Bahai House of Worship


We knocked off another of Delhi's great sites today, the Bahai House of Worship. I don't mean any irreverence in saying we knocked it off, but since every outing with our two underlings is a bit of a challenge, like Hilary, when we conquer these little Everests I'm inclined to say "we knocked the bastard off."


Actually, the Bahai House of Worship is an extraordinary place. And if Luc hadn't started freaking out inside the "no speaking" temple, I probably could have appreciated it more. What was most interesting about our visit is that Claire did not want to leave. First she went in with Marion and they sat and watched people pray. Then Marion came out to tend to Luc, and instead of staying outside, Claire wanted to go back in with me.

What's most impressive about the temple is that it achieves a level of transcendence and spirituality without any reference to the symbols or beliefs of the world's major religions. The building lotus flower shape, the surrounding pools, and the spartan but lofty interior, combine to make for a profoundly moving experience.

Our bad rickshaw experiences on Friday led us to hire a car and driver today. For 400 Rs, or about $8 US, you get a car for four hours, and a driver to do all the driving. He got us to the Bahai temple just fine, but then we wanted to go to a place called INA market. We're not sure if he got us there, though we did wind up at a market (and a park, described in another entry). We got back in the car and headed off to another market, which turned out to be too crowded and too chaotic for our mood. In the end we had him take us to Khan Market, which we had been to once before at the recommendation of the landlords of our flat. It has several tiny groceries that sell a narrow range of western goods. Apparently Khan Market is frequented by many of the foreign diplomats and their families. It even has two stores selling Christmas decorations.

The thing that's nice about a driver is that he waits for you wherever you go. So after each store we could walk over to the car and give him our groceries. Then we went into a little cafe called "The Big Chill" that served what they described as "American-style ice cream." We shared a couple ice creams and for what seemed like the first time all day, got a bit of relief from Luc's relentless fussing. The servers in the cafe kept touching Luc's cheeks and eventually one of them picked up Luc from Marion's lap. We expected he'd freak out, but perhaps he was just so tired that he did not put up a fight. As seen in the picture below, poor Marion was finally able to space out and sip her coffee while Luc got passed around behind her.

Posted: Sat - December 3, 2005 at 02:11 AM          

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