Last evening I went to the old part of Delhi with family and friends. I would normally not venture into that area unless I have some work, but yesterday being Sunday we had planned to visit a restaurant in the part of town for our dinner.
We took the the train and got down at a station close to where we wanted to go, as we got out of the station I saw the streets were almost deserted and cops had blocked the area off. I casually went up to an officer and asked him if everything was okay and if it was safe to walk around. He instantly told me that there is just no problem and they have cordoned off the area to all traffic because some VIP is visiting. I presumed some dignitary must be here to visit an old monument as there are so many of them around and we all started walking away from the station. After about 5 minutes I just saw hordes and hordes of people walking towards us, I thought it must be some religious procession and we will just stand on a side and let it pass.
In the next couple of minutes we had no place to even stand as thousands of people turned up, we were so packed that one could not even see his feet. I have never seen so many people at one place in my life and we were worried what if there is a stampede. We weathered the crowds for about 30 minutes and then walked into a residential part of the area. I still had no clue why all these people had collected together, on enquiring some on told us that the head priest from Mecca in Saudi Arabia was here and people had gathered to offer prayers with him at the Jama Masjid, had we known we would have NEVER even thought of venturing into the area.
Today I read that the courtyard of Jama Masjid can hold 85000 people and when the sides, steps and lawns are packed it can accommodate in excess of 150000 people and the newspapers today reported that there were in excess of 250000 people there last evening. We are lucky we got out of there after 1.5 hours unscathed.
We took the the train and got down at a station close to where we wanted to go, as we got out of the station I saw the streets were almost deserted and cops had blocked the area off. I casually went up to an officer and asked him if everything was okay and if it was safe to walk around. He instantly told me that there is just no problem and they have cordoned off the area to all traffic because some VIP is visiting. I presumed some dignitary must be here to visit an old monument as there are so many of them around and we all started walking away from the station. After about 5 minutes I just saw hordes and hordes of people walking towards us, I thought it must be some religious procession and we will just stand on a side and let it pass.
In the next couple of minutes we had no place to even stand as thousands of people turned up, we were so packed that one could not even see his feet. I have never seen so many people at one place in my life and we were worried what if there is a stampede. We weathered the crowds for about 30 minutes and then walked into a residential part of the area. I still had no clue why all these people had collected together, on enquiring some on told us that the head priest from Mecca in Saudi Arabia was here and people had gathered to offer prayers with him at the Jama Masjid, had we known we would have NEVER even thought of venturing into the area.
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| Jama Masjid Delhi March 27, 2011 |
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