Once Upon a Trip…to the “Taj Mahal”

Travelling on your own with your travelling partner is one thing, managing a group is another. When you travel by yourselves, you are independent to make decisions on the go. On the other hand, travelling with a group, especially if you are the one having more experience of travelling, requires you to be more cautious and responsible. With great power comes great responsibility, they say. We had our first experience to manage a trip like this back in the summer of 2015 (yeah I know, summer of ’69 sounds cooler, but it is what it is).

We were a total of 7 people, the two of us, a friend of mine, and 4 girls who were younger than us. We did not want to go too far for this first trip, so we decided to visit the ‘Taj Mahal’ in Agra which was around 230 kms from Delhi. Moreover, the girls couldn’t be away from their hostel for long, so the plan was to start early morning and return by the night.

We started early morning on the 2nd of August. My friend and me met the girls at the metro station and went to the Delhi railway station. There we bought the tickets for the train which was to depart at 7 am. The train was already at the platform so we got in and took our seats. The train departed on time and this started our trip to Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world.

Now, the biggest advantage of travelling with girls is that they take care of stuff that you would rather neglect during a trip. FOOD. Yes, eating proper food and hydrating oneself is very necessary during a trip and we often tend to ignore this. So, the girls had prepared sandwiches for the train ride, not just bread with butter, rather proper sandwiches. We had sandwiches with cucumber and yogurt, with mashed potatoes and yes the ones with strawberry jam. I got to know that the girls had slept very less the night before and had been preparing for the trip. So, thank you girls for the wonderful food.

With our stomachs full and our eyes a little drowsy, we continued in our journey. The train had a stop at Mathura, a place that I have not yet had an opportunity to visit. The Holi festival celebrations at Vrindhavan in Mathura are extravagant and I would really like to experience that some day. Anyway, moving ahead we finally reached Agra train station. The train journey was around 2 hours. From the train station, after negotiating the price, we took an auto rickshaw to the Taj Mahal. It was just 10 minutes from the railway station. There was a public restroom at the entrance of the complex and the girls wanted to freshen up a little. ONE ETERNITY LATER…, the girls came out looking completely different, with their make up on and their hair done properly. My friend and me looked at each other, decided not to comment, and moved ahead. We bought the tickets and arrived at the entrance to the Taj Mahal complex. There is a huge main gateway, the darwaza, to enter into the Taj Mahal complex, which in itself looks like a monument that I can gaze at for hours.

As we entered the gateway, we could get the first glimpse of the Taj Mahal through the dome shaped entrance. An amazing fact that I learned later was that as you move forward inside the entrance, the Taj Mahal appears to move further away from you. Try it the next time you visit there. As you get out of the darwaza, you see a better view of the Taj Mahal with the pond in front of it and all the greenery around it. Although I had been to the Taj Mahal as a kid, it was indeed mesmerising to re-visit it as an adult. There it was in front of me, in its full glory.

It is usually very crowded (like any other place in India), however, we were able to take several pictures (with no strangers accidentally photo-bombing them). Most of the pictures during this trip were of the group, so I won’t be sharing them here in the blog without their consent. I have only used the pictures without the group in them. So, having clicked several pictures standing, sitting, and posing in every way possible, we started to move towards this beauty of a monument. We walked along the pathway, with the fountain pond at the centre and gardens on both the sides. We reached the main building and let me tell you that it is grand. In the pictures, it is always clicked from a distance with the surrounding to enhance the beauty of the monument. It may look to some as not a very large building in that way, but it is the opposite. Another thing I realised about the Taj Mahal is that it looks the best the way it has been built. One thing less and the beauty plummets (at least to me). I have a picture to prove that.

You see what I am trying to say? One minaret less in the picture and I am already not the greatest fan of the monument. This makes me realise the amount of precision and thought that has been put into making this structure what it is.

We all know that the Taj Mahal is one of the seven wonders of the world. It is also a symbol of love. This derives from the fact that it was built by Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, whose tomb is placed inside the monument. Although Shah Jahan married 11 times during his lifetime, all other marriages, except for with Mumtaz, were more out of political consideration. Anyway, leaving Mumtaz in her tomb for now and continuing on our story, we entered the Taj Mahal. It is as beautiful from the inside as it is from the outside (something hard to find in humans these days!!!). I was amazed by the details of the design and carvings on the walls and the calligraphies of Persian poems. We also saw the replica of the tombs of Saha Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, the original are not allowed to be visited.

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Apart from the magnificent Taj Mahal, at the far end of the complex are two grand red sandstone buildings that mirror each other, and face the sides of the tomb. Having spent a good amount of time in the Taj Mahal complex we exited from the opposite end to a market which had so many souvenir and gift shops. We then decided to go visit the ‘Agra Fort’.

We took an auto-rickshaw to the Agra Fort, which was around 2-3 km from the Taj Mahal. As soon as I got out from the rickshaw, I was shocked by its hugeness. It can be very well described as a walled city rather than a fort. We could not take any pictures of it from the outside. It won’t fit in the frame. Anyway, we bought the entrance tickets and went inside.

The Agra Fort, also known as the Red Fort due to the red sandstone used for its construction, was the main residence of the emperors of the Mughal Dynasty until 1638, when the capital was shifted from Agra to Delhi. There are several other historical sites inside the fort, including the Shish Mahal, which has glass mosaic work done on its walls and ceiling. These glass pieces have high mirror quality which glitter and twinkle in thousand ways in the semi-dark interior. Other interesting sites within the fort comprise the Diwan-i-Aam, the house of public audience, and the Anguri Bagh, the garden in the courtyard. There are audio guides available which give you details about the different sites in the fort.

The Taj Mahal can also be seen from the Agra Fort. It is said that Shah Jahan used to look at the Taj Mahal from the Agra Fort during his house arrest, imposed upon him by his son and successor, Aurangzeb. Saha Jahan breathed his last in the Agra Fort and was later buried next to his beloved wife Mumtaz in the Taj Mahal.

We had visited the two major attractions in Agra and we still had a lot of time before we wanted to return. This made us decide to also visit ‘Fatehpur Sikri’, a city 39 km from Agra. We took a bus from Agra to Fatehpur Sikri. Although all of us had started to get tired by now we wanted to visit city as well, now that we were so close to it.

The city of Fatehpur Sikri was founded as the capital of the Mughal Empire in 1571 by Emperor Akbar. The name derives from the name of the village Sikri which existed there before. The city started to be called Fathabad and later Fatehpur Sikri, the ‘City of Victory’, after Akbar’s victorious campaign in Gujarat in 1573.

As we reached the Fatehpur Sikri complex, we were approached by a tour guide who offered to show us the complex and tell about the history. We hired him and went ahead. We were first welcomed by the Buland Darwaza, the entrance to the complex. It is situated at a height of 55 meters from the ground with giant stairways to climb to its entrance.

The complex is large, and has a lot of historical sites inside. The first buildings to be constructed in the complex was the Jama Masjid, the mosque. The other sites include the Diwan-i-Aam or Hall of Public Audience, the Diwan-i-Khas or Hall of Private Audience, Ibadat Khana, the House of Worship and the Panch Mahal which is a five-storied palatial structure, with the tiers gradually diminishing in size, till the final one. Another important site in the complex is the tomb of Salim Chishti, a Sufi saint (1478–1572) who had foretold the birth of Akbar’s son, Salim (named after the saint). It is a white marble encased tomb built around a central square chamber, within which is the grave of the saint. It is famed as one of the finest examples of Mughal architecture in India.

It is believed that devotees ask for the blessings of the saint and seek fulfillment of their wishes. We also offered a chadar (bedsheet) to pay our respects to the saint and to seek for blessings. The guide took several pictures of us within the complex. We had a real good time visiting these historical sites and learning about the stories associated with them. We did not realise how much time had passed as we were enjoying being there. It had already been 7 pm by the time we decided to head back.

We found out that there were no passenger trains to Delhi in the evening/night. Somebody suggested us to take the bus, but there were no buses to Delhi at that hour as well. This was the first time I realised the responsibility on my shoulders. I tried to find for options for our way back to Delhi. Somebody, very confidently, suggested us to take a bus to some place (I don’t remember the name now) and that we could find several buses on the highway going towards Delhi from there. With no better option at hand, we decided to take this journey back. We took the bus to this place, which was basically like a food joint near the highway. The wait for the bus was painful. So many buses passed by, but to different destinations. Everybody was very tired by now. I was a little worried as we were 5 girls and 2 guys in a secluded place near some highway. We had already been waiting for an hour with no success. We decided to have dinner to get some energy to sustain this wait. Two of us were standing on the side of the highway looking at each bus passing by while the others were sitting in a more well lit place in the restaurant.

Finally at around 11 pm we stopped a bus which was going towards Delhi. We waved for the others to come and finally got into the bus. The way back was around 5 hours. Completely exhausted we continued on our way back. Mostly everybody felt asleep as soon as the ride began. The bus conductor had told me that he would drop us near the Nizamuddin Station in Delhi as the bus was going further. I had requested him to wake us up if were asleep as the last thing I wanted now was to oversleep and find ourselves 100 km away from Delhi. I kept on waking up just to be sure where we has reached.

At last, we reached the station in Delhi at around 4 am. We were so grateful that we were back in Delhi, but the journey was not yet over. We lived in North Delhi and our place was around 15 km from the station. The metro services had yet not begin (at 4 am) and there were no auto-rickshaw nearby. At last, I saw an auto-rickshaw with its driver sleeping inside. I had to wake him up. He agreed to go but the only problem now was that we were 7 people and just one rickshaw. The rickshaw driver, not wanting to lose his first ride of the day, persuaded us that we can all fit in with only minor troubles. He said that the roads were empty at this hour and we would reach our place in 25 minutes and we agreed (as if we could disagree). So we were in the auto rickshaw, the two guys one on each side of the rickshaw driver and the 5 girls in the seat on the back (still glad how they fit in). We first went to the girls hostel where they got off and then returned to our hostel which was 2 km before. Finally, we two guys also arrived at our hostel and noticed the time. It was around 5 am, which means that the entire trip was completed in 24 hours. Delhi to Agra to Fatehpur Sikri to some random place to somewhere in Delhi to our hostels in 24 hours.

The trip was a success. It was only possible because the group acted responsibly and everyone followed the decisions that were made for the trip. This was our first experience to take a group with us and I will be honest, we should have been more cautious with the return trip and everything. I did get a little worried when we were at the highway as I felt responsible for getting us back safely and with girls around, safety has to be a priority. All in all, the group worked as a team and overcame all the hurdles.

This trip was full of learnings. We all learnt a lot about history, visited a wonder of the world, completed a trip in 24 hours and got back home safely. This trip was one of the many trips (but the first) where we had to rely on luck to get a source of transportation back. The successful completion of this trip gave us the confidence to tackle such problems in the trips that followed.

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