Last night, I’d flicked through the recent edition of the Lonely Planet India guide in my apartment. I bookmarked some places in Google Maps. I also took a photo of a self-guided walk. I decided I would follow this walk today.
This morning, I walked out of the apartment and through the shoe market. It was just opening. Market sellers were busy arranging their goods in anticipation of the crowds looking for shoes.
On the main road, I asked the first in a queue of autos to take me to Rabindra Sadan. This was the starting point of my walk. The auto driver said I needed a taxi. Although my destination was only a few kilometres away, it seemed autos didn’t go there. The driver hailed a taxi for me. I realised that the yellow taxis are all characterful old Ambassador cars that I saw one or two of in Thiruvananthapurum.
The interior of the taxi looked bare and old. Half of it was missing. Only the bare minimum required to keep the car moving remained.
From Rabindra Sadan, I walked to the Victoria Memorial. My plan was to do the 4km self-guided walk without going into any of the places along the route. Then I’d go to the India Museum for some respite just as it was getting hot. However, even though I’d started relatively early (for me), it was already hot!
I bought a ticket for the Victoria Memorial.
When you enter the memorial, there is a grand hall with a very high ceiling. In the centre of the hall, stands a young Queen Victoria. Everyone wanted to have a photo taken next to the statue. Some people asked others not to stand in front of the statue whilst they did their selfies. Most of the time these requests were ignored. It was chaos! If this had been Japan or South Korea, people would have formed an orderly queue. They would have waited for their turn to take a selfie.
There was also a statue of Clive (I assume, Clive of India) at the exit. Fewer people wanted their photos taken with him.
Off the main hall there were two exhibitions. One was paintings by local artist Kartick Candra Pyne (1931-2017).
The other exhibition consisted of paintings of revolutionary Indians who’d been part of the fight for independence.
More people wanted their photos taken with Queen Victoria than Gandhi (the “father of India”) or Tagore (the first Asian Nobel Prize for Literature winner and composer of the Indian National Anthem). It’s possible people knew nothing about Queen Victoria. Maybe, they wanted a photo taken with her because the grand hall, where the statue stood, was more photogenic.
On the first floor, which few people went to, was an exhibition about how India became independent.
On exiting the memorial building, I sat in the gardens and ate some fruit and nuts.