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We woke up at 4:45 a.m. for our sunrise visit to the Taj Mahal. At 5:15, our "hot running water” arrived along with tea and biscuits. The water heater in our bathroom was not working, but Mukul insisted on providing "hot running water" - which consisted of him running up the stairs with a bucket of hot water from the downstairs bathroom. I had a hot bucket shower and we had our tea and chocolate biscuits in the room.
At 6 o’clock we left for the Taj. Rajendra drove us to the ticket office and Craig and I waited while Mukul picked up our tickets. We were starting to realize that we were going through memory cards for our camera very quickly, and we hadn't even gotten to Rajasthan yet. The savvy kids selling memory cards saw my Olympus Stylus and immediately produced the proper 1 gig xd memory card. We were tempted to buy it but we had left everything other than the camera itself at home (so as not to be caught up in security at the Taj). After Mukul bought our tickets and collected our water bottles and shoe covers (included in the admission price), he talked to the kid and told him we didn’t have the money. The kid said we could just take the card and pay him afterwards. Mukul said that we would be leaving via a different gate, so we would't be coming back here. We were at least encouraged by the fact that our memory cards were available at all here. We were sure that we would get another opportunity to purchase one. A golf cart arrived to take us to the East Gate. Cars are not allowed within a certain distance of the Taj, in an attempt to curtail air pollution which dirties the marble. Arriving at the East Gate, we stood in men’s and ladies’ security queues. Mine went faster than Mukul and Craig's did, so I went inside and could see the sun rising behind the gate. Craig and Mukul were eventually let in, and we walked by the rows of chambers which were used as apartments for early tourists. We passed through the archway of the massive sandstone Chowk-i-Jilo Khana, from which we got our first glimpse of the Taj. If you stand in the center and take a step forward, the Taj appears to retreat from you. Take a step back and it appears to come toward you. Just one of the illusions caused by its precise architecture. The Arabic lettering of the Koranic verses on the exterior Chowk-i-Jilo Khana got bigger toward the top of the building, giving the illusion from afar that it is a constant size. Each delicate Arabic letter is carved from its own piece of black marble. The gardens stretched before us. Their layout is said to represent Islamic paradise. Pools of water reflected the beautiful architecture of the Taj. The red sandstone building to the west of the Taj is a functioning mosque which faces West towards Mecca. There is an identical building on the eastern side of the Taj compound which can never be used as a mosque because it faces the wrong direction. It was constructed for symmetry alone, and is known as the "javab" or "reply." Local photographers took photos of tourists sitting on the "Princess Diana" bench with the Taj behind them. They will get them developed quickly, and try to sell them, at a very fair and reasonable price, to guests as they exit the grounds.A group of young women were monopolizing the photo spot, having the photographers take modeling shots of them (though I doubt they would actually purchase any of the photos). Mukul managed to get us a quick stint on the bench. He photographed us with our camera, but the photographers also took the opportunity to snap a couple of photos of us. The sun was starting to cast an orange glow on the Taj, and the jewels inlaid into its marble started to glisten in the early light. Built by Shah Jahan between 1632 and 1654, this building was a monument to his true love Mumtaz Mahal who died during the birth of their 14th child. Shah Jahan had hired 20,000 workers from all over Asia to build it. We put our shoe booties on and headed up the stairs and inside the mausoleum. It was a little less chaotic than the last time we had been here (when everyone was clamoring to get in right before sunset). No photos are allowed inside, so I tried my best to concentrate and etch the scene in my memory so that I could preserve it in my journal when I had the chance. We noticed pietra dura work in the very top concave area of the main dome. The intricate marble jali screen, each section cut from a single large panel of marble, which surrounds Mumtaz Mahal’s cenotaph was bathed in sunlight, and you could see the relief carvings in all three dimensions. The octagonal screen is an amazing work of craftsmanship which took 10 years to complete. It is eight feet tall, and gives the impression that you are looking upon her resting place through an intricate lace veil. The early morning sunlight filtered through the screens, making dazzlingly beautiful patterns on the walls and floor. The cenotaph of Mumtaz Mahal was perfectly positioned in the center of the chamber. To the west of her is her husband, Shah Jahan’s cenotaph. This is the only element of the Taj which is not symmetrical. Shah Jahan did not intend the Taj to be his own burial site. He planned it strictly for his most beloved wife. But after his death, his daughter decided that it was only fitting for her father to be entombed with his true love, within the beautiful tomb which was a testament to their love. The couple's cenotaphs are made of white marble inlaid with intricate floral motifs of precious stones. Since Mumtaz Mahal died during childbirth, she is considered to be a martyr by Islamic tradition. Because of this, her cenotaph is inlaid with Koranic verses in black marble, while her husband's is not. The mausoleum is like a building within a building. It is a different scale in the interior; when you look up and see a dome above you, it is not the same dome visible from outside. We circled the tomb clockwise and then stepped out of the crowd into the outer perimeter of the building. We stepped out the back door and looked across the Yamuna River at the Mahtab-Bagh (Moonlight Gardens) from which we had observed the Taj last night at sunset. We could see the moon in the blue sky, hovering over the Taj. We looked at the Taj from some different perspectives on this visit. It is truly larger than life (at 220 feet tall), and as you gaze at it you feel dwarfed. We walked back around to the front of the building, and stood looking out across the reflecting pool which led straight to the red sandstone Chowk-i-Jilo Khana, with its 22 domes - one for each year of construction of the Taj. They had the outline of the top brass spire traced out onto the ground so as to give you an idea of its scale – it isn’t as small as it appears from the ground. It is actually 17 meters high! Sunbeams were filtered through the trees and it was a really nice time to walk around the grounds a bit. Mukul met one of the photographers who had taken pictures of us on the Princess Diana bench. He bought a photo of us, perhaps as a thank you for the photographer for letting us sneak into the queue. The photo was very overexposed, and looks like we are sitting on a bench in front of a backdrop painted to resemble the Tajon a photo studio. We are smiling and looking off into space, as we were at the time looking at Mukul rather than this particular photographer. As we once again passed through the rowhouses which had been used as early tourist apartments, Mukul took photos of a group of Indian tourist women wearing very brightly colored saris. We exited the Taj grounds through the West gate. It was a very peaceful area. We came across entire families of rhesus monkeys on the pathway and sitting on park benches. Rajendra picked us up in the car when we reached the street. I had no idea how far Mukul’s house was from the Taj, so I decided to time our ride. It took all of three minutes. Mukul literally lives three minutes from the Taj! When we remarked on this he said that he used to have a view of it from his property, until they put up the aptly named “Taj View Hotel” in between, which ultimately blocked his view. As we got out of the car in his driveway, we were surprised to see the kid with the memory card from earlier this morning. Quite an enterprising fellow – he seemed to have followed us back to Mukul’s to make the sale! Now that we were back at the house, we had money available. We still needed a memory card, and we may as well reward this young man for his diligence (even if it is slightly off-putting by Western standards...) I tried out the card to make sure that it worked properly and we purchased it from the happy young man. After we freshened up, Sunita served us breakfast: coffee, guava juice, mango chutney, radish missa bread, poha, mooli, and homemade yogurt. It was delicious as usual, and she hovered around the table in case we needed anything else. This is something we are not really used to in our culture; women eating after the rest of the family, and serving them throughout their entire meal. We chatted with Mukul while we ate. He then brought us up to the roof to properly survey his property. There were so many plants and trees! The yard was small but so well manicured! It is a little walled oasis within the city. We went back down to the yard and Mukul showed us his rocks, which he has collected from all over the country. We enjoyed watching his turtles splashing in the water features, including the little three-legged guy he had rescued from the road. Sunita had noticed that we were admiring the terra cotta pots used during last night’s Charva Kauth puja. She presented them to us as a keepsake. That was so thoughtful of her! We sat outside with Mukul and Sukumar. The electricity was out for the majority of the day; a common problem in Agra and India in general, unable to keep up with its rapid development. As it became hot outside, we retired to our room (the overhead fan still worked off the generator and therefore it was cool). We wrote out all of the postcards that we needed to send. Mukul kindly brought us some postcard stamps. When he learned that Craig has a stamp collection, he disappeared for a while and came back with some nice stamps that he had found elsewhere in the house. He and Sunita are so kind and thoughtful – always making generous gestures like that. At 2:00, we had lunch: mixed vegetables, dahl, cauliflower, and chapatti. Mukul had a letter to send, and we had all of these postcards, so on our way out for the afternoon we stopped in at the main Agra post office. It was pretty chaotic when we went inside, but Mukul knew what to do and made sure that everything was mailed. Some of the postcards even beat us home! That never happens. Next, Rajendra drove us to Agra Fort. The history of the site can be traced back to 1080 C.E. The construction of the fort as it stands today is spread over the reigns of several Mughal emperors: the walls and gates were built by Akbar in the mid-1500's, most of the principle buildings were built by his grandson Shah Jahan, and the ramparts were built by great-grandson Aurangzeb. As we entered the fort we could see the white Taj off in the distance peeking around the corners of the red sandstone walls. The last time we had visited the fort, the Taj had barely been visible in the murky haze. Today it was very easy to see, a bright white monument against the blue sky. We crossed the dry moat via drawbridge at the Amar Singh Gate (aka Lahore Gate) and were funnelled through a long sandstone corridor. We admired brightly colored inlay work in the sandstone towers. There were beautiful courtyards with bright green lawns. We were allowed into some sections of the fort which had been closed on our last visit. We passed empty reflecting pools with the same perimeter motifs that we had seen at the large reflecting pool at the Mahtab-Bagh gardens last night. Some of these pools were made of sandstone and others were of white marble. Mukul directed our attention to the Shish Mahal (glass palace). It was closed to visitors (locked behind ivory doors), but we could peek through the windows to get a glimpse of the mirrored mosaics made from mirrors imported from Aleppo. It was built by Shah Jahan in 1631 as a summer palace. We walked across marble terracing to the Golden Pavilions with the shape of their curved roofs inspired by Bengali village huts. Gilded copper tiles make the roof shine in the sunlight. From here we had a view of the Taj Mahal and the River Yamuna. Next we saw Musamman Burj, the gorgeous octagonal "Jasmine Tower" where Shah Jahan (builder of the Taj Mahal) was imprisoned by his son, Aurangzeb. It was originally the quarters of Jahangir, but was rebuilt to suit Shah Jahan, who spent the last years of his life in this tower. This tower is very ornate. It is made of white marble, has many columns, and is inlaid with precious stones in floral and geometric patterns. Jali screens have been carved out of the marble. There is a "rug" carved into the floor, and it is said that Shah Jahan filled it with red water to decorate his quarters. There were rings embedded in the marble onto which curtains were hung to keep the rooms cool. Incense was burned to add to the the tranquil atmosphere. It didn't take much imagination to picture tapestries hung to keep the area shady in the heat of the day. Some of the gold-leaf paintings here had been restored to their former grandeur, showcasing just how lovely it would have looked shining next to sparkly inlaid gems in the marble. Shah Jahan is said to have gazed over the Yamuna River at the beautiful mausoleum of his beloved wife, the Taj Mahal, until his death in 1666. This spot was indeed a prime location for viewing the Taj. Unlike last time when we had visited in 2007, when the Taj had been a murky near-mirage off in the distance, today we could see it very clearly from the Jasmine Tower area despite it being 2.5 km away. Next we examined Jahangir's throne (Takht-i-Jahangir). This was a black slab of 6-inch-thick marble which was over 10 feet long by nearly 10 feet wide. It was built in 1602 and brought to Agra from Allahabad in 1610. Indian tourists sat on it to get their photos taken. The throne was once hit by a cannonball, and it was so solid that it did not break at the point of impact. There was a small divot, but the force of the impact split the slab on the opposite side. The cannonball bounced off of the throne and hit a nearby marble wall, creating a round hole. We wandered through white marble courtyards surrounded by gardens of interlocked jigsaw puzzle shaped green and purple plant beds. This was called "Anguri Bagh", or the Garden of Grapes. There was a seemingly infinite array of marble archways known as the Diwan I Am (Hall of Public Audience). The angle of the late afternoon sun caused the shadows of all of the columns to be aligned with one another, yet the sun still managed somehow to make the interior area of the building glow. Green hedgerows around the perimeter looked very pretty. The red sandstone of the fort inlaid with contrastingly white marble Islamic geometric designs shone golden in the late afternoon light. Long shadows played upon the architecture, giving it even new dimensions. We passed some monkeys and one of them charged me and actually growled as I took a picture. They were getting into all kinds of trouble – taking people’s food, raiding garbage cans, etc. Shortly after 5 o’clock we headed home. We greeted Sunita's mother in the sitting room and sat down to chat. There was now electricity, and I used Mukul’s computer to write up a blog post. Sunita made piping hot ginger and squash fritters, which were quite delicious. Two of Mukul and Sunita's friends came by for a visit. The electrical outages were a popular topic of conversation, as Agra has been experiencing them regularly. Now that the sun was down, Mukul reminded us we had wanted to photograph a pink lotus in the garden which only blooms at night. It was a gorgeous hot pink color. So strange to have a flower which blooms only at night. At 7:15, Sukumar drove Mukul, Craig, and myself across town to the house that Mukul’s sister Mamt shares with her daughter Dipika and son-in-law the Colonel (whom we had previously met on the train from Jhansi to Agra). The Colonel met us outside with his enthusiastic golden retrievers Damru and Junior (aka “W”). Mukul’s sister gave us a very warm welcome. Her daughter (Mukul's niece) Dipika is the principal at the Colonel’s Brightland Public School that we had visited yesterday, but she had not been there that day due to the Karva Chauth holiday. They were all quite lovely people and showed us the utmost in hospitality. The Colonel has a good sense of humor and we enjoyed chatting with him. “Savories” (various snacks) were placesd on the tables and we were told to help ourselves. The Colonel offered us a drink. Craig had a beer and I had a vodka and mango juice. Mukul’s sister saw to it that we were served fresh piping hot fried potato snacks. We talked about the school and the fact that if I had the time I would love to come to India to volunteer to teach English to the students. The Colonel said that I could stay at their place as long as I didn’t mind being woken up by dogs and roosters. Mukul mentioned that Craig collects stamps, and the Colonel presented Craig with a first day cover of the stamp honoring his father, a poet. I took a photo of the family and Colonel told the dog to “Salute!” and he immediately sat up on his hind legs for the photo. The appetizers were great and they kept bringing out more. After eating a good number of them, we remembered that Sunita was at home cooking dinner. Oops! good thing we have good appetites! We drove back home and Sunita already had dinner on the table – their "house" kadhi, dahl, okra, and chapatti. It was delicious. We really felt that if we were able to consistently get this quality and variety of food, we could easily be vegetarians. We ate with Sukumar and enjoyed chatting. After dinner, we showed Sunita and Sukumar the photos we had brought from home. Sunita showed us a nice album of professional photos from Sukumar and his fiancée Sonam’s engagement party in May. The power went off briefly again for part of the evening. We chatted with Sunita and Mukul until around 9:45. We went to our room and journaled until around 10:30, at which point we went to sleep after another long, satisfying day. |
             
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