at the entrance and the interior walls of the tomb. Kufi and Naskh character inscriptions can be found on the inside walls. There are 3 mihrabs on the west side of the tomb and the central one is made with marble with exquisite carvings and inscriptions.

Like Aibak, Iltutmish was also a slave. He was bought by Qutub-ud-din-Aibak and grew in stature and position during Aibak’s rule. He married Aibak’s daughter and became the Governor of Badaun. When Aibak died in a polo accident and Aram Shah whose relation to Aibak was shrouded in mystery tried to take over the Sultanate, Iltutmish was invited by Qutbi Amirs to take over as Sultan in Delhi.

He acquired a great nation and is credited with consolidating the power of Sultanate in India. However, he was not able to hold all of them together. Slowly one by one he kept losing parts of the country as rebellions broke out and the Hindu Maharaja’s asserted their dominion over the captured regions. Even his own people in different parts of the country left allegiance to him and started their own Sultanate!

Sarojini Nagar Market of Delhi

Posted on July 25, 2018July 25, 2018 by indtr

Sarojini Nagar Market is the all-weather all-season market that caters to the needs of the entire South Delhi. If there is one market that can satisfy Delhiwala’s appetite for shopping, it is this market.

Sometimes I have a feeling that people come here with the sole intention of testing out their negotiation and bargaining skills. I used to hate bargaining and would simply feel quite magnanimous in handing over the price the vendors asked for. But some of my visits with my husband, a hardcore bargainer have made me realize that the vendors kind of look down upon people who do not negotiate because as the norm goes, they hike up the price by atleast twice or thrice the original price so that they would still be left with some margin when the deal is finally done.

However, there are fixed price outlets and wares where you can select garments in the same range starting from Rs. 100, 150, 200, 250, etc..

I have been visiting this market from the time I got married about 20 years ago and came to settle down in the south side of Delhi. From then onwards, if I have anything to buy from children’s clothes to shoes, bags, undergarments, hosiery items, bed sheets, covers or even curtains, etc., I head to this haven. There are even shops for buying vegetables, grocery items, household items and kitchen utensils in case you need such items.

Babu Market is another complex that lies in the same vicinity and has approximately 4 rows of shops that again caters to mostly garments with some jewellery shops and accessories and all women’s stores thrown in.

All said and done, this market offers decent products at affordable rates. You can find things you would not find anywhere else – children’s fancy dresses for their school competition, from paalak to a fairy, these shops can change their personality. They can even loan you these dresses for a day or two! What else would you need.

A word of caution though – On Sundays, only those who have some really good patience, focus and crowd management skills should attempt to attack this market. On Saturdays and Sundays, this market can be so crowded that you just need to stand at one place, the crowd will pull you to all directions.

Recently there has been an addition of a multi-storied parking plaza which has turned out to be semi-modern building in the vicinity with Haldiram’s and other food joints like McD and Subway catering to the hungry public!

The enigma called Jantar Mantar

Posted on July 25, 2018July 25, 2018 by indtr

Surrounded by huge and towering buildings, this set of architectural structures stand for some long forgotten magical spell as the name suggests!!

Jantar Mantar is the oldest of a set of unique observatories built by Jai Singh II around 1724. There are mantras and yantras that Jai Singh created amidst these structures that give accurate tables for study of time and space to give astronomical insights.

The Misra Yantra is believed to be constructed by Maharaj Madho Singh designed to be accurately measuring the longitude of celestial objects like moon and can measure close to the minute of an arc.

One of the main structures is the Samrat Yantra which is also called as ‘King of Instruments’ that measures solar time or local time of a place and the sun’s declination.

The Jaiprakash Yantra (means Light of Jai) is named after the Maharaja Jai Singh who invented and constructed this hemispherical sundial system used both in day and night observations. The position of the sun was indicated by the shadow of the cross wires inside this hemisphere.

It has always been an enigma to me. I have tried to understand the way these things work, but haven’t got a clue looking at the structures though!!

A video on how the sun moves across different time spheres is given at http://www.jantarmantar.org/