Day3: Agra

Our day3 also happened to be the day of World Cup Semifinals between India and Pakistan. All my friends met at Mani's place and watched the match together. But we only depended on the commentry we listened to on the radio. We left Shunti early at around 6:15 AM. On the way we had our breakfast at Sagar Ratna in a place called Kosi in Uttar Pradesh. We saw 2 limbed monkeys controlling 4 limbed monkeys and pitied the latter. Then we reached a place called Sikandra on the way to Agra. Akbar's tomb is located in Sikandra.

One monkey helping the other earn

1.Akbar's Tomb, Sikandra
Akbar, before his death, had built his tomb himself. In other words, can we say he dug his own grave? Anyway this tomb is also a silent place with not many tourists. His tomb, I guess, is not as popular as his granddaughter-in-law's. It is hardly crowded. As soon as you enter, you see intriguing designs etched on the wall and ceilings. Urdu writings are seen too. Then you are led to a passage which gets more and more darkened as you move forward. Now you actually reach the tomb. The chamber is half-lit by a bulb. A person says something and shouts "Allah-hu-Akbar", which echoes for a long time. Then we come out of it and move on to a wide pathway nearby, where, when you stand exactly below the tip of any of the domes and make a sound, you hear a distinct echo(reminded me of physics: Sound, the Unsound chapter!). Now we continue our journey towards Agra.

Akbar's tomb - Entrance

Interior designing?

Passage leading to the Tomb

Echoes!

2.Wah Taj!
You all know about this Wonder. I need not explain to you who built it for what joy, or how beautiful it is. You have seen evough photos. I will just describe the disgusting crowd which made me feel nauseatic. We get tickets from a place a bit far off the Taj. from there, no vehicles allowed. Eco friendly battery powered vehicles take us from there to the Taj. Now that we have got down, guys who call themselves guides ask if we want guides. Whether we say Yes or No, they will go on. We thought a government guide will be a good choice. So one guy brings another and starts pestering us. "No", we said. Two more guys came to us. We
rejected and went our way. Now that we have reached, it's checking time! They check our bags with great interest. Eatables are prohibited, and we had brought "obbattu" and some fruits. The lady asked us to keep it
in a shop. There was competition even for this. There was a row of numerous souveneir shops. They wanted us to keep our things there, and when we ruturn to get them back, they will obviously make us buy something in their shop. We kept it in some shop and returned. Now that we have come inside, it is the photograhers' turn. They want to take a photo of we holding the Taj in the tip, we jumping in front of Taj, and
many more weird poses. We were happy with our own cameras. It was freaking hot and sunny there! Our feet were burning when we had to walk on the marble floor without slippers. We get in. Photography is prohitibited inside. We could see the graves from a distance. When you shout, it echoes. Some youth found it amusing, as if he had never heard an echo. He kept on shouting and then got a punch from the person
who, I think, was supposed to maintain peace inside the monument. We went into other chambers, only to see families lying down on the floor and resting, as if it's their lawn. I saw a woman go to a corner, turn to a wall, and change her clothes! God help them! We went out of the hall and saw the Yamuna flowing. We could see the Agra Fort. So that was Taj. We went to the souveneir shop and bought miniature Taj Mahals. We returned to the ticket counter by the battery vehicle and got into our Innova. What next? Agra Fort.

Wah! Taj!

River Yamuna

Agra Fort from Taj Mahal

Battery powered vehicles

3.Agra Fort
Agra Fort is quite close the Taj Mahal. It is a replica of the Red Fort at Delhi. This is where Shah Jahan was imprisoned by Mr.Aurangzeb, his very son. He could view the Taj from his jail. We also viewed Taj Mahal from there. Here too, you find Diwan-e-Aam and Diwan-e-Khas. It seems to me like a world of marble!

Agra Fort

Close up

Tallness!

Diwan-e-Aam

Arcs

Taj from Agra fort

Arc-ictecture

Next we had lunch at an Udupi Krishna Bhavan. Jaychi and I had North Indian food there(:P), but after the South Indian lemon rice. Food was good there. It reminded me of my mom's lemon rice(yum!). Next we went to Krishna's birth place, Mathura. It was full of cows. It stinked! On the way we had glimpses of the cricket match in the televisions of the roadside shops. We went to the temple. There were not only wal paintings, but ceiling paintings too! Jaychi and I couldn't just imagine how the painters managed it. Right next to it is a mosque. And people are okay with it (And may they be okay with it forever!). And that was the end of it. We left Mathura to back to Delhi. We didn't have time to go to Brindavan. So back to Delhi. We reached Delhi at night. The next day was our last day in Delhi. I watched the remaining match and slept, while Jaychi dozed off before the end. And lo! India Won! YAY! Good night!