AkaashMaharaj
The Rashtrapati Bhavan
Before leaving Delhi to return home to Ottawa, I took one final stroll through the Mughal Gardens of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the residence of the President of India.
As a parliamentary democracy, India's Head of Government is its Prime Minister, with its President serving as a largely ceremonial Head of State. However, the pageantry around the office of President is rooted in India's imperial history, rather than its democratic present. In many ways, the President is a symbol of continuity to the Emperors of the distant past.
The presidential grounds are vast: with about 150 hectares of manicured lawns and meticulously tended gardens, it is one of the largest presidential estates in the world, in the middle of one of the most populated cities on the planet.
Mughal Gardens are of a style that were favoured by the Mughal Emperors. The gardens tend to be walled-off from common areas, to serve as a place of protected beauty and contemplation; they make use of fountains and decorative waterways, serving as a display of engineering prowess and regal abundance, at a time before powered pumps and when water was a much scarcer resource; and they house immense varieties of exotic flowers.
Perhaps to keep the president humble amidst all this plenty, he is paid a relatively modest salary of Rs150'000 (Indian rupees) per month, the equivalent of about $2'800 (Canadian dollars).
But the gardens are lovely.
I was in Delhi in my capacity as Executive Director of the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption.
The Rashtrapati Bhavan
Before leaving Delhi to return home to Ottawa, I took one final stroll through the Mughal Gardens of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the residence of the President of India.
As a parliamentary democracy, India's Head of Government is its Prime Minister, with its President serving as a largely ceremonial Head of State. However, the pageantry around the office of President is rooted in India's imperial history, rather than its democratic present. In many ways, the President is a symbol of continuity to the Emperors of the distant past.
The presidential grounds are vast: with about 150 hectares of manicured lawns and meticulously tended gardens, it is one of the largest presidential estates in the world, in the middle of one of the most populated cities on the planet.
Mughal Gardens are of a style that were favoured by the Mughal Emperors. The gardens tend to be walled-off from common areas, to serve as a place of protected beauty and contemplation; they make use of fountains and decorative waterways, serving as a display of engineering prowess and regal abundance, at a time before powered pumps and when water was a much scarcer resource; and they house immense varieties of exotic flowers.
Perhaps to keep the president humble amidst all this plenty, he is paid a relatively modest salary of Rs150'000 (Indian rupees) per month, the equivalent of about $2'800 (Canadian dollars).
But the gardens are lovely.
I was in Delhi in my capacity as Executive Director of the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption.