385282 3 Location 451687 <p>Stepping out of Sureshs' car was one of the most powerful culture shocks I have had in my life.</p><p>I was immediately marked. Postcards were shoved in my face, hats were shoved on my head and a crippled beggar boy shoved an amputed limb under my nose. Taking a deep breath and summoning up some courage from somewhere I fended them off and joined the queue for the entrance. The scrum of hawkers and beggars then turned their attention to the next new arrival.</p><p>This was a visit to the famous Red Fort. During the struggle for independence from we British it became a symbol of struggle and the rallying cry was to raise the Indian Flag above the Red Fort. But it goes back far further then that. There has been a fort on this site for a thousand years. Delhi is slap bang in the way for anyone to invade India from the north and west where most of the threats came from. And it held out with the Delhi sultans until Babur, the first Moghul, breached the Kyber Pass and created an empire from Kabul to the Bay of Bengal.Babur was not impressed by India, to quote "their women are not pretty, their food vegetarian and the air not cool like the Persian hills". But the Moghuls were here to stay and each of the Moghuls lived at the Red Fort until 1857 and the 'Great Mutiny/War of Independence'.</p><p>The Fort itself is immense and the red walls semi-octagonal and stretch for two miles in circumference. Once through the gates you hit Chatta Chowk which is a covered bazaar with silversmiths and souvenir stalls. Then through to the emerald green lawn sprinkled gardens before the Diwan-I-am - the Hall of Public audience. The Diwan is an empty lofty platform covered in a forest of redstone arched pillars - no sign of the fabled 'Peacock throne'.</p><p>Next were the football pitched sized Royal Gardens - strained and dusty in the heat. They have fallen on hard times and the fountains and flowerbeds have dried up. They overlook the Fort walls and you can see the river Yamuna. The Yamuna was invisible because the great Chor (Thieves) Bazaar where thousands of people milled about under the Fort walls. </p><p>Then I checked out the Royal Pavilions. Most were boarded up and were in a sorry state. In fact the Red Fort needs serious work. The stuff they have here is world class and given romance by that Moghul link. But there seems to be no information for visitors and you do come away unsatisfied.</p><p>I did spend about an hour there and eventually merged into the scrum. I scanned the crowds for Suresh and when saw him made my way purposely to his van. To no avail, a child beggar squeezed himself into the van with me and wouldnt let me close the door.</p><p>Children have less fear and he was hard to dislodge. For a tourist this can be rather traumatic. India has plenty of surprises like that.</p> 2008-02-02T20:30:09-08:00 285212680 2000-05-27T17:00:00-07:00 0 16 153594 6481469 385282 0 140761 0.0 2000-05-27T17:00:00-07:00 Published 0.0 2008-02-08T19:14:32-08:00 60714 0