Juwal Bose Says

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It is never easy to find time for a holiday when you are having your own business to handle. Each day is so hectic and busy that you wont even get time to think about planning the holiday, let alone actually plan it. But i desperately needed one and when a chance came up to have a runaway holiday in North India, i pounced on. Also the added feature was that i was getting my chance to talk with my close friend anish on ‘developments in personal life’, the stuff we all do with our close friends. The whole planning was outsourced to anish and he was having a little more time than me. I didnt even want to know if the tickets were booked or what places we are really going. So for me the whole trip was a mystery trip.

I met anish with his friends Anirudh and Varun on the train to delhi. The train trip itself was a lot of fun as we discussed ragging, barbie dolls, perverts and what not. We took some extra cool photos courtesy of anish who was finding the photographer in him. Well thanks to this fact i have lots of photos on the trip which awards him the ‘great photographer’ award. Anyways when i roamed around in the train in my sleeveless, showing off the full tattoo on my upper arm, i was getting mixed reactions from all around. I even got unwanted scolding from an agitated orthodox north Indian who just could not control his feelings. At Vijayavada we had some memorable mango wafers and grape juice. This was recommended by our friends on train. I can still feel the delicious mango waffer, unique and worth trying.

We got down at Agra cantt station and booked a ticket at the retiring room which was 350 for 24 hours. You need to have the train tickets to avail this service though. The plan was to keep the luggage there and see the places in Agra, main being the Taj. The trip to Taj was in Guddus auto and Guddu helped Anish to get the power plg converter needed for his laptop. He was carrying his laptop so that we can instantly transfer all photos taken there by making the memory card free for more. We bought some Agras special Pettas, gulab jamun and some handicraft items. There were lots of articles made of marble which inevitably every foreigner will look into when visiting the Taj. The store keeper was telling us that all commodities are made in the Agra Jail and hence they come very cheap with excellent quality. My advise is to buy only what you need. We wanted to see Agra fort, Taj and some tombs but we could only see the fort and the tombs from the outside as majority time was spent at Taj. And no one will ever regret that, the time spent at Taj is well worth and you will never forget the impression the structure gives you.

The trip to Taj cost us rs 200 from station. The ticket counters were full and the auto bhai took us to an alternate ticket counter which looked less crowded, but it took us 1 hour to get in none the less. The taj is surrounded by brick walled mega structures and you wont even get a glimpse of the marvel from any angle whatsoever. After passing through the metal detectors and watching in awe the machine gun holding military people we moved on seeing the ancient structures all around. After one point there were lots of small shops selling handicrafts and other fancy items. We were clicking away photos and moving on expecting the great view to come up any minute. Ten after walking through a grand corridor entrance we entered the compound of the taj. I will never be able to forget that first impression. I was just carelessly looking in the exit of the giant door when the Wonder became visible at a distance. Well lit and sparkling bright in all its marble marvel. No photo can ever capture the beauty of the structure itself. We spent most of our time in and around the Taj. There were lots and lots of ppl and all were having a peaceful feel of the atmosphere as the air itself was romantic. Inside the tomb we sat around the mumtaz tomb when a military guy came about shouting and scolding us. It was dark all around and we thought he will let us be, but he was ever so vigilant.

We took a lots of photos and in the evening we made up our mids to go and see the other places, which didnt work out by the way. Back at the station retiring room we planed to wake up at 3.30 to catch the train to Delhi. That night @ 3.20 a fauji bhai (military) made us wake up. He didnt know where to go as he was told to exit at cantonment station. No one was there to collect him and he wanted to spent night some where. We could not help as we were foreigners ourselves. He told us this is the way we treat our soldiers and we really wanted to help him. He told that he can lay down at one corner in our room. But this was illegal and the guard came by to help him out. But thanks to him we woke early and could catch an express train to Delhi and travel comfortably in sleeper class with general tickets.

Delhi was horrible in terms of hospitality and i will explain why in next post…