Raj Ghat

Did you know that at the concessions stall near Raj Ghat, they only sell Indian products? That means only Frooti, no Coke, Pepsi, etc. I guess Gandhiji's Swadeshi movement is still being carried out there.

As I might have mentioned here before, one of the big reasons I wanted to visit Delhi, particularly the historical parts, is because I'm reading this book on post-Independence India, and I've come to be more and fascinated with the history of the political leaders. So even though the "Raj Ghat" is not a "sexy" choice like Jantar Mantar or India Gate, I really wanted to pay my respects to the great man. On one hand I was really thrilled at the crowd there. Not only where there people from almost every state, there were people from almost every single country! A French couple was being chatted up in French by a desi guide. There was what looked to be an Iranian couple visiting the place. This is in addition to the numerous British and American tourists you see at all these tourist spots.

What was depressing was that everyone was treating this like any other tourist spot. "Smile" they kept saying as they stood in front of the actual samadhi. Smile? Come on, even Detective Pandurangarao had more sense in Chantabbai that you don't smile while posing in certain situations. And this is only the memorial of the father of the nation. Another guy, from Rajasthan, jumped over the barricade around the samadhi to pose right next to the marble and when the security guard finally caught him, he smiled shamelessly to say, "I was only trying to get close to Gandhiji." There was a huge crowd of school girls visiting the tourist sites all over Delhi that day, including Raj Ghat. One hand I was excited that kids were being taught a little bit of history, and I wanted to sit them down and tell them all about Gandhi. On the other hand I wanted to grab this fence-jumper and ask him what type of a message he's sending these kids with his antics.

The entire garden also contains the burial grounds of Devi Lal, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Nehru himself. But most people don't know this. And even more people don't even care. Which is OK by me. But I smiled as I suddenly pictured Gandhi sitting up there in Heaven with the others and laughing out loud as he counted the number of visitors to his samadhi versus the others. "What do we have today? I think I might hit the 50,000 mark before lunch. And what've you got, Indira? 23? Rajiv - 12? Devi Lal? People don't even know you! Ha ha ha"