Beauty of the north: Day 1 (June 23rd)

I was fast asleep when the air hostess asked me to fasten the seat belt. The plane was getting ready for landing. It was New Delhi- The capital city of India. I just peeped out of the window. I could see small buildings getting bigger and bigger as the plane moved. From the other side, my friend shouted "hey look, its the lotus temple!!" I tried to sneak but realised my seat belt was on. Then i was trying to find some monument through the window on my side. Just in time, I saw Qutub Minar. I was too excited and showed it to my fellow mate who was sitting right next to me. As the plane landed, we could see the huge Delhi airport with so many flights standing on every corner possible.
We got down and waited for the baggage. Then we went to the counter which read prepaid taxi. I took the initiative and enquired. The person in the counter said "Innova yeha nahi milega. Doosri couter pe jao" We went to the next counter which was a private company called "carz on rent". I asked for an innova to Karol Bagh where our hotel was booked. The lady in the counter was fair, spoke good english and politely asked us to wait  for 5 minutes as the innova was on another duty. She gave us the reciept and car number.  Later she gave me a call and asked us to go near the neem tree on the extreme left of taxi area to find the car. As soon as we stepped out we could already feel the Delhi heat. It was around 7 15PM and the sunlight was very significant. The hot air just wiped our face. We were amazed to see such bright sunlight even at 7 15PM, quite expected from people of Bangalore who are visiting Delhi for the first time. 
We sat in the innova which was well furnished. AC was working fine and our luggage was tied on the top. The driver was a good hearted person. He started telling stories about the kind of passengers he usually sees and other stuffs about Delhi. As he spoke, we also started seeing admiring Delhi. The roads were big, not much traffic, neatly maintained. Then we started comparing Delhi with Bangalore. I personally felt Bangalore isnt far behind Delhi, very soon it'll catch up with it. 

Then we entered Karol Bagh. It was a crowded area just like K R Market of Bangalore but a neater version of it. We showed the address of the hotel to the driver. He took turn in some small road which was enough only for our vehicle. But there were swarms of cycle rickshaws coming from the opposite side. I expected our driver to give few 'gaalis' to the rickshaw drivers who didn't follow decipline but i was surprised to see nothing of that sort happened! Everybody was calm and cool. After searching for few minutes, we finally found the hotel. Its name was 'Swaran Palace'. The reception looked decent. My friend and I decided to have a look at the rooms once before we check in. And thank god we did it. The state of the rooms was pathetic. They were small and dirty. Even scarier was the sofa which was torn at many places with sponge lying here n there!
Then we went to the Panicker Travels office seeking some help regarding accommodation. They showed us a hotel. It was called 'Hotel Benz International'. The rooms were clean and the AC was working fine. We gave our ID cards and booked room for 2 days. It was 10PM by the time we checked into the room and settled. Later we went to a restaurant called 'Shuddh'. It was crowded and we had no place to sit. Then we decided to take food parceled to our room. We took 5 north Indian thalis with vegetable manchrian.  The taste was really nice. 
By the time we finished lunch, we were tired and drowsy. This was the first day of our 14 day long trip. The enthu was high. First day was good but the coming days were even better.