P.C. Seema Latha

I can’t believe it took me this long and so many destinations before I could make the trip to one of the seven wonders of the world – the Taj Mahal.

It’s most probably the first destination on a non-Indian tourist’s itinerary to India. Despite my love for travel, the Taj Mahal somehow had not lured me. Perhaps, it was because of the stories I’d heard that the hands of those who built the structure were cut (a myth, apparently) so, they wouldn’t be able to make a similar structure or that the monument was no longer beautiful as the marble had yellowed with time and that the place around it was dirty and shoes get stolen, that I hadn’t added it to my bucket list. And yet, I decided to visit it when we decided on a trip to Amritsar.

It’s funny how life plays out. If anybody had told me in college that I would make the trip to the iconic monument of love with two classmates whom I barely spoke to in college, I would have laughed. But life is funny, isn’t it? You never know who’s going to be on the journey with you or who is going to join you on the way or turn up from the past and decide to stay.

Well, the two friends I went with belong to the last group. I can’t say why we didn’t speak much in University. We were in our twenties, in a new place, trying to fit in and busy finding our tribe or atleast what felt like our tribe then. Hurtled by life’s waves, I guess we’ve ended up being polished more or less alike now. It took twenty-odd years for us to get here. And it took a trip to Agra to find out.

If you’ve been following my Delhi Diaries, then you know that the third person (our other friend) was to join the two of us after our visit to the Red Fort in Delhi. The car was to pick her up from the airport, pick us up from our hotel (which we reached an hour late) and then, we were to head to Agra. As visiting hours for all the monuments in Agra close by 6.00 p.m. and it takes around 5 hours to Agra from Delhi, we did not bother making any plans for the evening as it wouldn’t have worked out.

The journey to Agra was fun, only because we had lots to talk about since the last time the three of us had met when we had gone on a trip to Benaras in March 2022. Otherwise, a journey to Agra from Delhi, in October – 4 and a half to 5 hours on the highway at 2.00 p.m. with nothing to look at except dry, harvested fields on either side and pockets of fire lit to burn the agricultural waste is not worth talking of .

October marks the beginning of the famous ‘stubble burning season’ in Punjab and Haryana. Coupled with the North-Westerly Wind, it is the major cause of the low air quality in Delhi from October to February. But thankfully, other than a few sneezes and a little coughing, we were okay.

We stopped for a quick lunch at a food court on the way when we were at the halfway mark, not because we were hungry but because we needed a break from the mundane scenery. We reached our destination at around half past six.

On the way to the hotel, the driver informed us that Agra is famous for leather, marble, petha (a sweet made of white pumpkin, sugar, chemical lime( calcium hydroxide)) that is like a chewy candy. So, after checking into the Radisson hotel and freshening up, we asked him to drive us to a Petha shop where we bought a few boxes to give friends back home and for ourselves. The original petha now has several versions of it. If you’re a nut lover, I would recommend trying Paan Petha.

After buying petha, we went to one of the leather factory outlets where we bought bags, a belt, and shoes. The bags had brand names on them, but the pricing proved they were a copy. But they seemed good for a quick grocery-run or a walk-in-the-park ( enough to put your mobile, tissues, sanitiser, and house keys in). I have no clue how long-lasting the bag will be, but the store had a variety of colors and shapes, and the price didn’t really burn a hole in our pockets. However, I suggest you do your research well before going to Agra and check with people who’ve been there to find out the best stores to buy leather from. Drivers will generally take you to stores they get a commission from.

Hungry and with nothing more to do, we asked the driver to drop us at a good restaurant. The Pinch of Spice restaurant was filled with people, which meant it was good. So, in, we went and occupied the only vacant table. However, we didn’t find the food as great as what we had in Delhi. And it was pricey, too. We returned to the hotel to find live music playing in the restaurant in the lobby area (where the hotel serves the buffet breakfast) and one thought ran across all our minds, ‘We should have had dinner here.’ But, not the kinds to sit back and lament on spilled milk, we went up to our rooms, had a petha each, and went to bed. The sugar from the petha was enough to ensure sweet dreams before the next day’s schedule. We had 4 sites to visit in Agra(I had booked the tickets online).

Seeing that it might not be possible to visit all four at an enjoyable pace and have breakfast at the hotel (we did not want to give up on a good breakfast), we decided to give up two ( the Mughal gardens and a tomb).

Be dressed by 5.00 a.m. and leave to the Taj Mahal. Stay there until 7.00 a.m. latest and move on to Agra Fort, which is 20 minutes away. Be back at the hotel for breakfast by 10 a.m. (it closes at 10.30 a.m.), and leave by 11.15 a.m. to begin the journey back to Delhi so as to catch the 4.30 p.m. train to Amritsar.

Did I hear you saying, ‘Phew’? I’m not surprised. So, I’m going to tell you the ending of this day without putting you through the stress. We made it to the station in time and we saw both the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort, took loads of pictures, hired a guide at both places, and we had a sumptuous breakfast at the hotel before leaving.

Now that you know the ending, you can sit back and enjoy the rest of this post.

Visit to the Taj Mahal

Our driver (we had booked him for the trip from Delhi to Agra and back) took us to the Taj Mahal. Cars can not go beyond a certain point. There are electric vehicles that take you for a mere Rs 20 per person, from the dropoff point to the Taj Mahal. You should take it because it’s quite a walk to the entrance. And also, if you want to take good pictures of yourself, you don’t want to look sweaty. If you want to walk, though, you can. The path is clean with stores on each side selling magnets, petha, marble replicas of the Taj, pashminas, and a lot of other artifacts. And the stores beginning opening as early as 5.00 a.m.

The walk to the entrance from the drop-off point of the electric vehicles is around 200m. Even at 5.15 a.m. there was a long queue to enter. But, fortunately for us, that queue was for foreigners. For Indians, strangely, there was not much of a queue when we reached. All we had to do was show our online tickets and ID and enter.

We entered the grounds through the Western Gate which is supposed to be the best of the three gates to enter the Taj Mahal. I can’t compare as this was the only Gate we entered from. But the imposing red stone structure in front of us commanded respect.

Check out the eleven umbrella shaped marble cupolas over the central portion of the gateway and the octagonal shaped towers, surrounded by an open-domed pavilion. The beauty of the Gate is that verses from the Quran are etched on the white marble on the arch along with Hindu motifs in semi-precious stones.

Right across is a red sand stone edifice, which is known as Fatehpur Begum (one of the wives of Shah Jahan). It is erected on a beautiful terrace in her honor. Shah Jahan had four wives.

Mumtaz Mahal, in whose memory the Taj Mahal was constructed, was his second wife. The guide told us she died in the sixteenth year of her marriage while giving birth to their fourteenth child ( I’m not surprised if you’re shocked. We were, too). She was 38 when she died. As per historians, on her death bed, she reminded her heart-broken husband of their love and requested him not to remarry on her death and to build a paradisiacal mausoleum. Shah Jahan fulfilled her request by building the Taj Mahal.

It’s amazing how the gate hides the Taj Mahal from view until one walks through it.

You walk in through the Gate, not expecting to find an arched chamber inside with rooms. These have not been used for three centuries.

First sight of the monument of love

From the chamber, you get the first peek of the Taj. It’s nothing like what I had expected. had not expected it to take my breath away. I thought I had witnessed enough beauty in the world to be impressed by it, but I was wrong. I had not been ready for the splendor of the Taj (1632 AD- 1648 AD)

I don’t know if it was the quiet whiteness of the marble
against the dawn sky
Or the symmetry of the edifice,
the way it rose from the earth
at the end of a carpet of green lawn
Or the blue waters and the brick red pathway
with perfectly manicured trees
marking the distance between me and it
Or the manner in which the sun’s first rays
touched it, lighting it up in ways
that only a lover does.
But, seeing it blush
left me bewitched
And made a poet of me.

In the distance of the above picture, you can see the Taj museum.

Of the eight wonders, I have seen the Colosseum in Italy and Petra in Jordan. They are each beautiful and unique in their own ways. But there’s something about the symmetry of the Taj that is captivating.

As per UNESCO, ‘The Taj Mahal is an architectural masterpiece in the Indo-Islamic range of architecture.” It appears like a square, but if you look closely (which I noticed while writing this post), the base of the minarets is octagonal. If you had to draw the base, you would draw a shape with 12 angles.

You need to pay an additional amount of INR 200 per person to enter the mausoleum. There’s no need to take off shoes anymore. A cover is provided for the shoes outside the Taj Mahal which you need to put on before stepping on to this raised platform. Notice the four point star created with the diamond shaped marble on the floor. Everywhere the eye looks, it sees a geometrical shape – hexagons, octagons, square, rectangles, semi-circles, triangles and the entire image created in the brain is one of harmony and symmetry.

No photographs are allowed inside the mausoleum. The octagonal chamber in the centre has the cenotaphs of the Emperor Shah Jahan (on the side) and his Queen, Mumtaz Mahal (in the centre of the room). The bodies are buried underground. The cenotaphs are surrounded by marble balustrades with motifs made from semi-precious stones. The motifs are that of fruits and flowers.
Everything is simply perfect- the curve of the arches, the roundness of the domes, the tapering minarets and the uniformity with which motifs have been painted on the walls.

We did not go to the mosque for want of time. The Taj Mahal is closed to visitors on Fridays. It’s the only day of the week the mosque is open to local muslims for prayers.

The Taj Mahal stands on the banks of the river Yamuna. Notice how the dry landscape on the banks of the river Yamuna is in stark contrast to the green gardens around the Taj Mahal.

A closer look at each below

We left the Taj Mahal satisfied souls. I am awed by its splendor. It must be appreciated that it’s beauty has stood the test of time. To think that man could create something so exquisite, so perfect, three hundred and fifty years ago when there was no technology or specialized tools is remarkable. I did not visit it to pay homage to what many call the ‘epitome of love’. I visited it to see what made it one of the eight wonders of the world. And having seen it, I am in awe of the hands and the brains behind it- the architect, Ustad Ahmad Lahori, and every man who was involved in creating it.

The guide informed us that after constructing the Taj Mahal (1632- 1648 AD), Shah Jahan wanted to construct a similar structure in black marble which would be his tomb. As per the guide, Shah Jahan’s son, Aurangzeb, considered it an unnecessary waste of money and imprisoned him at Agra Fort in July 1658 until his death in January 1666. As per records, Aurangzeb killed two of his brothers, chased his older brother out of the kingdom and imprisoned his father in the Agra Fort but that would have been to usurp the throne. Shah Jahan’s only request was that he be kept in a place from which he could see the Taj Mahal. Aurangzeb complied with this request. After Shah Jahan’s death, his daughter, Jahanara, got a cenotaph made for him and placed it beside Mumtaz Mahal’s.

An interesting fact the guide told us was that the foundation on which the Taj Mahal is built is made of timber which should have rotted by now. But it hasn’t because its moistness is retained due to the Yamuna river flowing alongside.

To see the room where Aurangzeb kept his father check out Part 2 of the Agra Visit.

I’m participating in Jo’s Monday Walk challenge.

Last but not the least, here’s a link to my debut novel, Coming Home, in case you want to check it out. And if you’re in India, this is the link. If you enjoy a story on love, life, loss, relationships and family, set in India, then this is for you. ‘Coming Home’ is available on Kindle as well as Paperback. It’s free for KUL subscribers. Check out what others say about the book on Amazon and Goodreads.

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