Rashtrapati Bhavan, is the official residence of the President of India, Pratibha Devisingh Patil.  It’s usually off limits to tourists, but through a connection of Kunals we were able to take a peak inside.  In 1911, it was decided that the capital of India would be relocated from Calcutta to Delhi and as such a Governor-General’s residence would be needed.  British architect Edwin Landseer Lutyens designed the building with colours and details inspired by Indian architecture.  With 360 rooms, it is currently the largest residence of any Chief of the State in the world!

Inside there were a lot of artifacts and paintings from the British days.  The back yard is home to the Mughal Gardens which are open to the public in the spring.  The dome is perfectly lined up with India Gate and the drive up to the palace is quite imposing.

So far there have been four people who wanted pictures with me for seemingly no reason.  Tourists in the Sunderbans were the most fanatical.  Above was my first new friend at Qutub Minar.

India is in prime tropical fruit season.  Many mornings at Kunal’s family home in New Delhi have included a beautiful spread of mangoes, papaya, cantaloupe, apple, watermelon, and our favorite, lychees.

On our way to Shimla we stopped in Panchkula for lunch with a family friend of Kunals which had a mango and lychee tree in the back.  Healed of my Delhi Belly I jumped at the opportunity to pick fresh mango and lychee (pictured below).

Cory and Kunal went to the beautiful wedding of Nishchint and Mridu on June 2.  I had a bout of Delhi belly and needed to rest unfortunately–will have to find another use for my kurta.  However, Cory is looking good in his, chatting with friends Shobhita and Nandini.

The wedding was held at the majestic Ashok Hotel and there was a big buffet of vegetarian food and even a table of traditional Jain food (no garlic, no onion).

Making up for lost time!  The 3G service in India is a bit spotty, but we’ve finally found some wi-fi so it’s time to catch up.  We were at Humayun’s Tomb in New Delhi on June 1.

Humayun was the eldest son of Babar who was the first emperor of Mughal Empire in India and later emperor himself.  The tomb of Humayun was built by the orders of Hamida Banu Begum, Humayun’s widow, and begun in 1565, nine years after his death,and completed in 1572 AD at a cost of 15 lakh rupees (1.5 million) at the time. Humayun’s Tomb is and a precursor to the Taj Mahal

Went to the Lotus Temple, a temple for people of the Bahá’í faith.  Another area of worship where you have to remove your shoes, but shorts are ok.  It was extremely hot and crowded getting into the temple.  According to Wikipedia it gets about 4 million visitors a year.  Many people got fed up with the wait and order and were very vocal about it, complaining to the staff who insisted on reading information about the faith and the temple.  We only stayed for a few minutes inside because we had to keep a schedule, but it was very beautiful.

A Jain Temple near Qutub Minar.  We had to take our shoes off to go to the top of the hill where there was this statue of Vardhman Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankar (religious Guru of the Jains).  The marble floor and steps seared our feet in the 100+ degree sun, but we were the only ones around.

A victory statue which commenced building in 11193 and was added to over three Muslim dynasties and even tweaked by the British.

Cory describes our arrival at New Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport.