Day 1: Exploring Old Delhi

We visited the various spiritual centers in Old Delhi: the Jain Temple, Sikh Temple, and Red Fort Mosque. 

At the Sri Digambar Jain Lal Mandir temple, which is the oldest and most well-known Jain temple in India, we also visited the associated Jain Bird's Hospital, which takes care of avian injuries that inevitably occur when nature meets man and technology (aka window fans). One of the core principles of Jainism is ahimsa or non-violence. 

Before continuing on our tour of the spiritual centers, we stopped for Indian fast food at Haldiram’s, scarfing down pillowy Puri with chickpea curry and Lahssa, a kind of fragrant rose-water yogurt blend.

In the Sikh Temple, known as gurdwara, we visited the site where the ninth Sikh Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, was beheaded in 1675. The gurdwara had an adjacent free food kitchen where visitors were just settling into teatime as we arrived. In the gurdwara itself, musicians played the tabla and harmonium as the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scripture of Sikhism, which is treated as a living being, was taking a nap on its bed. This gurdwara is in the famous old shopping area known as Chandi Chowk.  

Our last stop of the day was the Jama Masjid Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the world, a prominent structure of red sandstone commissioned by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in 1638 that we could see rearing into the sky from all corners of Old Delhi. To get to the mosque, we meandered through throngs of people in the busy streets of Old Delhi, getting a taste of all the sights and sounds of the city. At the Jama Masjid,