Though I had been living in and around the national capital, New Delhi for the last two decades, with a few years of sojourns away from the hustle and bustle of the region, it is my first visit to this monument. With children grown up and flown away to find their own horizons in the big world, me and my companion (RB) of 27 years, are exploring new vistas in our relationship and life.
We both are fond of roaming and visiting new places. When I say new places, Purana Quila does not fit in. :)! But the Purana Quila is new for me. We searched the Delhi tourism site for the phone numbers to contact. As is expected of any government site, the phone numbers listed on the site were not in use.
Amitabh Bachchan came to our rescue. Yes, we followed his advice and contacted JustDial. 🙂 The numbers this time were correct. We wanted to see the much-hyped “sound and light” at Purana Quila. On phone, we were told that the ticket for the programme will be available from 4 PM. But it did not happen. The show ticket was available only after 6pm.
We reached there by 4.30PM. We were told that the sound and light programme ticket will be available from 6PM onward. So we had to first buy an entry ticket for Quila. The entry ticket is Rs. 5 for Indian and SAARC nationals. For all others, it is Rs. 100. The Quila complex is vast, with well-laid gardens. The fort premise has ona Kunha Masjid, Sher Mandal, one big hammam ( bathing site) few (darwaaje) gates of the fort, and a rampart of the fort. It has basic information about each historic structure.
The Sher Mandal was the site, where Sher Shah Suri fell to his death. It’s standing almost in the center of the complex.
The complex closes at 5.00 PM. We came out and waited in the boating area for the remaining one hour to buy tickets for the show. Finally, we were allowed to enter at 6.15PM for the show. The show, named “Ishaq-e-Dilli” was for one hour. The show has good content, language, and artists. In short, the sound was good but not the light. The unnecessary motifs in many frames diluted the whole effect of the story.
We came out of the fort complex by 7.45PM.
A suggestion to the Delhi Tourism people. There is no point in harassing the people to come again to buy tickets for the show. Everybody was feeling harassed. It would be a better practice to let the people buy tickets for the show along with the entry ticket. It saves unnecessary queuing up in front of the ticket window. Or make tickets available online.