An evening in New Delhi : travelling in public transport : Qutub Minar, India Gate, Parathewali Gali and more.

New Delhi is the capital of India. Being one of the oldest cities in the world it has many historical places worth visiting.

While returning to USA from our trip to Kolkata in 2016, my husband and myself took a day layover in New Delhi. We stayed in JW Marriott, Aerocity. Aerocity is very close to the New Delhi International airport connected by the Delhi Metro Airport line and full of luxurious hotels. I am going to share with you our experience of an evening spent discovering the heart of Delhi while travelling in public transport. Yes!! Delhi Metro is awesome!!

Qutub Minar is the nearest attraction to our hotel and best way to go was in a taxi as advised by a hotel staff. So we availed Uber late in the afternoon and reached Qutub Minar. We took tickets and roamed around the beautiful reminiscent of the ancient India. 

Next we planned on going to the India Gate. We hopped in an autorickshaw to get to the nearest metro station. Auto(rikshaw) fares can be really expensive($1-2) in Delhi but you can have an entire auto to yourself. Even the metro ticket prices are high compared to Kolkata Metro. We took the tickets to Central secretariat station. There are several metro routes like New York subway and determining which way you should take can be tricky. Checking out the metro station maps really helps. They are available in every metro station or online.

We got off at Central secretariat station at dusk and took an auto to the India Gate for Rs.50. We could see the India Gate and Rashtrapati Bhawan on the extreme ends but both were very far. We took a long walk and finally reached the India Gate standing tall (in the same spot since 1931). We took photos and bought ice creams and took rest at a ground nearby.

We felt hungry and instantly we decided to go to the famous Paranthewali Gali . We googled and found out Chandni Chowk is the nearest metro station to Paranthewali Gali. 

Again we took an auto back to Central secretariat station and took tickets for Chandni Chowk. Now the train was very crowded. We got off at Chandni Chowk and there were clear instructions giving directions to go to various places,very helpful for people like us.  We realized it is a junction of metro and Indian railways while also being the closest metro station to one of the oldest and busiest markets in old Delhi.

Chandni Chowk is very very crowded. After a little confusion we finally reached  the famous "Paranthewali Gali", an overcrowded narrow lane selling yummy parathas which you can smell from a distance.We got in a somewhat clean Paratha restuarant near the entrance of the Gali since we didn't dare to venture deep inside lest we get lost. 

 We ordered Paneer paratha and Gobi paratha each costing Rs.60 (around $1). The parathas came in a thali with three sabzis(vegetable curry) on side. Two sabzis were of potatoes and another was of some vegetable we didn't recognize. The steel plates had separate compartments for each sabzi. The food was delicious. The parathas were deep fried. They were very oily but very tasty. We had two parathas of each variety, but we weren't very full which was unexpected.

We went back to the Chandni Chowk station. Now the struggling part comes. We needed to go to the Aerocity metro station which cannot be reached directly ,i.e., we have to break the journey and take another train to Aerocity and the tickets also cannot be bought directly. Okay fine... (No, it was not fine, not at all)

We took the train to the New Delhi metro junction station and got off to get tickets for Aerocity. There were huge queues everywhere and no one could tell or nowhere it was written from where a person can get tickets for the airport line. Finally an elderly policeman directed me to the right place to buy tickets.

 Aerocity is on the airport line and the counter was away from the rest of the local metro lines. These airport line trains are sophisticated with an international look and designed to carry luggage, but it all comes with a high price. It was Rs.50($0.9) per person which was kind of expensive compared to other metro fares in India. The metro was super-fast travelling across the city and was a cozy journey on the spacious seats.

We got off the train and took an auto to our hotel for Rs.40, though it was not necessary but we were just too tired. The metro station is in a very walk-able distance from the hotels.

At the end of the day, it was an animated journey. We went to few of the famous places in Delhi and to know any place in true sense it is important to travel in public transports.