Unforgettable Visit to India’s Old & New Parliament

Nov 22, 2024 will be an unforgettable day for 45 of us !! 45 women alums of Indian School of Business got an opportunity to visit the old and new parliament of Bharat. The minute I received the email, I immediately put my name in for the visit. It was such an amazing opportunity.

I had a special reason to visit the Parliament building – the Durbarpet Saree :). As a saree addict you should know by now that everything I do will feed my addiction in some way. So I wore the maroon Kanchi silk Durbarpet that I got from Gopinath. Do read more about this particular saree here – A Silk Durbarpet.

Durbarpet Border

When King George V visited India in 1911, Nalli Kuppuswami Chetty, the owner of the famous Nalli Silk saree stores created a saree with a specific type of border. It came to be known as the Durbarpet border or Coronation border. 

For many decades it was a border offered only on Kanchi silk sarees but Mr. Venkatesh Narasimhan, the ex-MD of Co-optex wanted to get it done on cotton. We were visiting some of the weaving clusters in Chinnalampatti and Dindigul when the first such cotton saree was woven.

My first Durbarpet Border saree was a Lilac coloured cotton saree.

Parliament Visit

We all gathered at Hotel Lalit at 2.30 pm. Two buses had been organised to take us to the Parliament. As we got off the buses, there were several officials ready to take us inside.

After the security check, we walked into the viewers gallery of the new Rajya Sabha. Some of us could not close out mouths and some couldn’t open our mouths – awestruck is the word for both situations :). It was GRAND, befitting the nation that Bharat is today.

Additional info about the Rajya Sabha –

1. There are 245 members of the Rajya Sabha. 233 are elected by the legislative assemblies. 12 are nominated by the President. These are usually prominent public figures who have served our nation as artists or sports persons or writers etc.
2. Minimum age to become a member of the Rajya Sabha is 30.
3. Rajya Sabha in the new building has a seating capacity of 384, up from 250 in the old one.
4. The theme is lotus. So the furnishings are all in the colour of the lotus.
5. Our Vice President is the ex-officio Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.
6. The new Rajya Sabha is paperless … every member has access to the tablet on his/her table and can check the day’s proceedings. Welcome to the new India.

The new Rajya Sabha was not just stunning, it was also without a speck of dust !

As there was a fire drill in progress, we quickly went towards the Lok Sabha. On the way we got a glimpse of the Constitutional Hall, where a copy of the original constitution is also kept. Also a giant Foucault pendulum can be seen swinging from the roof, showcasing the Earth’s rotation. At Parliament’s latitude, it completes one rotation every 49 hours, 59 minutes, and 18 seconds.

The roof on top of the Foucault Pendulum shows the sky on the day that the Constitution was adopted. Who thought of that ? Total genius ! and what a nice way to remember and remind everyone that ancient Bharat was way ahead of the entire world in astronomy.

Lok Sabha

The newly built Lok Sabha is equally stunning …. it has a staggering 888 seats, up from 543 and it can be expanded to seat nearly 1272 members. Currently the Lok Sabha is 543 constituencies and hence 543 Members who are elected every five years.

The theme is Peacock and seeing the “Sengol” getting its due recognition was something else..

Do read my earlier post on this to know more about the Sengol – New India’s New Parliament !

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From the Lok Sabha we went out of the new Parliament building towards the old parliament building. Got the opportunity to sit on the seats that some of our leaders of the Independence movement sat on in the central hall … goosebumps as you think of those times. Titans sat on these seats. Ofcourse the building and the central hall has to become a museum as it’s not in great shape.

I requested one of the officials to click a picture of me in my durbarpet saree just outside the old parliament. After all, the columns of the old parliament are the inspiration for the durbarpet border !

A dream come true !!! Now all I have to do is become worthy enough to be the President of India for some of my other dreams to come true.

For all of us this was a very special day, one that we will cherish and remember always.

Thank You ISB, and the entire organising team led by Parul, Guru and Himanshu. You guys are just the best.

Jai Hind. Jai Hind Ki Sena.