In light of our previous delightful sightseeing misadventure, the roommates and I have some catching up to do in terms of Delhi tourism. We’re still casually flirting with the city, but things are being checked off the list. A couple weekends ago, we made our way over to Qutab Minar after our Saturday morning practice.
Qutab Minar stands at 73 meters tall, making it the second-tallest minar in India. Its construction began in 1193 after the defeat of Delhi’s last Hindu kingdom, and it was finally completed in 1368. It’s got five stories and is made of sandstone and marble. There’s some debate as to the reason for its construction: some say it’s a victory tower marking the beginning of Muslim rule, others say it’s a minaret intended to call the faithful to prayer. Either way, it’s pretty astounding to stand beside it and overwhelming to think that all of the intricate carvings that cover its face were done by hand.
The grounds surrounding Qutab Minar are beautiful. The first mosque to be built in India stands at the base of the minar, and various ruins cover the entire complex. Which is crawling with an absurd number of a very strange Indian ground rodent. It looks like a cross between a flying squirrel and a chipmunk.
And Wikipedia has just informed me that these are Indian palm squirrels, they’re considered sacred by Hindus in India, and, in terms of likelihood of extinction, they’re classified as “least concern”. The more you know.
We spent the afternoon strolling about the Qutab Minar complex and experienced in full force the strange phenomenon of people either asking to take pictures with us, asking to take pictures of us, or just taking pictures of us without asking. Not surprisingly, this feels a little alienating and objectifying. Whoever decided blondes have more fun likely never attempted to travel through India.
Regardless, it was fun to spend a good bit of time doing some intentional photography. It was enjoyably difficult to be judicious in my picture selection for this post. What a great problem to have.
Happy Thursday.
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