Travelogue: Delhi, Agra, INDIA

Photo Courtesy: Phani Kiran Vajapeyazula.

I have to write about my trip to Delhi and Agra, primarily to see the Taj Mahal. It has been my childhood dream to visit this beautiful monument and I want to remember exactly how I felt when I saw it.

Me and my husband took a days layover in Delhi while flying back to US from Hyderabad. We reached Delhi on Aug 20th night, stayed in Dwarka, Sector 10 at my father-in-law's guest house. We had a house keeper Hari who took excellent care of us. I arrived with fever and cough and he brought me a fresh fruit plate and warm water when asked. He always had a smile on his face and was very polite. He seemed like a young boy. Later he told us he was 22 yrs old, the first shocker. Second shocker, he was married, third shocker he had a daughter in kindergarten!

The next day, at about 10:45 am, we started off on our way to Agra with Mr. Surender from Zenith travels in an indica. He picked us up from the apartment and we stopped on our way at the Lotus Temple. It was a really hot day and I was not feeling very well, but the quick view of the lotus temple as we were approaching the gate enthused me to take the walk in the sun. It is a very beautiful building in white, going with the theme of our trip to the Taj. There was no entrance fee which was constantly at the back of our minds as we toured, because the lawn and gardens around

the temple was well maintained, the walkways were very clean, there was a free service where you could check-in your foot wear, jute bags were also offered for free for families who wanted to keep their footwear together. After you check-in your footwear, there was a thick jute mat laid on the ground to the temple, which would keep your feet cool instead of walking on the hot concrete. It was interesting to see people speaking different languages, from different countries and my touristy feeling kicked in. Kiran kept asking me if I was sure I wanted to go in, as it was only a large prayer hall and nothing much to see inside. I insisted we go in as a few moments of absolute silence and sitting down under shelter seemed very appealing.

At the entrance of the temple, there were a couple of employees who were letting only a few people at a time inside, after briefing us about the prayer hall and the need to be silent. It was interesting to note that these people had a smile on their faces and were speaking very politely. Once we entered, a wave of silence hit me, we walked up to one of the long benches in the middle of the hall and sat down. I closed my eyes and the silence was very blissful. It was occasionally disturbed by women entering and exiting the hall with their payal resounding in the big hall. Shortly after, we walked out of the hall and back to the car. The walk in the sun added to my tiredness and I dozed off as soon as the car started off towards Agra.

On the way we stopped for lunch at a restaurant that was also a handicraft store as you entered. This place seemed very much like a tourist trap, especialy designed around foreigners. We were shown to our table and no wonder the menu showed prices that would be an obvious conversion of dollar amounts. I ordered a vegetable sizzler for Rs. 400 and Kiran ordered meals. Although I did not have an apetite for any food, the appearence of the sizzler got me to eat some. It was bland, but still apetising. I also tasted jeera pani, which was very very tangy. I winced everytime i sipped it but got a kick out of it.

We reached Agra at about 5 PM and our driver/agent thought we would still be able to make it inside the fort if we got in within 15 minutes. So he tried to speed around the town while he was lost. He kept stopping and asking rickshaw walas 'Agra Kila kaise jana?' and everyone would tell him, 'bas seedha chale jao'. I thought that was limited only to hyderabad auto walas but apparently it is a countrywide issue. It is interesting how many turns we took between the 'seedha chale jaos'. We happened to enter small streets that were jammed with buffalo herds walking in the middle of the tiny road. no one except for me seemed to be bothered with that. When we would stop and ask for directions, sometimes there will be a buffalo staring at me through the window.

Finally we managed to get to the main road that led to Agra fort. our agent stopped in the middle of the road to pick up our 'guide'. "Hello, my name is Asok, I be your guide" introduced he with a heavy accent and seemingly broken english. We responded 'Namaste' and introduced ourselves in hindi. After Asok and Surender had their quick arguments of how we were too late and that we cannot enter Agra Fort, Asok turned to us and told us we cannot climb the Agra Fort today but he can show it to us from the backside and tomorrow we can see the main fort. Kiran asked him if we had to pay the entrance fee twice to which he said "No, backside free!". We thought good deal, agreed and told him to continue explaining to us in hindi as we both could understand Hindi. He nodded and continued in his broken english.

Shortly after, Asok asked Surender to pull over on the side of the main road and asked us to get down. We both were a little surprised but we did it anyway. then we took a couple of steps and realized we were on the back side of the Agra fort, but ON THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD, OUTSIDE THE FENCE!! He started explaining to us how Shahjahan had tea with his wife from here, as we looked at him in Dismay. I interrupted him and asked him if we were going to enter the fort at all and he said " par fort tho band hain ". Due to my sickness, I was already out of patience for this silly stunt and told him to get back in the car.

Then our guide, Mr. Asok told us, since we have some time to kill in the evening he will take us to the 'Star of India' the next best attraction to Taj Mahal in Agra, where they will show us how Taj Mahal looks in the moonlight. We asked him if it is a like a museum, to which he said " Yes, Star of India, number 1, taj mahal in moonlight". By this time, we did not know that our Asok does not answer to questions. He is more like Bing's search overload ad. He will pick up a key word in our question and pull up an answer from his broken english database along with rattafied information he has in his head.

Star of India: We pulled over in a narrow street, which had a few houses and shops and Asok pointed to an entrance with two big doors and said, " Here star of India, see taj mahal in moonlight". We bought into his hype and entered the place. For the first few seconds after we entered, I was confused and dazed. It looked like a jewelery store with display cases everywhere in a single room. There was an elderly guy who greated us and started pulling out a tray with a bunch of different precious stones and started explaining what stone is what and he pulled out one particular round stone and showed how when light reflected on it, there is a star like reflection that appeared and that it was called 'Star of India'. In my head I was going, "Wait a minute..doesnt seem like anyone is going to lead me into another door here that is a Museum. Is Star of india just the piece of stone that this guys is trying to sell me??? ". I was right :( . Then this guy pulled out an old photograph with crumple marks on it, inserted into a yellowish transparent plastic cover, which showed a corner of some structure he pointed out as the Taj Mahal, gleaming in some places in the night. The store guy told us that is the star of india stone shining on the Taj Mahal in the moonlight. I was appalled at this, comparing what Mr. Asok had made me imagine, 'Start of India, How Taj Mahal looks in moonlight, number 1 attraction". I was gritting my teeth and controlled my anger for Mr. Asok, but went around in the jewelery store anyway as we did have time to kill. We made a few purchases and when we returned, I was ready to give Asok an ear full when the car gave starting trouble and they asked us to get down. Then Asok and Surender asked us to go into another store and kill time while they troubleshooted the car. By the time we were ready to leave, I was more tired and sick and had no energy to shout on this guy. I just wanted to go to the hotel and crash on the bed.

Like I wanted, we went to our hotel, The Grand Imperial and crashed. While walking in the corridors, I managed to see in the garden in front, there were two kids dressed in Rajasthani dress singing to what looked like a puppet show. Wanted to go check it out but was too tired. Our room interestingly had two layers of door. later made me wonder about the need for two layers of hard wood doors with 15 locks! Kiran meanwhile found out that our Hotel was able to call in a doctor to the room so I can get some medicines to feel better. I remember waking up when the doctor knocked on the door. The doctor also had an interesting north indian accent. I am not good at telling from where he was, but seemed Bihari. Kiran told him I was having fever and was coughing and his first concerned question was " are you having difficulty breathing ?" the look on his face was priceless. I shook my head to say 'no' and immediately there was a wave of relief on his face. Indian media has successfully installed 'Swine Flu' terror in everybody. I can bet atleast 1% of indian public wears a breathing mask in all public places including shopping malls. The doctor hurriedly enquired my symptoms and searched through his briefcase for a couple of medicines that he had and wrote down some that Kiran needed to go get from a pharmacy. Then he enquired where we were from. We told him we are from US and that we work there. When Kiran enquired how much he would charge for his visit, he asked " donon kaam kartey ho" and Kiran said "haan, donon" and his next sentence was "ok, ek 2000 dedo".

:O

Then after Kiran stepped out for the medicines, I crashed and woke up to Kiran asking me to taste dinner. He gave me a couple of spoons of jeera rice that he ordered and I remember that it was the best jeera rice I had tasted. i didnt know there can be so much flavor in it.

Next morning, we were initialy supposed to start at 6:30 so we can see Taj Mahal in the morning sun, beating the rush and be able to cover 'Fatehpur sikri' before our return to Delhi. But with me not feeling so well, we decided to drop Fatehpur sikri and start for Taj Mahal at 9 AM instead. We got ready in the hotel, where interestingly we were even provided a tooth brush and tooth paste and Kiran was pleased to see a mini shaving kit. Overall a pretty good 4 star hotel.
We then went to the breakfast buffet, where the crowd seemed out of place. there were a couple of foreign tourists as expected but then there were a large number of college going and young indian males dressed in formal shirts having breakfast and everybody had strange reactions to tourist entering the breakfast hall. The buffet is not worth mentioning, but the strange crowd is. Either in Agra, young working, college going professionals normally have breakfast in 4 star hotels or these guys had some connections in the hotel. They were neither tourists nor hotel employees.

After the breakfast we checked out of the hotel and while Kiran was filling the paper work in the lobby i was paying attention to the brazilian tourists with their desi guide. When I am touring, seeing tourists speaking languages i cant understand always gets me in the vacation mood. Our agent Surender and Asok were waiting in the parking lot. As soon as Kiran finished explaining to Mr. Asok that I was not feeling well, he smiled, nodded and said "Excuse me I now to tell you about Taj Mahal, we are going to see next" and he continued about how it was built by ShahJahan in 22 years, etc. It seemed a little blunt that he did not acknowledge what Kiran was saying before he started off, which we learned by the end of the trip that he could never understand our questions or requests so either he chose not to 'listen' to what we were telling him or he was looking at us all the while and thinking " What language are these buffoons talking??".

We then started driving towards the Taj. We pulled into the parking lot. Kiran had to go with Asok to the building next to it, to get the tickets. Meanwhile I had the option of choosing between a tanga walla and a zero emission vehicle, which are the only allowed transport to get closer to Taj, due to the emissions requirement in that area to protect Taj Mahal from pollution. I ofcourse picked the 'Tanga Walla', as it was more exotic. Apparently foreigners and NRI have to pay Rs. 750 to see the Taj and indians pay only Rs 20. Asok briefed us that at the entrance they will be able to tell that we were NRIs {although technically we are not} and that he did not want us to pay the extra fee. So they suggested we tell at the entrance that we are living in Delhi, not even hyderabad, as that would make them suspect we live in US. So we memorized the address of the guest house we stayed in just in case. It is soooo not right to penalize foreigners for visiting India. I dont know of any other country that has this blatant difference in charging a foreigner vs a resident for tourism.

I did enjoy the tanga ride to the Taj entrance. As soon as we got down, there were about 5 people who started pestering us to stop at their store to buy handicrafts. there were shops set up on both sides of the road and since the road was not crowded, every shop owner was calling at us in addition to come to their store. For such an international attraction, i did not expect to see this behavior entertained at the entrance. When we were entering from the 'West Gate' which is apparently the gate for foreigners [Locals have a different gate], someone stopped us and asked where we were from. we both said 'Delhi'. I was let in easily, but Kiran was stopped and asked to turn his pocket out. then they asked him to open his wallet. When he did open it, there were a couple of dollar bills popping out and all of our hearts slowed down. But thankfully they did not pay any attention to it and let him in.

Once we were in, Asok approached us, told us he was concerned when he saw the dollar bills and started " Excuse me, My name is Asok, I am your guide. The Taj Mahal was built by Shahjahan in 22 years ...... " I and Kiran exchanged looks and were dumbstuck at the sudden Re-introduction. Later we had a good laugh about it and we theorized that our guide, Mr. Asok has rattafied some information about Taj Mahal and cannot recite it if he does not start from the very first sentence..'Excuse me, My name is Asok ... " :D :)))

Then as we walked towards the Main Taj Mahal gate, few of the photographers approached us and told us they can take our pictures, starting from a 24 picture album and told us " here is the foreigners price, Rs. 2600 for 24 pictures, we give you indian price Rs 80 per picture" I was again shocked at how openly foreigners are charged higher for everything. Kiran managed to bargain , which he was increasingly getting good at and settled at half the price and for only 10 pictures. This photographer then tagged us till we approached Taj and I must say took some really nice and professional pictures of us with the Taj in the background. Sadly they are hard print outs and not soft copies, neverthless worth paying for.

Once we approached the gate, we were able to see our first view of the Taj Mahal. The picture on the left is the view you get from the gate. It is my favourite memory from the trip. I dont have the best words to describe what I felt, but the view of the large monument in white standing against the light blue sky background, defined by the dark entrance, combined with my feeling of finally making it there gave me goosebumps. It was the moment of realizing my childhood dream. Inspite of all the hype about Taj Mahal that I had heard all my life, Looking at it for real was a great feeling. It is defenitely the most beautiful monument that I have ever seen. Being in person gave me the perspective of how huge this building was and the flawless symmetry and purity of white marble suddenly increased my respect for the surroundings, for history, for India and for humans.

Then we slowly made our way close to the monument all the while posing at different places to get photographed. Once near, we had to leave our foot wear. Although there was a mat laid on the floor that people could walk on, we soon realized the marble was much colder than the mat itself in the hot sun. It was infact very pleasant to walk on. I was awe stuck by the expanse of white marble around me and was very thrilled to be actually touching the makrana marble walls of the Taj Mahal myself. Apparently the 'makrana' marble is the hardest marble available and was hauled all the way from Rajasthan, where it was originally found. This marble is non-porous which makes the monument resistant to effects of natural elements over the years. This also made it difficult for the crafters to carve art into this marble and inlay precious stones in it. Our guide told us taking personal offense that Shahjahan did not cut the hands of the artisan and that they lost their fingers working on carving and shaping art on this hard marble with their own hands.

Once you enter the interiors of Taj Mahal you are not supposed to take pictures, although we spotted quite a few tourists taking shots in crowded areas. The interiors were dark and cool. The tombs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shahjahan were at the center, surrounded by semi-walls with art work on them creating a mesh like pattern. Only the very front of this wall had a full view of the tombs.

After walking around the interiors, we walked through the side chambers and exited on the back side of the Taj Mahal looking on to the Yamuna river. Asok pointed out that across the Taj Mahal on the other side of Yamuna river lay the foundation of the 'Black Taj Mahal' which Shahjahan had intended to construct and apparently Aurangazeb, his son, imprisoned shahjahan in agra fort to stop him from carrying out this plan and prevented him from investing the tresurys money in construction instead of the invasion wars that Aurangazeb wanted. Personally, i would have loved to see a Black Taj Mahal on the other side.

I was heart broken to learn that the brass structures on the Taj Mahal were originally gold and our guide pointed out that the British east india company had stripped the Taj Mahal of its gold and lot of the precious stone inlay work. It is not apparent from any photos, but there are black metal hooks all around the top globe of the Taj Mahal, which were support structures installed by the government to hide and protect Taj from air attacks during indo-china and indo-pak wars.

After resting on the beautiful white marble of Taj Mahal, we started walking back to our Tanga and stopped at one of the roadside stores outside to buy a Taj Mahal replica and a coaster set actually made out of the makrana marble. Since the govt. of India banned any industries in Agra around Taj Mahal, they gave the local artisans tax exemption on their handicrafts. So the beautiful handicraft that you see in Agra can be bought for 30% less cost.

By the time we were on our way to Agra fort, our next destination, the heat had started taking its toll on me and I started to feel sick one more time. But I was holding on with my will power to finish the agra fort visit and them told myself I can sleep all the way back to Delhi.

Before we reached agra fort, our guide Asok suddenly tuned to us, folded his hands together in a namaste and told us he needs to take leave. We both were shocked at this, as he had shown us only one of the three monuments we had originally agreed to. Our Mr. Surender tried to put some sense into him to stay back till he showed Agra fort but in vain. Once we reached the fort, he got down and told us how he has to go to some exam and then asked kiran for tips. Kiran was ofcourse mad and refused to pay any tips. Then Asok went " but sir, service ? no service ? I showed taj mahal". He meant tips. Kiran told him he was paid for and that abandoning the tour did not warrant any tips. That was the end of our entertaining guide, excuse me , my name is Asok :).

We were then assigned another guide hanging around the fort. He was not too bad, although not worth mentioning in detail as Mr. Asok. We walked through the entrance and of what I remember in my dazed state, we saw Jodha Bhai's temple which had a architecturally beautiful archway, although much of the temple had been destroyed, the archway and the main walls remained. There was hindu influenced art on the walls, also including swastikas.

Then we saw the palenquin shaped rooms of Shahjahan's daughters adjacent to the khaas mahal. He had reconstructed these areas in his favourite white marble. Taj Mahal was visible in distance from this place. I was loosing energy in the hot sun and decided to sit down for a while in Jahanara's palenquin room. The guide pointed out to us that some of the rooms had walls through which hot and cold water were run to keep the rooms warm or cool depending upon the season. I was very impressed with this tit-bit. All of the royal rooms did not have four walls, they were well aerated, spacious and had simple technology to beat the extremes of nature, just by architechtural genius. Shahjahan was the fountain head of Mughal architecture according to me.

Next was the Diwan-e-Khaas which I sat down and saw from a distance, but Kiran got to see from upclose and got a good picture of the Royal seat made from 'Kasauti' the stone used to evaluate gold purity. Once again this was just out in the open, not an enclosed room. As you can see in the picture, the emperor had a good view of the Taj Mahal over his shoulders. We then saw 'Musamman Burj' the place where Aurangazeb imprisoned his father Shahjahan for the last 7 years of his life. Our guide told us, there was a small mirror that was placed such that he could always see the Taj Mahal in its reflection. However, online it has been suggested that it was infact the 'Kohinoor Diamond' from his famed peacock throne, in which he was allowed to see the reflection of Taj Mahal.

Last but not least, we visited the 'Diwan-e-Aam', the hall for the public, where Shahjahan and his predecessors used to run their public court and is also home to the famous peacock throne. Ofcourse my interest in Diwan-e-aam and agra fort in general was roused after seeing the movie 'Jodha-Akbar'. I was very intrigued by the simplicity of the place where the Emperor of a big country ran his court. infact, as Kiran put it, this is the only 'court' of a king that we have ever seen. Once again the architecture of this place is worth mentioning. There are several pillars here that support the structure of the hall, that are artistic at the same time designed in such a way that they will not obstruct the view of the emperor from any corner of the hall, from any distance.













That was ofcourse the last highlight of our tour. Next we got into the car and dozed off while Kiran carried out conversations with Surender. We reached Delhi, and scrambled through the city traffic to our guest house. Hari made us an awesome dinner with roti, sabzi, sambar and rice. We then packed our bags and left for the international airport and made our way back home.



Long story short :D, one of the best tourism of my life!