Sunday Escape (1)

Its Saturday, 22nd October, 8:00pm. I call Navaneeth and few others to fix a place for escape the next morning that we were planning for quite a while. Anuj and Navaneeth promised coming and we decided to go to Kashmiri Gate with breakfast at Navaneeths home. Anuj was busy with the Courtyard(you must be in SPA to know more about it ;) ) that night, that he was not able to wake up next morning.

So it was just the two of us and after breakfast at around 9, we took the car and reached the place by 9:30. I was excited as it was time to experiment my new 18-105mm Nikkor DX lens. The only thing I was worried about was the haze, as winters have started and with the amount pollution in Delhi the chance of a bad haze is high. As it affects the light and decreases visibility its not ideal for photography.  Lucky us, the sun shined bright amidst the haze thus giving opportunity to focus on the subject more as the background was taken care of by the haze.

After parking the car at Teen Murti Metro Station, we took a walk into Civil Lines, looking for Skinner's Church ( Forgot to take Eicher maps )and with the rickshaw wala's directions we walked for over a kilometer. I immediately started clicking after getting out of the car as the bright warm rays of the sun washed the various things around and the warmth just felt great after the cold morning bike ride.

After the walk searching for the church, though I had a weird feel that we were never on the right way, Navaneeth takes out his camera and realizes that he forgot his memory card. That was a sad start and I clicked some pigeons around and we had to leave back to his home to collect his card.

 

The Images: Fresh fruits on the roadside. Pigeons warming up. The balloon seller's dreams.

Then we decided to go to Gurudwara Bangla Sahib at CP and put Kashmiri Gate for some other time. This was our first experience at a gurudwara and both of us had no clue what to do. After buying a white kerchief and getting our heads covered we washed our feet and hands and proceeded inside the Gurudwara. It was a pretty different experience inside; the white open spaces, the huge pool of water with people of all ages, men and women bathing in it before entering the Gurudwara. The thing that surprised me was the shoe-minding room, people (anyone) volunteered to keep the shoes inside the room there which was a contrast to the practice that happens in South Indian Temples.

The open court at the front of the Gurudwara

The pool

The Escape was more than photography, the morning walk felt great and gave us a reason to wake up early. Most importantly, the Sunday morning never felt like a waste. Now all that was to be done was to keep up the pace and I started planning for the next escape. It was Purana Qila (Old Fort) for the next Sunday. A monument I pass by on my way from college, hardly found time to walk around it.