This online travel blog was the first instalment of a series I wrote for ANOKHI magazine about non-resident Indians returning to India for vacation, highlighting tourist attractions and local culture. I also produced majority of the photos included in the series.
Appeared online for ANOKHI Media, Dec. 4, 2013
As an NRI, travelling to India does not feel like I’m returning home.
Instead, the motherland often feels more like an estranged relative; we share a common heritage but every time we meet, it takes some time to get reacquainted. And my latest reunion with mera bahrat mahan was no exception.
My parents and I completed the 20-hour journey from Toronto to Delhi, via Zurich, reaching the nation’s capital exhausted and completely disoriented by the 9.5 hour time difference. But India doesn’t do quiet introductions. Even though we arrived in the late evening, which for us felt something like the early morning, the sights, sounds, and smells of India hit us immediately. Hot, dense-feeling weather. Horns beeping in an almost rhythmical tune. People everywhere. We were in the motherland.
Reuniting after a long absence always starts the same. You have to cover the basics. In Delhi, the first thing on my tourist to-do list was India Gate. Standing 42m high, this memorial to the 70,000 Indian soldiers who died in World War I is floodlit at night, making it glow fluorescent white and well worthy of a visit and a few photos.
Ishani Nath 