How truly said, “when Winter is here, can Spring be far!”

After freezing Delhi for a fortnight at it’s fag end, the winter is finally leaving and it’s Spring time! The blossoming colourful flowers are running riot in the gardens of Delhi. Delhi Tourism welcomed the Season in style at the Garden of Five Senses. Flower show, painting competition, camel rides, puppet shows and musical programmes were the highlights of the three-day garden festival organised by the Delhi Tourism

Delhi Gate or Dilli Darwaza, as it was known when it was constructed during the period 1650, was the southern entrance to the city of Shahjahanabad. As the name of the gates of the walled city were given to them in accordance with the direction of the other cities they opened to, Delhi Gate got it’s name as it opened towards the direction of the earlier cities of Delhi.

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Opened in 1954,Golcha cinema hall in Daryaganj is one of the oldest cinema halls of Delhi.

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Buddha Jayanti Park or Buddha Garden as it is locally called in Delhi, was founded to commemorate the 2500 th year of Gautam Buddha’s Nirvana (attainment). The park is special because a sapling of the Bodhi Tree was brought from Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka and was transplanted here. Though the 2500th year of Buddha’s attainment took place in 1953, it was only in 1964 that the sapling from Srilanka was brought by the then Srilankan Prime Minister, Smt. Srimavo Bandarnaike . In the 3rd century B.C, a sapling of the original Bodhi Tree at Bodhgaya, under which Buddha had attained Nirvana, was carried by Emperor Ashoka’s daughter, Sanghmita to Anuradhapur in Sri Lanka. The Park covers a major portion of the dense forest of the Southern Ridge and is landscaped with well manicured sprawling lawns, streams, sloping terrain and mammoth trees. The picture perfect appearance of the garden makes it an ideal spot for picnics. The garden is known to be more popular among the young couples who can be seen getting cozy under some tree.

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The British, who occupied India, moved the capital city from Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) to Delhi in 1912. They wanted to build a new capital city so a new city was constructed adjacent to Delhi. The new city was completed in 1931 and came to be known as New Delhi. The original Delhi became Old Delhi.

Delhi lies within the Yamuna sub basin of the Ganga sytem – which itself is a part of the greater Ganga Brahmaputra Mega basin. The river Yamuna rises in the Himalaya at Yamunotri . It receives many tributaries before it debouches into the plains near Tajewala. It then travels generally along the UP – Haryana border before it reaches Delhi. Thereafter, the river runs again through UP and joins the Ganga at Allahabad.

Delhi has flat land, however there is a big depression in the southwest known as the Najafgarh jheel area, which receives the drainage from the adjoining states of Haryana and Rajasthan. The only outlet for these waters is the Yamuna.

Physically, the natural territory of Delhi can be divided into three segments – the Yamuna flood plain, the Ridge and the Plain. The Yamuna flood plain is somewhat low-lying and sandy and is subject to recurrent floods. This area is also called Khadar.

The ridge constitutes the most dominating physiographic features of this territory. It originates from the Aravali hills of Rajasthan and enters Delhi from the south extending in a north- eastern direction. Tughlaquabad fort is located on one of the highest spurs of the ridge.

Leaving aside the Yamuna flood plain (khadar) and the ridge, the entire area of the territory of Delhi is categorized as Bangar or the Plain, which is very fertile.

Everlasting refers to something that will continue to exist once it is created, while eternal implies that it has always existed and will continue to exist in the future.

The various dynasties that ruled Delhi might not have been everlasting but the eternal flowing Yamnua has been a witness to the rise and fall of these dynasties.

History has recorded different rulers/dynasties, who ruled Delhi in the past centuries, chiefly created seven principal cities that is what the whole of Delhi is as of now. Many of these are no more than villages today with splendid ruins and tales of evolution of architectural styles of the times and the synthesis of various cultures and influences. The present day skyline has now assimilated the majestic and the imperial past of these ruins.

The earliest architectural relics date back to the Maurya period (300 BC). Since then the site has seen continuous settlements. They are, Qila Rai Pithora, Mehrauli, Siri, Tughlakabad, Firozabad, Shergarh, Shahjehanabad.

Luteyn’s Delhi or the New Delhi can be termed as the Eighth Delhi as it was created during the British rule and who were the last rulers before India was declared a Sovereign Republic.

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Roshanara Bagh is situated in the Northern Part of Delhi, near the Civil Lines. The Bagh or the Garden was once the most beautiful example of Mughal Gardens of it’s time, (that extended till the Shalimar Bagh, another of the Mughal gardens). The younger daughter of Shahjahan laid this garden in 1650 and in accordance with her wish, was buried here after her death in 1671. Though now the poorly maintained garden and the grave show little signs that once she was such a powerful and influential princess. Part of the Garden houses the famous and elite Roshanara Club formed in 1922 by the British.

Roshanara : Last of the fourteen children of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, Roshanara was born on 3rd September 1617. Roshanara was a brilliant woman, a talented poetess and the mastermind behind Aurangazeb’s accession to the Mughal throne. Dara Shikoh, the eldest son of Shahjahan and the heir apparent was aided by Jahanara the oldest sister. Roshanara sided with Aurangzeb, instead. She successfully foiled a plot by her father and Dara Shikoh to kill Aurangazeb. According to history, Shah Jahan invited Aurangazeb to visit Delhi, in order to conduct negotiations about the division of the Mighal Empire. In truth, however, Shah Jahan planned to imprison and kill Aurangazeb in prison as he viewed his third son a serious threat to the throne. When Roshanara got wind of her father’s plots, she sent a message to Aurangazeb, outlining the plot and warning him to stay away from his father and brother.

Aurangazeb was eternally grateful to Roshanara for her timely warning. When the war of succession was resolved in favour of Aurangazeb, she quickly became a powerful figure at court. Fearing that he would kill her for her role in the war of succession if he ever returned to power, Roshanara insisted that Dara Shikoh be killed. It is said that Dara was bound in chains, paraded around Chandni Chowk and beheaded. Roshanara allegedly had his bloody head wrapped in a golden turban, packaged neatly and sent to her father as a gift from Aurangazeb and her. Shah Jahan, who opened the package to see his “gift” was so stunned by the sight of his favorite son’s head that he apparently fell unconsious and lay in stupor for many days. Roshanara had always been jealous of her older sister, Jahanara, as the latter was undisputedly their father’s favourite daughter. At her insistence, Aurangazeb, who was displeased with Jahanara for supporting their father and brother over him during the war of succession, removed Jahanara as head of his harem and offered the position to Roshanara, instead.

In contrast to her elder sister’s character of a saintly and religious woman, Roshanara was known to be of flirtatious nature. Though she remained single throughout her life she has known to have taken many lovers, some openly, some secretly. Aurangzeb, a strict Muslim frowned on the libertine ways and her sister’s choice of lovers. One legend has it that one evening Aurangzeb got to know that one of his commanders was with her sister in her ‘khwabgah’ (Chamber of Dreams or private quarters of the royal women). He immediately raided the quarters to catch Roshanara and the commander, red handed. Roshanara, who got a whiff of coming of his brother made her lover hide in a hamam (water tanks used for bathing purpose). Aurangzeb who had sensed that the man had hidden somewhere in the hamam did not want embarrassment to creep in for his sister by openly pulling out the man from the hamam. Instead, true to his cruel, stern and strict nature, Aurangzeb ordered that the hamam be lit with fire beneath under. It is said that the man hiding in the hamam preferred a gruesome death in the boiling water rather than being caught and killed cruelly and mercilessly at the hands of Aurangzeb.

Apart from having many secret lovers, Roshanara also had a love for gold and land, and accumulated wealth on a large scale and sometimes as a result of corruption. Aurangazeb, who was looking for a way to rid himself of his troublesome sister, who in spite of being warned of her deeds did not mend her ways, finally had her poisoned with the help of her cook. Roshanara died a slow and painful death.

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