Our Final Day

Arlene and Alice still had a number of things to see in Delhi.  Carol had been to all of the places we were going to go and so she stayed back as we set out on an adventure.

I arranged for our taxies throughout the day.  This tour of the city, our trip to the airport at 6:30 p.m. to go on to Pune, and Arlene and Alices’ trip to the airport at 8:00 p.m. to head back to the States.  Carol’s sister lives in Pune and we are spending three days with her before we return to the States as well.

Our taxi came around 10:00 a.m.  We had a wonderful driver who told us about many things, which as he said, was his job to do, but he did exactly what we wanted.  Our first destination was to Old Delhi and to see the Red Fort from the outside.  The fort is huge and seems to stretch for blocks in each direction.  This fort is from the time of the Mogul rulers.

We parked in a common parking area and hired three rickshaws for the next part of the journey.  The streets of Old Delhi are so narrow that the only way you can maneuver is by food, on a motorbike or scooter ort in a rickshaw.  It is just remarkable how much traffic winds it way through these narrow streets.  We passed gold, cloth goods of all kinds, food, and you pretty much name it kind of shop as we rode through.

At one point we stopped and they took us back another side street where we toured a Jain Temple.  It was quite interesting and began our tour of temples for this day.  After the excitement of Old Delhi we went on to the Bengali Sweet Shoppe where we had a little snack and bought a few things to take with us.

The next stop was the Lotus Temple build by the Bahais.  This is a solemn place for prayer for any who enter.   No talking is permitted or any pictures inside the large meeting hall.  This structure is now one of the most visited places in all of India.  It is shaped like a lotus flower and is covered completely with marble over a cement and rebar inner structure.

Our final temple for the day was to go to a Sikh Temple closer to the center of Delhi’s shopping district.  Here we not only removed our shoes as in the previous two places, but we also each had our heads covered with a gold bandana.  Sikh men and women cover their head in worship.  We entered the temple to hear the singing of the leaders of the temple and to see many people praying as they spend their time here as a part of their day.

Each of these experiences gave us further perspective on the religions of India and the worship experiences of these many different people.  We spoke several times about the reality that there is a measure of truth in what many of these people are doing, and there is great zeal for their faith.  Paul declares however that it is zeal without knowledge of the one and only true God, Jesus the Messiah.

We returned to the hotel by 4:30 p.m. and then finished our preparations for departure.  A light meal together at 5:30 p.m. preceded the departure of the first taxi for the airport for a 9:20 p.m. departure.  Then the second taxi left at 8:00 p.m. for the 11:55 p.m. departure of the flight for the States.

As I write we are still in Pune and we have heard from our two sisters that they are both safely back to their homes.  This has been a great trip and many wonderful experiences.  Thank-you to each one who has taken the time to follow along with these blogs!

Blessings, Ken