Humayun's Tomb is the tomb of the Mughal Emperor Humayun, built for him by his widowed wife, Hamida Banu Begum in 1562 AD, designed by a Persian architect brought in from present northwest Afghanistan. This was the first structure ever to use red sandstone. At such a large scale, but also incorporates white sandstone and marble. This created a precedent for future Mughal architecture, as it started a trend of extravagant architecture. This Mughal architecture reached its peak with the Taj Mahal in Agra.
(Proof that I'm actually still alive!)
Afterwards, we went to Khan market, which is an exclusive upscale place with nice shops and restaurants and had a very nice dinner.
Sunday was a mostly relaxing day, we stayed in and rested up because we had work this morning, Monday morning. However, we did go for a small snack on our favorite rooftop restaurant and for a walk, which caused us to run into a celebration on the street and a shop owner that we met a couple days ago. He was very nice again last night and was nice enough to explain to us the reason why people were dancing around a fire to the sound of drums in the street.
Yesterday, to our surprise, was a very popular Punjabi festival called Lohri. Though it is technically Punjabi, the shop owner whose name escapes me (because I was unable to pronounce it from the beginning) explained to us that it is really for all Indian people. It is an agricultural festival believed to have begun as a celebration of the winter solstice that eventually spread to other parts of India. According to folk lore, in ancient times, Lohri was celebrated on the eve of the winter solstice day, which is why it is now celebrated on what is meant to be the longest night of the year. After last night day light is meant to increase and nights are meant to be shorter.
This is the reason why we witnessed this in the street last night and there was smoke throughout the apartment, due to the various bonfires occurring in the alleyway that leads to our apartment:
Today was a great day for teaching, also. The boys home has a more structured way of teaching. We had about 13 students and taught from 10:30 until 12:30 and the time flew by. The boys were eager to learn, we very respectful and very responsive. I'm incredibly happy that we decided to go again this morning, as we were previously unsure due to the unsafe conditions involved in the walk there.
I can't wait to get back tomorrow! My only regret is that we weren't there all of last week as well. No matter, we will make due with the time that we have.
That's all of now!
Location:Sang Trashan Marg,New Delhi,India
No comments:
Post a Comment