THE TAJ MAHAL AND BEYOND

AND IT WASN'T EVEN RUSH HOUR!

Next day started our two days of travel. Day one took us to Agra and its many incredible monuments to include the Taj Mahal. But first, to get there………………. The distance from Delhi to Agra; and later from Agra to Jaipur is 200 KM/120 miles. Each trip took us 4 1/2 hours. Much of each day’s trip was through villages – one little road going through, but some was on what we would consider a 4 lane highway, i.e., two lanes in one direction; median strip, and two lanes in the other. PUT ALL THOSE THOUGHTS ASIDE!!

HOME MADE TAXI PUT TOGETHER FROM SPARE PARTS - NO LICENSE NEEDED

Example: if one is traveling south (together with the other vehicles, people, and animals as listed above) but there is no exit on that side to get to where one is traveling, one simply travels to a break in the median, does a “u-turn”; travels back against all oncoming trucks, busses, cars, auto rickshaws, bikes, pedestrians, holy cows, camels and goats. But here, instead of just beeping the horn constantly; one now also flashes the lights so the traffic (human and mechanical) recognizes this and allows this “whatever “ to not only go from south to north, but also east to west across all this traffic to get off the road. An incredibly intense experience even though we really never feared for our lives! At the end of each trip Rance repeated one of his favorite sayings, “Cheated death again!”

CAMEL POWER

Along these routes was the heartbreaking time for me, not to mention the trauma to the bum! The 3, 4, and 5 year olds dodging the different modes of traffic to beg at a car that looked like it had someone there who could give them something; the filth; the squalor; all underneath the frontages of so many beautiful buildings hundreds of years old – also in gross disrepair. WHY??? So hard to see these things about which we can do nothing. After our last day’s trip from Agra to Jaipur – again 120 miles; 4 ½ hours of constant potholes and dodging vehicles, children, and holy animals – Rance put everything square for me when he said “Do you think the Adopt a Highway program would catch on here?”

Rance will certainly give you our impressions of the beauty and history of the country. As we normally do, I write the “human interest” stuff; he’s the informed tour guide. Truly, this was the perfect example of “Nice place to visit, wouldn’t want to live there!” It’s just difficult to leave a place like this and think that we can only visit – can’t really do a thing to make a change.

VIEW OF TAJ FROM RED FORT

Just to cover Agra quickly: it is the home to the Taj Mahal, which is one of the most beautiful sites in the world. Shah Jahan built it as a tomb for his beloved wife, and it is truly a jewel. You can see it from his palace/fort across the river, from which he gazed at it after being deposed and placed under house arrest by his son (his son, the 6th Mogul ruler was much more interested in fighting wars of consolidation and didn’t understand why you would spend that much money “just for a woman” – even if she was his mother). The Taj is entered gradually, through walls, courtyards and a final gate.

SUBLIME

This last gate allows you to see the Taj for the first time from its shadows, and it gives the intended impression of coming into another world, or passing from the profane to the sacred, or of being reborn. When you first enter that inner area it is best simply to sit and let it sink in to you: it is so pure and perfect, so graceful and symmetrical, so exquisitely inlaid (although that detail is best revealed on closer inspection), that you truly sense a feeling of awe and reverence. Neither words nor pictures can truly do justice to this experience, so I’ll quit with the first and let the pictures try.

AMER PALACE AND PROTECTING FORT

Next day another trip to Jaipur, with a stop along the way at a fort which Akbar built to celebrate the long desired birth of his first son. He had three wives: one Christian, one Hindu (the mother) and one Muslim – an equal opportunity polygamist – plus lots of concubines. It’s good to be king. This fort was beautiful and in good condition – it had been abandoned after only 8 years of use, since the water supply was not reliable. Not to worry, Akbar built a lot of other ones, too! This was noteworthy in that all three wives had their own buildings with their own touches (for example, the Christian wife had gothic type arches in the motif instead of the usual Muslim ones), but the Hindu wife who had given him the son had by far the largest and most splendid palace. They all seemed to get along, and would meet to play a sort of giant Parcheesi game with concubines as the pieces. When you consider the alternative life outside the palace, their lives were good and they were apparently very content, both wives and concubines.

PLANES, TRAINS AND ELEPHANTS

The next day we took a tour of Jaipur, called the Pink City due to its sandstone colored buildings. It had been built in the 18th Century, and had been laid out systematically (for an Indian city of that era) with wider streets and consistent architecture, at least in the old part of town. But first we passed through that old town to visit an even older one, its predecessor Amer, built on the hills above Jaipur. This palace was beautiful and its history interesting as always, but if the truth be told we were sort of getting burned out by this time (information overload!) Nevertheless it offered some spectacular vistas, and included an elephant ride up to its gates. Very cool. It too was protected by a fort higher above it, but that fort is still owned by the current Rajah (they still have them!), so not open to the public.

Back in Jaipur (by car, not by elephant) we visited a jewelry store with its own work shop in the rear where they polished and set the stones. The semi-precious stones were done using an electric polisher, but the precious ones were done by hand, with the artisan manually spinning the grinder by running a bow across a wheel. (Yeah, OK, we did buy some jewelry, but nothing of interest to any girls in the family.)

DEVICE TO MEASURE CAPRICORN

Next stop was the astronomical facility built by the founding Rajah, who was a passionate astronomer; in fact, he built several across the whole country so that all Indians could have access to its information. It included an extremely precise sundial that could measure to an accuracy of 2 minutes. Its real function, of course, was astrological: it appears that most Indians then and now believe in Astrology, including our obviously well-educated guide: he would not consider doing anything significant in his life, like getting married, choosing a mate for his children, or embarking on a trip without consulting several astrologers, providing the time and place of birth of the relevant people, and looking for a consensus among their readings. And yes, everyone with whom we met or spoke had been married to someone chosen by their parents, and they not only felt it natural, but very acceptable.

SHY LITTLE FRIENDS

Most people with whom we had contact were vegetarians and gave us a good introduction to the cuisine of India. The food was excellent, although a bit confusing at first. It would be easy to be a vegetarian here since the vegetable dishes were so good. Two stand out: an eggplant dish with incredible spices and flavors, and a potato/cauliflower thingy that was even better. The only meat we ate was chicken, and both the butter chicken (flavored like the eggplant) and Tandori were superb. We drank Kingfisher beer with those meals, when we could get it (some restaurants were not only completely vegetarian but also alcohol free). And always bottled water, even when we brushed our teeth. For those of you concerned about our wine consumption, have no fear! Despite all water and dietary precautions taken, we did get a touch of Delhi-Belly on the last day. Luckily, our tour agent had arranged for us to be able to return to our hotel and not check out until 6 PM before our long, long, trip to Australia. This was a relief, in more ways than one!

All in all, an exciting, stimulating and interesting visit, with all its different pros and cons. We did shop there, although the constant hovering by the attendants was a bit off-putting. In Agra, we were taken to prescribed, very up-scale shops all contained in one beautiful building – the whole thing designed for tourists who probably had money to spend and possibly the very wealthy Indians. We weren’t even ALLOWED to shop “among the people”, and sadly, wouldn’t have wanted to. In one rug store we were almost smothered by the ones they kept unrolling for us. But they were beautiful, from Kashmir, and more may be seen of one ---- after November, on our dining room floor! Needless to say, we’re hoping against hope that what looked magnificent in a showroom in India will be even more magnificent in southwest USA.

The other aspect was tipping, which seemed almost incessant. Our bags would go from one helper…. to another….. to another – just on checking in to a hotel – and all expected (and received) a tip. In both mens’ and ladies’ rooms, there was often no toilet paper in the stall, but after washing hands, an attendant was always there to give paper to dry hands ---- rolled up toilet paper. Ah yes! Tip!! Rance’s hand became chafed from reaching into his pocket! As we were finally taxiing away from the Jaipur airport (having walked across the tarmac to reach the plane), Rance pointed out the window to the ground guide giving back-up directions to the pilot and, with horror in his eyes, said “Oh, my God! Go back! There’s a guy I missed!”

In any case, we enjoyed India, but were also quite ready to move on to Australia.