Agra Trip

I woke up hearing an alarm on my wife Preeti's mobile. She got up with me and turned on the light. I was struggling to open my eyes while she shook me and placed a box on my hands. I was still trying to figure out what was happening, she asked me to open the gift wrap. Its then i realized this was a surprise gift on my birthday. There was a letter inside the box with letters in different colours. I gathered it was a sweet poetry written for me but was way too sleepy to read or understand it. I thanked my wife for being so sweet and almost hit the bed again when she asked me if i read it. She was clearly dissapointed at my lack of excitement. I turned on the lights again and started reading the letter. Its then i realized she had booked a trip for us to Agra on our second wedding anniversary. My birthday falls very close to our anniversary and valentine's day. No wonder she was terribly dissapointed that i didnt read the letter fully. It took some time for the news to sink in for me.

On Friday the 13th of Feb began our journey to Delhi. Our flight was delayed and reached pretty late in the night. Luckily for us the cab driver waited for us and took us to Gurgaon where Preeti's branch hotel is located. It was almost 1 AM when we hit the bed extremely tired. We woke up by 5 AM to get ready and leave for Agra. The same driver who dropped us the previous night came to pick us up at 6 AM. The weather was really cold in Delhi and we could feel it all along our journey to Agra which is a 4 hour drive. We reached Agra around 10.30 AM and sought the services of a tourist guide to Taj Mahal. My first trip to Agra was when i was 9 years old, too young to fully understand history and architecture. This time i am going with my wife on a valentine's day a day before our anniversary :-)

Agra has more or less remained the same for the past 21 years. Traffic had increased a lot and so has pollution. We had to get down from our car a KM before Taj and board an auto run on batteries. I thought it was a good initiative by the govt to control pollution close to Taj.

No matter how many pictures you see of the Taj, it can never create the same affect as you see it in person. It was such a splendid sight and a spectacular monument in marble. I was also a little saddened to see the pure white marble has turned to brownish yellow because of pollution. There were more foreign tourists then Indians at the Taj and most of them were busy clicking pictures. Preeti was doing the same and she loves to pose :-) We were listening to the guide who was narrating the history of the Taj. We saw the replica of the tombs of Shajahan and Mumtaz inside the Taj. One of the seven wonders of the Taj is nothing but a graveyard of a mughal king and his wife !!! My wife have me a look as to what i will build for her......
I had read about some imperfections in the Taj and how it used to be a hindu temple before, checked out those and thought controversies will surround such historic sites even after 500 yrs.

We went to another beautiful fort close by called the Agra Fort. This is where the builder of Taj Shajahan was imprisoned by his son Aurangazeb. The guide we hired was a middle aged man who had a lot more knowledge about the fort. It was very interesting to listen on mughal history and see the splendid architecture inside the fort. We also visited the mirror palace which was supposedly the queen's bathroom !!! It was beautiful indeed and we were raving about how pampered these kings and queens where in their lives. It took us close to 3 hours to see the fort.

We went shopping later in the day and it was fun going through the bustling streets of Agra. we started the same evening back to Delhi, another 4 hour drive in heavy traffic while we approached Delhi. We were extremely tired by the time we checked into the hotel. Gurgoan is a suburb of Delhi where all the thriving corporates and malls are located. They look pretty good at night.

The following day was our anniversary and we decided to look around Delhi. This was Preeti's first trip to Agra & Delhi, wish we had the time to see more places like Fatehpur Sikri, Red Fort etc. We checked out from the hotel and went to see Qutb minar. We stopped at Rajkot to see Gandhiji's samadhi, followed by Lotus temple. We also went to Rashtrapathi Bhavan, India Gate and took loads of pictures. There was heavy security around the area being so close to the parliment. Preeti was determined to see all the VIP's houses, so the driver took us on the roads. We saw Sonia Gandhi's house on 10 Janpath and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's residence.

Our short weekend trip was coming to an end by sunday afternoon. Our parents and friends had called to greet us on our anniversary. We went to the airport and surprisingly the flight was on time. This was one of the memorable trips of my life, it took me totally by surprise. I should be very thankful to my wife for the surprise gift on my birthday, it was very sweet.