The Taj Mahal - 16 October

We got up at the obscenely early hour of 4:00 after getting three hours of sleep (insert whimper here). We stumbled down to the lobby with the rest of the bleary-eyed participants, collected our boxed breakfast and boarded the bus for a half-hour drive through the dark streets to the train station. We have spent less than 12 hours in Delhi and I’ve seen exactly nothing of it because it’s been dark the entire time.

We arrived at the train station and had no problem getting all 65 students to the proper location which was a great relief. I had visions of people getting separated and missing the train. We settled onto the train with our boxed breakfast which was icky but necessary since we wouldn’t be getting fed again for seven hours (insert another whimper here). The train ride was two hours long and just about everyone fell asleep right away. I stayed awake and watched the countryside go by. It was primarily farm land and it was fascinating to see the people at work and how they lived.

We arrived in Agra and managed to make our way to the buses with much confusion and commotion around us. It took us a while to get situated on the buses because our body count was off. I had to take a roll call and convince the tour guides they had counted incorrectly after everybody was present and accounted for. This doesn’t bode well.

We traveled through the streets of Agra to reach the Taj Mahal and it took us awhile to do so because of the sheer number of vehicles, rickshaws, bicycles and people. I had my nose pressed to the window the entire time – metaphorically speaking of course since I am too dignified to do that in reality (is anybody believing that?).

We arrived at the drop off area for the Taj Mahal and were immediately besieged by beggars and street vendors. They press in on you and don’t let up at all. We made our way through the outer park with the vendors following us every step of the way. It was a very odd parade of people.

We finally made it to the gate without losing anyone and the women were told to stand on one side of the line and the men on the other. It soon because clear that the security people were doing bag- and body-searches. They had very strict rules about what could be brought onto the grounds in order to ensure the protection of the structure. We finally made it to the arched entrance and then we could see it. The Taj Mahal. I am happy to report that it is every bit as beautiful as the photos.

There was a frenzy of clicking as everyone, including me, took photos of the Taj. The tour guides gathered us together long enough to take a group photo, provide the background information and then they let us go. Everyone scattered and I started walking around by myself. It was such a beautiful monument that I just wanted to sit in one place and absorb it. I did that for a moment and quickly realized that standing in the hot sun kind of detracts from the enjoyment of said moment and quickly moved on. I donned the elegant booties that everyone is required to wear to protect the marble floors from dirt and stains (see the photo). I went into the building and saw the tomb of the wife, Mumtaz Mahal, for whom the Taj was built. Her husband, Shah Jahan, was laid to rest beside her although there is a story about his death that will come later. Some background information about the Taj – Mumtaz Mahal died during childbirth and, as she died, told her husband to build a tribute to her. So Shah Jahan spent the next 22 years having the Taj built. It was finished in 1653, cost 41 million rupees and 500 kilos of gold, and required the labor of 22,000 workers. That’s quite a response to a death wish!

No photography was allowed inside the tomb so I can’t share the images with you but I can say that although it was beautiful, the pride and joy of the structure is definitely the exterior. I walked around for an hour soaking in the architecture (not to mention the sun). One thing that struck me about the Taj Mahal is that you always see one view of the Taj and it’s from the front. I never gave much though about the back of it and that’s because it’s on a small cliff and there isn’t much back there other than a river off in the distance. It’s totally unremarkable but I’m going to include a photo so that you get to see a side of the Taj Majal that is never in the tour guides.

When the hour was up we walked back down the boulevard through the gauntlet of street vendors and beggars and finally back to the bus. A quick head count and we were off to Fort Agra which was also built by some guy named Akbar between 1565 and 1573 and improved upon by Shah Jahan later on. It was an interesting fort with a wonderful view of the Taj Mahal in the distance. It was also famous for being turned into a prison for Shah Jahan. According to my tour guide, the son of Shah was seriously peeved that his father “wasted” so much time building the Taj Mahal when he should have been acting like a ruler. Talk about role reversal. So he imprisoned his father in the fort although he made sure that his father had a nice view of the Taj to enjoy from his quarters. He was imprisoned for eight years and finally died, at which point the son buried his body by the river rather than the Taj and didn’t inform anyone that his father had died. Somebody had issues! It was many years later that Shah Jahan’s body was finally moved to the Taj Mahal to be laid to rest next to his wife. The tour guide also pointed out that the son was very rigid and inflexible (no kidding) and was such a terrible ruler that he destroyed a centuries-old dynasty. What a moron!

We walked around the fort for a while and then regrouped at the gate and went back to our buses. We were all famished at this point and, fortunately, lunch was next on the agenda. We had lunch at a hotel and I just had to take a picture of the doorman. His mustache was a work of art. After lunch we got back onto the buses for a six hour ride to Jaipur. About two hours into the trip, we made a stop at a place called Fatehpur Sikri which was also built by Akbar (of the Fort Agra fame) in 1571. It was built in honor of the famous Sufi saint, Salim Christi. Huh? I have no idea what a Sufi saint is or why Salim was famous but we’ll go with the flow and enjoy the architecture. Our tour guide pointed out all the ways that Akbar blended the Hindu and Islamic styles together which made for some very interesting and beautiful detail work in the buildings.

Back to the buses where everybody zonked out for the next four hours. I managed to take an all-to-brief nap but, for the most part, enjoyed the scenery of the countryside. I was particularly interested in some tall concrete stacks in the middle of the fields and was told that there were brick kilns (he called it another word that I couldn’t understand let alone spell). There were a lot of them in one particular area and we saw many tractors pulling large loads of bricks down the road. It soon grew too dark to see the passing landscape and I nodded off for a few minutes before we finally reached the city of Jaipur at 9:30. We were all exhausted and hungry (again) so when we pulled up to the hotel we immediately ran for the restaurant and then went up to our rooms as soon as possible. We have a leisurely start to tomorrow at the very late hour of 6:00 am because the tour guides want to get us to the Amber Fort before all of the crowds.