A Bollywood film, a mosque and mughal fort

Well, Dabangg was brilliant fun - totally hilarious! It was kind of a spoof of itself, very tongue in cheek and over the top: big song and dance numbers, matrix-style combat scenes (in which the hero regularly wipes out huge gangs single handedly), and some extraordinary moustaches. No subtitles, but Raghu explained the crucial bits of dialogue so we could keep up. Here's a clip of one of the songs, to give you a flavour of the awesomeness of Bollywood!

On Tuesday we got up a bit earlier (slowly getting over the jetlag), and went with Raghu to visit the Jama Masjid, which is the largest mosque in India, built in 1644-1658. We walked there through the streets of the old city (an area which has apparently been designated a slum) - winding, mucky alleyways with electricity cables hanging tangled along them, full of people, shops, cycle rickshaws, dogs, and goats. The mosque has a lovely big courtyard where people come to hang out, and we climbed one of the 40m-high minaret towers, from which you can see amazing views of Delhi sprawling out below (the city is really colourful from above).

The Jama Masjid:

Views from the minaret:

After visiting the mosque, we hopped in a cycle rickshaw to the Red Fort, which is a grand, fortified area built by the Mughal empire. Inside there is a covered bazaar, gardens and several royal chambers built of sandstone or marble. We got caught in the monsoon while we were there, and again later that evening. The monsoon is usually finished by now, so everyone seems surprised that we're all getting so regularly drenched! It's so hot though that the rain is often something of a relief.

Caught in the monsoon at the Red Fort:We're both loving the food here too: we had an incredible South Indian thali for lunch yesterday, and also we've been eating loads of Indian sweets, which I seriously can't get enough of!