Amazing First Day in Delhi EP.30 | Pakistani Visiting India
I have never tried Chholay Batooray before and don't even know what they are. I just know that chholay are chickpeas. I'm doing it for the first time in India.
Delhi's metro was launched 20 years ago and it's the second oldest one in India. It's a really impressive historical building and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Such bazars with roofs were not common in Mughal period. Shahjahan saw them in Peshawar.
We are in a small bazaar outside the Jama mosque. One of them is Aslam Chicken... That's where we are right now for a meal. Their butter chicken is a little different from the others.
This is the Jama Mosque of Delhi and is also known as Masjid Jehan Numa. We have taken a break at this really famous jalebi shop called Old Jalebi Wala. Assalam Alekum. Good Morning. Namaste. Sat Sri Akal to everyone from Delhi.
Finally we are in the city that we have always wanted to visit. Today we plan to mainly explore the old town. There's a lot of places to visit here.
For instance, Jama Masjid, Fort ... Then there's the lively Chandni Chowk. You can expect all the traffic and chaos typically related to old towns. You'll get to see all the hustle and bustle and life there.
The hotel we are staying is in Baharganj. We have got here after a walk of 1.5 km from our hotel. Because if you are in Delhi and you didn't start your day chholay batooray...
Then your visit is no good. That's why we have come to the famous Sita Ram Diwan Chand's place. We are standing right in front of the place. Lets see if we can get our hands of chholay batooray. Because it's almost 10 am ... So lets go. We are in Sita Ram now and you can see how crowded the place is.
It took almost 10 minutes to place our order. Let's go and see where they are preparing our order. We can pick our order from there as well. I have never tried Chholay Batooray before and don't even know what they are. Just know that chholay are chickpeas.
Here's Avinash who will tell us all about it. This is green chili pickle. Pickled carrots. This is potato stuffing and that's chickpeas.
We mix potatoes with chickpeas. And the batooray are made from white flour? I don't know that much. Okay. No problem. Thank you. We have finally got our order. The place is so crowded that we had to wait to find a spot to stand and eat. As they told us, they have chickpeas with potato stuffing.
These are some pickles and onions. And these are batooray... They look like poori. I'm not sure about their taste as I haven't tried them before. We have also got ourselves some buttermilk. It's morning time right now and getting buttermilk in breakfast is awesome.
Let's see what they taste like. Have heard a lot of good things though. Trying to make a nice bite here. So our first experience has been amazing. This is probably the oldest shop here, dating back to 1950. I guess one should definitely get delicious chholay batooray here.
People from all over Delhi... Well not just that but all tourists visiting Delhi wish to try this dish at least once. And it's really tasty. Even this has some sort of stuffing inside. There's something inside....Could be egg or something.
I'm not sure what's this. Could be cheese. Along with some spices. The breakfast was amazing. I have tried a different breakfast everyday from south all the way to north.
And I had some really delicious breakfasts. But if I have to mention something that I'd want to eat again and again... It's misal pav in Maharashtra. And chholay batooray here. Of course, misal pav was a little light as compared to our today's breakfast. Since I'm a desi from Punjab, we usually love this type of breakfast.
Here I paid 120 INR for chholay, batooray and buttermilk. So you can say that in 1.2 USD, you can have a great breakfast here. Let's go out and explore some more. Good morning. Two tickets for the Red Fort please.
I'm traveling in the metro in India for the first time. Many cities here have metro system. For instance, we started in Kochi... Since then, I noticed it in almost every city; some had it under construction.
Delhi metro started 20 years ago and it's the second oldest in India. The first one was in Kolkata. However, this is the biggest one in India. It's 350 km long and has 255 stations. It not just connects different areas of Delhi but also periphery areas...
Like Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad and Bahadurgarh. Almost 3 million people use it everyday. And it has 10 lines. So it can give you a pretty good idea. We are now going to the Red Fort. For that I have got the ticket for 30 INR per person.
I'm told that the minimum fare is 10 INR and the maximum is 60 INR. Depending on how far you are traveling. If you compare it with the rest of the world...
Considering the amount of traffic Delhi has... Lets see how quickly we reach our station. The metro is really neat and clean and quick. The distance that you cover on a rickshaw or your own vehicle in 10 minutes, is covered in just 2 minutes. I'm really impressed to see so many people using the metro. I don't think we are in the rush hours.
And I don't know the situation in rush hours. At least right now, it's really comfortable and easy. Look at how insane this traffic is. Compared to this, our ride in metro was really peaceful.
You can say it's probably the best metro systems in the whole world. If you observe it carefully... If almost 3 million people use metro each day, how huge this system will be. Looking at this traffic, I'm glad we used metro. There's a Gurudwara in front of us and the entrance of the fort is just beside. We have finally reached the Red Fort.
It's really an impressive, grand and historical place. A UNESCO World Heritage site. It was built by Shahjahan in 1638.
Before this, Akbar had built Agra Fort and Agra used to be the capital at that time. The capital was later moved to Delhi and this fort was built. It took almost 9 years to complete. It was designed by the architect Ahmed Lahori who was a teacher of Shahjahan...
And also the architect of Taj Mahal. It's also made from red sandstone because it was the favorite color of Shahjahan. Most of the Mughal era buildings were made from red sandstone. It has a really massive outer wall.
And the impressive gate that you are looking at right now is called the Lahori Gate. We don't know what awaits us inside. However, it's worthwhile to mention that when Nadir Shah Irani attacked during the Mughal era... He seriously damaged the artwork and jewels.
The British also caused a lot of destruction there. The place had been used by the British as their army garrison. The Indian flag was hoisted here for the first time on 15th August 1947.
This is the place where the Indian Prime Minister delivers his speech, every year on Independence Day. Let's go inside and see. We have finally entered. The place is really jam packed. The ticket costs 80 INR. We are standing directly in front of the Lahori Gate. Even today... after almost 400 years...
You rarely see such gates and monuments in such a good condition. It's very beautiful and it's huge. This gate is located immediately after you cross the small entrance gate.
As soon as you enter from Lahore Gate, you see a Mughal era market. These days, you mostly see souvenirs and gift items for tourists in this market. Such bazars with roofs were not common in the Mughal times. Shahjahan saw them for the first time in Peshawar. So he decided to have one in his capital.
You would find trading goods such as gold, silk and cotton in this market. And it was a double storeyed bazaar with some shops on the upper floor as well. Even today it is the same.
But you won't see anything on the first floor. The shops are mainly on the ground floor. During those times, it was known as Bazar e Musakif. The name that I read today is Chatha Chowk. The word musakif refers to the fact that it was a bazaar with a roof. The first building that you see here is Naubat Khana.
As part of a Mughal tradition, this building was meant for the musicians. Whenever any foreign ruler or delegate would visit, these musicians would play music for the event. Besides, they would play music each day on fixed times.
Here you see beautiful carvings on red sandstone. It is also reported that the last Mughal kings, Jahandar Shah and Farooq Syar... were assassinated here in the early 18th century.
Look at this carving on the red sandstone. But there's something even cooler. They have carved this rope like structure around the gate. You'll see a similar structure on white marble in Taj Mahal as well. So you do see some similarities and inspirations in these buildings.
The Red Fort was not just a fort but also a residence of Mughal Emperors. You can see many interesting things from that perspective even today. One of them is Diwan e Aam. A really beautiful building. It's constructed like a verandah.
The front side has 9 beautiful and spacious arches. It faces a beautiful courtyard. At the back, there's an elegant looking marble stage. This is where the Emperor Shahjahan would sit and address the public. That's Diwan e Aam is meant for ... A place for the common public. Here we have sort of a complex where multiple buildings are connected to each other.
Let me share some of the details with you. The first one is Rang Mahal that is on my right side. As the name indicates, it was decorated with different colors. There's a pavilion in the middle with rooms along its sides. We can't go in those rooms though.
But what I can fathom from here is that the rooms are adorned much like Sheesh Mahal. With mirror and glass work. And a small canal runs through it, known by the name of Bahishti Nahar. That literally means a canal from heaven.
It supplied water to this whole area. This running stream of water also gives a cooling effect to the whole building. Beside that, we have the Khas Mahal, that was the private palace of the king.
We can't go in there as well; I have captured some shots from outside though. It is also connected to the Diwan e Khas. It has a rather impressive interior. The structure is quite similar to the others with arches and everything. Royal bath is located right next to it.
Other than this building complex, there is also a mosque called Moti Masjid. We can't go inside the mosque so I took some shots from outside. The design of Moti Masjid is similar to the one in Lahore Fort. Not only will you see old historical monuments here.. But you will also see these amazing and peaceful looking gardens.
The whole area is large enough to stop any traffic noise from the outside to reach here. That's why you get a very peaceful vibe when you come here. I tried to give you a compact sort of tour. Because there are so many more buildings and monuments here. I hope you must have enjoyed our little effort. Time to go back to the old Delhi where this tour started.
You see yourself in a completely different world as you step out of the fort. That's how things are out here. There are many street food options here. But I think it's better to avoid that.
It's quite noisy as well. Better to go to the Jama Mosque. I have got a few recommendations of eating from the bazaar there.
So let's go there and have our lunch. Right now we are in the small bazaar outside the Jama Masjid. Not really a small one but quite a big one indeed. We got here from the fort by a 10 minute walk.
We preferred to walk instead of taking a rickshaw or something. Let me share some shots of this bazaar with you. The Jama Masjid bazaar is full of good restaurants. Some of them are even 50 years old.
Some of them have their own legendary recipes. One of them is Aslam Chicken where we have come to eat. Their butter chicken is quite different from that of others. The reason is that they roast their chicken before marinating it with butter. And then they add gravy and extra butter. I mean you hardly see more butter in butter chicken at any other place.
We have ordered half chicken for the two of us. It costs us 320 INR. And we also have fresh roomali roti.
It's gotten a little cold though. Let's try it with butter chicken which will hopefully be delicious. It better be. Many people recommended this place. If you happen to be in Delhi and are visiting Jama Mosque, do try this butter chicken. The butter chicken at other restaurants may also be delicious.
But this one is truly awesome. This is Delhi Jama Masjid...Also known as Majid Jehan Numa. I don't need to say much about the place. It is definitely among the prime examples of Indo-Islamic Mughal architecture. It was built by Shahjahan in 1656 and took 6 years to complete. The construction cost almost 1 million rupees.
It has a capacity of almost 25 thousand people. It was the royal mosque of that time. It's one of the last monuments of Shahjahan's rule as his empire was already on its way to decline.
It's among the prime monuments of his last days. It has a huge hall with three domes, two minarets and three gates. The front gate is the main entrance. Right in the center of the mosque, there is a fresh water pond where people perform ablution.
This is a slightly different concept. Because mostly mosques have taps for this purpose. That option is also available here though. This mosque is not just a place for worship for Muslims but they also have a strong emotional link. You see families coming here, sitting and having a good time.
And they offer their prayers when it's time. We'll try to capture this atmosphere for you. And try to share an evening at Jama Masjid with you. We are still at the Jama Masjid and I have Wasim here with me.
And his friend Azam. Tell us from where you belong. I've come here from Lucknow Uttar Pradesh.
You didn't say that you were from Lucknow. I'm from Lakhimpur Khiri near Lucknow. I watch Abrar's videos and I really love them. When I saw that he's visiting India, I was like now I must meet him. And I was following him since he was in Kerala.
He has traveled a long way to meet me. Thank you so much Wasim. I don't have enough words to thank you guys.
And they have brought for me, one of the best gifts that I could get from any subscriber. What else do I need when I'm getting so much love in India. I did not anticipate that. Thank you so much for this. We are now in the famous Chandni Chowk. 10 minutes walk away from the mosque. Making our way through the old jewelry market, we are here now.
And we have taken a break at this famous shop. Even the name written outside says... 'Old Famous Jalebi Wala'. Many of you on Instagram, asked me to try the jalebi from this shop.
I don't know what's so special about these jalebi. I've got some locals with me who brought me here. What's special about these jalebis? You have to try them first. Well they refuse to say anything. Just asking me to try it.
For starters, these jalebis are made with melted butter. Even the size is a little thicker than normal. Would you like to try some? No. Thank you.
They are nice and crispy but I still don't know what to tell you about these. But you can definitely give them a try when you visit... Old Famous Jalebi Wala. To be honest... the jalebis are actually good. I have no idea about their recipe. But you can give them a try for sure. Especially if you are visiting the Chandni Chowk.
It's very close to the fort... in the Chandni Chowk bazar.
2023-05-16 06:58
