The Majestic Taj
The brilliance of its beauty hits you when you actually see it in flesh & blood. Yes! The Taj Mahal is simply majestic – and no wonder, one of the 7 wonders of the world!
I’ve seen the Taj about a gazillion times in print & media but never it looked so beautiful. You cannot just stop yourself from being drawn to it. The shot above, was the closest to symmetry – I could capture with my camera…
We started at 5:50 AM in the morning on 11th April with the driver already late by almost an hour. I was the first one to be picked up. The second pickup was at Jal Vayu Vihar, Gurgaon at almost 7 ‘ish – Saruchi, her parents, Shalu & Indu – and headed to Agra via Faridabad. All good, we would have hit Agra in next 4 hours max – 11 AM.
But as it was supposed to happen, we met a massive traffic jam just near Kosi. If the rumors were to be believed, local villagers had created a problem and had stopped all traffic on the roads. We tried crossing the highway divider in order to inch ahead even if it meant moving on the wrong side. Alas, the other side was equally jammed by now – with all other cars behind us already flocking to the wrong side of the road. Ofcourse, there was another jam – this time because of everyone trying to move to the wrong side while the traffic on other side was still moving… pretty bad. We somehow pulled back to our side of the road – back into the jam. By this time, the Sun was already showing its signs on us and the roads were bad too – real bad, with dirt all around. Another few minutes into the jam and everyone started being restless… the situation was getting from bad to worst. We could not even take the shortcut via the farms… as we were in a commercial vehicle and the tax was to be paid at the booth which was about a kilometer ahead. Thats when we decided that I’ll walk up ahead, pay the tax, come back to the vehicle and drive through the farms to avoid the jam ahead. I walked halfway on the road when I realized the jam was dissolving slowly… I instantly messaged folks back at the car that they should cross over the road yet again and pick me up from the place I had already walked upto – but the signal was bad! I somehow managed to push across my SMS – but it was still showing undelivered… So I walked back.
Luckily, the jam faded away slowly – and we were back en-route to Agra. The drive was slow and the Sun was bright – real hot! Interestingly the cab’s AC’s blew up on us… we managed to cut a deal with the driver for a lowered cab fare 
We stopped at a local dhaba and helped our tummies with the much awaited food it was asking for so long… The food was b’aa’d – but we managed somehow.
(from left) Saruchi, Shalu, Indu, myself and Saruchi’s parents
All this time (when we had not met the traffic jam yet) – we were debating which all places to visit… the Taj, Sikandra, The Red Fort, Fatehpur Sikri and what not… Everyone had different opinions – including the driver. The traffic jam proved pretty helpful in bringing that debate to a conclusion. By the time we neared Agra, it was crystal clear to us that we won’t be able to check out Fatehpur Sikri. And since Sikandra was on the way, Sikandra and the Taj Majal were the obvious two choices. Red Fort came close but we all knew that we won’t be able to cover all that.
Came Agra and first up was Sikandra – Akbar’s tomb.
Saruchi, Indu, Shalu and myself – trying to strike a symmetry with the monument
(thanks to Shalu’s Korean friend)
I noticed that almost all the internal walls of the tomb were marked with couples trying to leave their memories behind. For god’s sake, please stop doing this. The foolish folks are destroying India’s legacy.
We even managed to match up Shalu with her lookalike… check this out
Shalu with a Korean friend – don’t they look alike? 
There were these four corners, which when spoken into, the voice could be heard on the diagonally opposite corner. Here’s Saruchi, Indu & Shalu trying to decipher the mystery…
It was almost 3PM and time to move ahead… & Taj Mahal was up next.
When we reached the entrance to Taj Mahal, I was completely surprised by the sheer number of people visiting the monument. By any means, that many people – were far too many – as compared to any other monument i’ve seen – even on a Saturday…
What’s more interesting – is that a ticket for an Indian tourist costs INR 20, while the same for a foriegn tourist costs INR 500. Judging by the people visiting the Taj everyday, I’m sure – the government would be making some real money there…
The moment we entered the complex and saw the Taj, each one of us was completely in awe of it. With each step we took nearing the Taj, we made sure that we clicked all the possible poses in front of it
That man in shades just wouldn’t budge from the frame…
Pretty curious onlookers… huh?
(and it was very windy out there…)
Okay, modelling in the front of Taj finished and we moved ahead to actually see the monument real close. No shoes were allowed once you are on the marble floor. There was a long queue – if you want to see inside the Taj – the actual tombs. After standing in the queue for about 15 minutes, we mutually decided to chuck the idea of going inside and instead explore the Taj from outside.
Thats the queue of people waiting to see the Taj from inside – and it was a tripple line queue.
Entrance of the Taj behind me…
Behind the Taj
Once we got bored of watching the Taj endlessly, we decided to have some fun… I asked Indu to pose with the Taj – something memorable & he did come up with some memorable ones )
Both me & Shalu were wondering what were he pointing to
Boy, I was excited!
And just to kill time (as we waited for Saruchi to join us back) – we decided to picture ourselves in the air with the Taj in the backdrop.
The onlookers sure would have thought us crazy!
Indu trying the jump
We tried this so many times that our feet finally began to hurt and we had to stop… we just couldn’t click any shot with all our fours in the air
Shalu, Indu & Saruchi
Fun!
It was nearly 6 when we wrapped up our adventure at the Taj. Visting the Red Fort was obviously not possible now… so we decided to head back home… and everyone was very hungry. Shalu & Indu decided to take the horse cart to get back to the parking lot, while all others walked. I managed to find the cab driver after 20 minutes of searching for him endlessly. We were headed back.
The roads were bad – every junction we crossed was jammed with vehicles ignoring the junction lights with closed eyes. Speaking of bad roads, our driver had a peculiar liking for moving quickly to the left most lane whenever he found the traffic challenging. It wasn’t before too long, before we advised him strictly to stick to the middle lane for driving. Tavera is a big car and driving it in the last lane isn’t the best idea. Agra’s roads aren’t big either.
We took a quick pit stop at Mc Donald’s, just opposite to the Mathura Oil Refinery. I never made a bigger order that what I did at McD’s that day – and this time (for the first time) I was more confused about the order than the people who took it and executed it. We orderd almost 10 burgers (mix of several kinds and w/ & w/o cheese), 5-6 drinks and 3 French fries… not to mention the iced tea and cold coffee we managed to get free with our order
I was pretty occupied with my ice cream
Heading back home, doing absolutely meaningless “bakar-bakar” with Shalu for almost 2 hours, I managed to reach at 3:30 AM in the night. All along after we dropped the JVV folks at Gurgaon, I actually had to engage the cab driver into small talks so as to keep him up and awake. I could see him blinking fast while driving… absolutely not a good sign… For what he told me, he was now up for almost 48 hours & still driving! We even talked about his objectives in life… wow!
Now one thing that I missed during the Agra trip was to go and see Dad’s old home. Though its been sold now… it would definitely had been an experience to know where my Dad lived & grew up – Hing-di-Mandi… maybe some other time.
Do visit the Taj for once. Its not in vain that its one of the seven wonders in the world.
Its simply majestic…
And you realize this when you actually see it in real.
over-and-out
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