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Sharing pictures at the Jama Masjid

Arrival in Delhi today followed by complete immersion, taking the metro into Old Delhi to visit the Jama Masjid, the Sikh Temple and the spice market.

The chaps in this blip were snapping away on their mobile phones, perched on a wall within the Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India. It's a truly impressive building made from red sandstone and marble and is another of Shahjahan's great achievements (he also built the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort in Agra).

The Sikh temple is also impressive and within its grounds there is the Gurdwara Bangla Sahib kitchen which has fed thousands of Delhi residents daily since 1933. Although all Sikh temples have a langar (free kitchen) this one is organised on a huge scale. We watched the gursikhs and volunteers preparing food in vast cauldrons. Anyone can eat there and so no one in Delhi need go hungry. It all runs so effortlessly, it's an excellent example of inclusion and of people who 'do'.

The spice market was a great bombardment of the senses, wonderful!

The only downside to the day was that my sister's passport was stolen on the Metro which meant that her immersion involved dealing with the Indian bureaucracy. The taking of her witness statement at the police station was put on hold at one point while the officers went off to play badminton - the court was right in the heart of the police station. I guess it's one way of ensuring your officers are fit...

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