7 March, 1999. The Red Fort, Old Delhi, India.

The Sound and Light Show

The Lonely Planet said it was worth doing, that "it brings back some of the life and colour so absent during the day" (Delhi, p.139), but I began to wonder as I threaded through the tour-bus crowd into Old Delhi's Red Fort. All my best adventures thusfar had come while heading where the tourists weren't. Ah, well, as long as I was here. . .

The surround-sound system was a far cry from the museums of the U.K. or America: imagine 4 or 5 loudspeakers like on the TV show M*A*S*H. And the lights were colored floodlamps--no lasers or fog machines. But the mid-17th-century buildings were impressive in their own light, and the story of Delhi truly fascinating.

That is until the power went out, the lights faded, and the soundtrack gurgled to a stop. There were some uncertain chuckles, and some low conversation about whether that was supposed to be the end. After a few minutes we began to suspect it was, and people stood to go.

Then the soundtrack warbled its way back up to speed and the lights winked back on. Delhi's history plunged on, clear through the British colonial days, until it came to another fizzling halt. Half the crowd was at the gate before the power came back on again, and we weren't turning back. I had a plane to catch.

Home - Previous Entry - Next Entry - Wanna Know More?
Jump to: Phoenix - United Kingdom - India - Hong Kong - San Francisco