Walking Tours - An Amazing way to experience Indian Culture

Once arranging the cultural tour to India was restricted to arranging of a comfortable hotel for accommodation, designing the route ensuring the most comfortable means of transportation with the lowest possible traveling time between the two cities and visit to few of the renowned monuments depicting the historical moments of the country. It was more of a relaxation holiday at a foreign locale on the premise of exploring the local culture. But did it really introduced you to the local cultures and beliefs or helped you understand the ways of life, of the people of the destination you are visiting??. Does it fulfill the role of tourism as a greater binding force by developing better understanding of each others culture??. Probably not.

With the advent of modern communication means, the life of human being has become more active, they are performing more activities per day than they used to do earlier, they are better informed, better and more widely connected, sometimes across world boundaries (through facebook or linkedin etc), still they are far from each other, bereft of understandings of others thinking, personality and cultural ethos. To fill this gap, new age travel agents are developing ways to give you a more closer look and a better understanding of the cultures you are visiting, to enable you to make a personal bond and discover the facets your culture might be lacking. It not only gives you better understanding of human life but also help make you a better person.

One of the most popular new age travel phenomenon developed to achieve this is the walking tour of the cities historical areas, which have resident people representing different eras and beliefs. A walking tour , by slowing down your travel through a particular area, not only gives you enough time to observe the day to day life from very close quarters but also gives you chance to interact with the local people. Walking through a street of residences or through an old market where resident come for their daily purchases, not only helps you come across the daily struggle a normal resident have to go through, but also helps you share briefly, their moments of joy, despair and sorrow. The walking tours give you a chance to relive some of the moments as experienced by the local people. A great local guide discussing his life experiences with you while you walk through the places where he or one of his friends/ relative has spent his childhood, will not only take you to nostalgia but will also help you to bring closer to yourself, letting you appreciate what you have and desire to have what you missed.

A lot of new age travel agents in Delhi, the historical city and capital of Modern India, have devised walking tours of Delhi introducing you, not only to its rich historical past, but also to its sound, smell and tastes. Being an amalgamation of Seven different cities of different Era, the modern day Delhi is a multifaceted city, where Old meets New, Where the people wearing ultra modern western clothes still have their traditional cultural ethos ingrained in them, where you have swanky new age malls sharing the space with the heritage era structures, where modern day transport means co exist with the traditional transport means. It gives you numerous area spread across different parts of the city, to explore, unraveling different aspects of the city’s life and history. A lot many tour operators have mastered the art of providing the walking tours across the city providing you a near authentic experience of cities culture, some of them who arrange Walking tours of Delhi – an amazing way to experience Indian culture :

www.masterjikeehaveli.com : Organized by Mr Dhruv Gupta, who is the resident of this heritage haveli in Old Delhi area, it only takes you to the bylanes of erstwhile Shahjahanabad and today’s walled city and experience the life from close quarters, but you also get a chance to visit his home, where you will have a sumptuous meal for your Lunch Or Dinner. Here you even can have a cooking lesson in Indian Cooking given by his wife. 

www.delhimagic.com : Organized by Ms Deepa Krishnan, who has specialized in organizing walking tour across India including in Mumbai, Agra, Kolkata etc, through the team of highly professional travel enthusiasts.

www.delhiheritagewalks.com : Found by Late Mr Rajesh Ranjan, Delhi heritage walks employs professionals with diverse educational background but all with he passion towards discovering and preserving the rich historical lineage of Delhi. The walks are organized at different parts of Delhi, focusing on different Era’s. Apart from scheduled walks, individual walks are also organized by them.

INTACH (The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) is a national body started in 1984, now having about 150 chapters across India. It not only prepares the comprehensive list of built heritage of Delhi and other parts of India, it plays an important part in making people aware of the rich cultural heritage through public meetings and events. Conducting heritage walks through the areas rich in heritage monuments is also part of the same efforts. It conducts scheduled walks on certain days, where people can join after paying certain fee. You will be accompanied by a historian during these walks to give you detailed information about the rich history of the monuments and city.

It co-ordinates with the local government towards preservation of the heritage monuments

SALAAM BALAK TRUST: Salaam Balak Trust is an NGO engaged in uplifting of unprivileged and less fortunate children. In this endeavor, they have picked up some children from the street and have trained them to be guide. These Children now double up as guides to take tourists to walk through the bye lanes of Paharganj and the area around New Delhi railway station, where they had spent their childhood. They will give you the insight on the daily life of these underprivileged children and their families and you will also get to learn the cultural ethos of real India.