I intend this review to be an account of my experience and less of a tourist-guide-information-based review. May not be useful for those looking for specific details about Agra as a city, the review is more concentrated on the trip to view the Taj Mahal
3rd August, 2005 (sigh…I wish I could memorise History dates that well…)
Time: Early morning…well yeah, 9 am for me is like dawn!
Departure from: New Delhi ( The Capital…duh..)
Destination: Agra
Distance: 203 km (seemed like a million miles though!)
Purpose: I promise it wasn’t to get me admitted to the Mental asylum! We ( as in me and my family) went with the sole purpose to see the Taj Mahal. Being an NRI and all, I realised (well my mom made me realise) that I had seen the world outside India and had really not discovered the real beauties of my own country. So it was more a journey to find my roots than just a casual visit to a tourist destination…
I’ll be assigning points to various different aspects of the trip throughout the review.
The range is from 1-5, where 1 is the lowest.
Getting there
Ever ridden on a camel before? Umm, no, I’m not going to suggest going to Agra on Camel-back ( I didn’t get admitted to the pagal khana remember!). Anyways, what I mean is, the road from Delhi to Agra feels like a five hour-long journey by a camel! By the time you reach your destination, your backside feels like its set in stone! Why’s that you might ask? Well its due to the fact that the supposedly “well made” and developed highway is bumpy and in a pretty dilapidated condition. We had hired a Qualis (for those alien to this word, it’s a four-wheel sort of Tata-Safari type car…really sturdy!) and if that shook ( talk about understatement!) us up…imagine going by a Maruti 800!!
So, Approach: 1 (Yes, I’m harsh!)
Arrival…Drum roll…tada!
After 5 hours of getting shaken up like a milkshake, we arrive within the little lanes of the city. I ignore the filth on the sides of the streets, forget the jammed bylanes, look away from the zillions of buzzing flies, the haphazard traffic…just because from a distance, I had had a glimpse of the most enchanting structure ever…The Taj Mahal. We passed a fort on the way, which my grandmother identified as the “Agra Fort”. She also narrated an interesting story about a certain little window in the fort, where Aurganzeb had kept his father Shah Jahan imprisoned. From this one window at the Fort, the Taj was visible at a distance, so Shahjahan spent his last years just looking at the magnificent creation. More on that coming up later…
Travelling in the city: 2.5
The Hotel cum Palace cum Dreamland cum Wonder world…cum…you get the point!
After dodging through the traffic, even some bullock-carts and horse-carriages (which are really interesting by the way!), we arrived at The Jaypee Palace Hotel. First thing you feel about the hotel as you enter is Grandeur! Feeling like a princess ( and looking like a lousy pauper after that butt-cracking journey!), I strode up to my room. Which was really spacious and cosy looking. My thoughts at that time “boy oh boy…five stars in India really rock! This is what I call living in style!” The hotel was complete with all facilities that anyone looking for leisure would hope for!
Hotel Rating: 5 all the way!
The Enchantment House, the monument of Love, The Crown of Indian Heritage…The Taj!
After a refreshing afternoon in Jaypee, we set out to achieve the main aim of the trip, visit The Taj. The car had to be parked at a distance from the monument, to protect the white marble of the building from pollution. So the car was parked in a parking lot, and after a lot of nagging and negotiations with the tanga and Pollution free tempo drivers, we chose to take the tempo and reach the destination. We arrived there (Finally!) in approximately 5 minutes.
Approach to the Taj: 3… Could be MUCH better considering its like an icon of Indian tourism, so cannot give a rating higher than that.
We enter…
… After some necessary checking by the police guarding the place (cell phones are not allowed, cameras are)…and walk to the main entrance, which is a gigantic arc shaped gate from where you get the first full view of the creation. My first impression of seeing the Taj from this close:
Through the dark marble engraved entrance, like the sun rising at dawn from the depths of the sea, this splendour reveals itself to the eye of a stranger. Like a pearl tinted yellow, the mass of marble stands in front of me, radiating the shine that the sun is honoured to lend it and smiling in the face of a visitor with embracing arms of green grass reaching forward to greet them.
Umm…ok I didn’t think all that…but what I felt at that moment, no words can describe..for it was a metaphysical moment of epiphany when I realised that I was standing in front of History itself…
The Taj: 5+ rating...without any doubts whatsoever!
A Peep and a Goodbye
Walking from the majestic entrance to the marble grave (well, that’s what it actually is!), my grandmother narrated the rest of the legend behind the monument. The Mughal emperor Shah Jahan built it in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mehal in the 17th Century. The structure took 20 long years to build (and boy does it show!) and the arms of the main craftsmen were cut-off to avoid any replica from being built. Some hindu workers worked on the site too, and it is said that they engraved the symbol of Om on some marble inside the dome. At the entrance of the building, the marble is engraved with writings from the Holy Quran. There are many more stories and legends attached to this symbol of Love, but a review this short describing all of that is like a primary alphabet book trying to narrate the Ramayana!! So due to space constraints, I cannot go further..
A memory (you know the kinds which always remain in your mind no matter how insignificant or how long ago it occurred), that I’ve taken away from that place is, the feeling of a slight breeze brushing against my hair, with the water body of the Jamuna reflecting portions of the Taj and an evening sun getting prepared to drift off beyond the horizon…magical!
Facing your back towards such a memorial is really hard to do. No matter how long I wanted to stay, we had to leave…so with the last glance of adoration, I bid my final goodbyes to that exceptional sight of beauty…