Trip to Agra

This was my fourth trip to agra driven purely out of my selfish need to capture the taj mahal in my digi cam which exposed my mother-in-law to month long misery in the form of typhoid and knee trouble. The justification to the trip was folks at my in-laws place would enquire where they had been i.e. places seen and the taj is supposed to be the stock answer.





Certainly the month of June and rising temperature was the principal devil; clumsy innova with no back door provision and an amateur driver who refused to cross 80 kmph added to our misery. We overlooked mathura in order to reach agra early, which reason was ascribed to our sufferings later in the day. We choose to have an early breakfast at sagar ratna which proved to be a wise decision and reached akbar’s tomb around 10 am. Compared to the taj, akbar’s tomb is far more calm and serene with deers and peacocks hugging the green grass. The structure is simple and not massive compared to other moghul rulers to follow and indeed befits the greatest ruler of moghul era.





And we reached the taj just at the right time, 12 noon in sweltering heat. The camel ride was nice and so was the quick shopping to see banana silk sarees, came leather chappals and quilts. My mom and dad wisely choose to relax at the entrance of the taj. The rest of us (myself, my wife, bil, mil and fil) marched forward bravely while clicking photos. My mil decided to stay put near the shoe removal area. The moment we removed our shoes, we began hopping and dancing and raced furiously to complete the round. A quick round and we were glad to have our shoes back. More pics followed and my purpose was finished and I silently resolved never ever to visit the taj with any other relations. Wholly tired and drained, the agra fort was skipped. So agra needs to be visited again in order to capture agra fort and the view of the taj from the agra fort but next time, I can relax at the entrance of the taj. Till then, I wait like a praying mantis!




Another two-hour ride through pits and holes took us to buland darwaaza (fateh-pur-sikri) wherein for the first time we employed a guide who using my mom’s weak sentiments forced us to purchase a chadar, which was given to the local mosque. Hindi being an alien language to my in-laws, they only could stare emptily and jaws wide open; possibly when their misery would end. But abhi to picture baaki thi. My bil, however, summed up superbly on our way back. One aspect intrigued me re: use of khooni haathi by akbar in dispensation of justice. The elephant had the power (by smell) to find out bad men and used to trample them to death.

Our last stop was to be mathura but fate had other plans for us. We spent two hours at a local jyothi dhaba wherein we ended paying closed to Rs. 1000/- and another hour at railway crossing gates; the march of trains seemed endless. We further spent three hours waiting for the traffic to clear which had amassed in national highway 2. It was only around 10 pm that we hopped on to NH 2 and thus, mathura was skipped. It was close to 2 am when we reached home and thus, ended my fourth trip to agra.