Agra-2016

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I don’t know why this always happens with me whenever i try to do something good there is always a trouble.I thought of writing my first log and my keyboard stopped working.But anyway after a few in and out and restarting its working now, so finally my first blog.

I guess its nothing bad to start my blogging with one of worlds wonder and a love marble,even if i write rubbish people would read, i guess so..!!… More than that its really important for me to write this blog because people are asking me several question which i am not able to answer as good as i am supposed to.Whenever you will visit a place which is beautiful and famous, you wont believe but you have a great headache when you come back and people ask you several different questions about how it was..!!..I mean how you can describe Taj Mahal..how can you say something new that is not been said or written about it allready..so whenever someone ask me how was Taj..a very vague response from me..Taj is how it is..! And i guess i knew that so i made the plan to see Taj at last..and other historic places first.To be very true reason to see Taj at last was because it is close to railway station and bus stop..so you can see Taj and run for your train or bus…especially in our case as we just had a single day to roam around the city.

Agra is historic you can start realizing that once you jump down on station…get out of station and cab drivers and auto drivers are like those desperate politician who can do anything to win.We didn’t know what was happening,different plans..some were telling 20 rupaye main pura agraa ghuma denge ji…some were..celebrity aa rahe hai jii late na karo..we were confused and we dont know what to do there..we had plans for going to fatehpur sikri first so we said fatehpur jana haii chaloge…listing to that those auto drivers lost intrest in uss..but now its cab drivers started explaining there plans and charges..after a lot of calculation and observations we booked a cab for 1500 and asked him to leave as soon as possible…Excitement was running through blood now and eyes were expecting a lot of new scene.

Uncle ji kaha kaha le jaao ge aap…we asked the cab driver and he replied..pehle tho fatehpur..firr pethe diwayenge gii..fir leather factory dhikhlayenge…taj firr aagra fort firr aap logon ko wapas station drop kar denge saam tak..i was satisfied with the reply as he added some more places then what we thought would be seeing.It really feels good when things happen according to your plan…plan to see entire city in a day and return back to the same place where u didn’t want to go.

The wheels were rolling and we were enjoying the morning fresh air.Everyone was comfortable on there sits and i was constantly looking out of the window as if i can see Taj on the roadside.We didint even cover a kilometer yet and our cab became a jumping jack..we were on Indian road..now we realise.The road going outside of agra city is not in a good condition,its not that i am complaining but its a concern.I feel embarrassed when i see a cab full of foreigners..feeling uncomfortable on that road.That is not a proud moment for a person like me..i really felt bad..i mean this is what they will discover about India.Agra is a famous place at least things could be made better over here.I shared my concern to driver uncle also..and the perfect answer came from him..”kya kar sakte hain betaa jii..!!” I was trying to adjust this feeling of shame but i felt relief when after travelling around 10 km we can finally see some good national highways and our cab was flying towards fatehpur sikri.

We reached fatehpur around 1 pm.There was a huge gate welcoming us to the fort.Our cab driver uncle asked us for the parking charge and asked us whether we need a guide.We were thinking what do we do with guide..so we all said no in one tone.He suggested that guide will make it fast.But we were more happy to save our money than to waste on guide.So we were very sure that we don’t need any guide.Watching our not-interested faces he asked us to come back within an hour so that we can see Taj within time.He guided us to go straight and catch the bus which will take us to the fort.We did the same..it was five minutes journey to the top of hill.Bus was full of foreigners..maximum of them were at a age of signing off from the world..but i was happy to see people from around the world in our country.Talking different languages they were busy in taking snaps of every moment.Suddenly bus stops and we were at fatehpur.We were confused of where to go and we followed some people and we reached the ticket counter.There was a person standing asking us whether we need a guide or not.We were not interested..but then he showed us the map inside the the fort and there were like hundred of things that we can see and that were really confusing as well.The person also offered us discounts as he thought we are students so he only asked for 450 from us.We discussed and decided to take a guide.

We taken the tickets and with the guide in no time we rushed into the Jodhabai’s mahal.Our guide was a maulana with a great beard and with the pathanii kurtaa he see seems to be a proud muslim.He really had great knowledge about the fort.He was explaining every details of the the art and crafts and designs that were on the fort.He showed us Jodhabai’s kitchen,panchmahal, diwaan-e-kaas,Akbar’s bedroom,Jodhabai’s bedroom,Anup talao and many more.He explained everything really nicely,explained the architecture nicely and even shared different stories.More than that he was treating us as kids and we were like following our teacher.He was in commanding mode explaining us the the importance of each place and then he gives us some time to take some photos.We were following his orders as some decent kids.I was really impressed by the guide we got.Now I realise how important a guide is in such historic places.

I was also impressed by Akbar’s persona as well.According to our guide Akbar had three queens,i don’t remember the names now apart from Jodhabai reason Jodha-Akbar movie,all are of different religion.He practiced a new religion Din-a-illahii means God is one,having such a thought in 15th century is really great. He made great palaces for her queens greatest one for Jodhabai. He used to have a pet elephant,i dont remember the name might be Hiren, who was the chief justice of fatehpur. Culprit people were sent in front of him and if he kills you you are gone if you survive you are free.Showing so much belief on an animal is really amazing.I mean an elephant will decide fate of your life is something really interesting.He seems to be a great warrior and a great king.

We don’t realise but it has already been one and a half hour we were in fatehpur only.We still have the other part the religious part of fatehpur to see.It was just few meters away from the fort.We wanted to spend some more time in the fort but then again our teacher in command ordered to move to other part.I was excited when i saw a huge entry gate in front of me…Jama masjid.We opened our shoes and rushed inside.There was a huge open area as all big mosque have.We all went busy in taking pics.Our guide asked us to gather at one place and asked us to follow a person who was standing nearby.He took us to his shop ask us to wash our hands and stand in a queue..then he started explaining what we should do when we go to inside Akbar’s tomb and asked us to buy his flowers or clothes to offer.We were confused but again we followed everyone and bought flowers.We went inside..did as we were asked to do and came out.There was our guide standing outside.He asked for his fees and suggested to visit buland darwaja.We counted the money and bid him good bye.We all rushed towards buland darwaja.This was really huge.I guess the highest gate in asia.We spent some time over there.We taken some pics till we realise we were getting late.We ran and catch the bus going back.

Our driver uncle was relaxing in the cab.He asked us to take our seats quickly.”Kitna late kar diaa aap logon ne..ek ghana bola tha abii 2 ghante se upar ho gaya..”he asked us why we got late.We explained him what happened what we saw.When we talked about the guide he was surprised and asked us how much we gave we said 450 only…he was shouting now “are ye kya kar diya aapne… 100 rupaye main guide dilwa detaa main…” he was concerned he also asked us about whether we bought any chaddar or flowers to offers…we replied yes…he knew everything.He explained us that this is all there internal fixing.This is the way to do business.We were feeling like fools and whatever good thought i had about our guide its now overdone with what he did.Now we don’t wanted to think about what happened we can only think of Taj now.

In no time we reached agra..I dont know why i feel so..even though the distance we cover was same..cab was same..driver was same…but what i guess is we were lost in what we have seen in fatehpur so we don’t realize time.

Driver uncle stops the cab on a road side…given us some suggestion asked us not to get influenced by anyone whatever they say so.Just go straight to the entry gate take the tickets from the counter and enjoy Taj Mahal and to come back within one hour to the same western gate where he left us.We all said ok uncle ji we will call you once we are out.We went to the ticket counter and there was a great queue.We searched out for our other friends but they were missing.We were searching for them suddenly two boys came to us they started talking about some other private entry they know where there is no queue.They started suggesting us not to waste our time there otherwise we will not be able to see Taj because it was almost 5 pm and Taj entry is closed from 5:30 pm.We were concerned about our other three friends and confused at the same time what to do.Long queue was also a problem.It would be total waste if we will not be able to see Taj.We asked the boys what they will charge they were like its the closing so we will be giving you discount and all it will cost is 350.It was not much but again it was hard to believe as he was talking about some private entry.In the mean while our friends called us and asked us to come to south gate.I asked the boys about the south gate and he was like i will take you.I didn’t asked any question and started following him.In the meanwhile he started explaining us how he will guide us in Taj Mahal.I told him that we have three more friends only if they say then only we will take you otherwise we don’t need you.But i don’t  think he was bothered to listen to me.He took us to some narrow lane ending to the south gate.I don’t think many people would be knowing about this south gate.And now i came to know this is the private entry those boys were talking about.I felt like being fooled again.I see my other friends over there standing with a photographer.I asked them about that guide and they were like no in no time.I told that boy that we don’t need you as all people are not ready.But i don’t think he understood what no means he went to the ticket window and bought ticket for him also and started coming after us.We saw both the guide and the photographer following us with no reason.We have already told them that we don’t need any of them.They followed us for a while then I stopped I asked him what he want… he asked me to pay him as he shown me the way to south gate.I was surprised with this reply.I didn’t asked him to take me to south gate..We both had some rough talks for a while and then i was really annoyed and given him hundred and ask him to leave.I don’t wanted to waste any more time as it is almost dark.We went inside and there was white Taj glowing even in dark.I don’t know why but i didn’t have any emotions seeing Taj…this might be because we have seen it so many time in photos and pictures that it appeared the same.So i don’t know how to describe that..it appeared as it is.But there was great gathering of people.People from all around the world.But this time these foreigners are quite young and were in love…some were in groups some in couples and great number of indian families and couples and i guess this is what actually love symbol means where whole world unites.We were also enjoying the fresh breeze.We roam around there for some time taken some pics.But we left the idea of going inside once we seen the great queue.We were tired enough we don’t have enough patience to stand for hours in queue so we were consolidating ourselves that there is nothing inside just white marbles so no need to go inside.

We enjoyed there for a while and then decided to leave.We called our driver uncle and he was waiting out at gate.Now he suggested us to take pethes..its agra famous sweets.So he took us to a shop.We bought some sweets and left that palce.I was worried about agra fort so i asked him to take us to agra fort.But he told us that it would be closed as it is almost 6 now.So he will show us from outside only.I was bit unhappy but thats ok I confined myself.I asked him so what next uncle he said he is taking us to leather factory.Now what is that.He said some best lather made products we can see over there.But we don’t have any money left to do any shopping.But still he forced us to go to leather factory so we thought fine it might be some factory or some market but he landed to a shop named leather factory.We all friends looked at each other and thought of running away from there but he insisted so we went in came and came out and asked him to leave as soon as possible to station as we had to catch our train also at 7.He asked us whether we have reservation or we will take the tickets now so i told him we have to take tickets.He suggested us not to go by train as we would not be able to go in the general compartment.It would be overcrowded.So we didn’t given a second thought and decided to go by bus,300 per person.He started the cab and we were sitting like confused travelers who have been compromised everywhere.By the time we realized that driver uncle is also trying to make his benefits out from us.He also have internal business and connection so he is taking us to some particular shops and places.By the time there was some big architecture we can see from our cab.”Ye dheko jii ye hai agra fort..”said our driver uncle…We were trying to grasp every view of it in our eyes from that little cab window.The cab takes a turn and fort was over.We asked him to take us to some cheap but good food center and then to the bus stop.He again took us to some peculiar hotel but we didn’t had any choice to we had our food there.

Its almost 7 now and we were going according to our plan.So its now time to return to the base so we asked uncle to take us to bus stop.But he had some different plans he asked us to see some local work of agra.Some marble works and to buy some gifts for us.But this time we were not ready to listen to him so we asked him to take us to bus stop directly.Within 5 min we were at a travel agency.Booked our ticket thanked our driver uncle for his services.He also thanked us and asked us to come again and also to share his number if someone comes to agra.We assured him to do so…and bid him good bye and taken our seats in the bus…and wheels started rolling….