Travelogue

They say – “When u expect the least out of something somehow someone up there ensures you get the best”. Expectations and results of it have always fit into ironical frames for me. So “Sidhe point pein aaonaa”.I am really making most out of my life when I reckoned with my usually erroneous crystal gazing that this time my life would be work, fast bucks and work and Whew…….

Well my first travel tryst worth a remembrance was the suddenly planned drive to Agra. The actual plan was to go to Fatehpur Sikri but somehow the picturesque beauty of Taj in our minds subjugated the real plan and we changed our minds on our way. It is going to be Agra first and then if time permits we would go by our usual plan of Fatehpur Sikri as well. We had two cars and 8 people. Comfortable and easy to fit in all the travel enthusiasts. This was the first time I was traveling in the north as in with a bunch of friends. My experience on trying roadside dhaba food has always been amazing to narrate. Each time I had a newer version and a more desirous palate to try something new. We started early morning and reached the Delhi –Meerut highway at around 11am.We all were badly wanting some food after the hilarious trials on our vocal chords during the drive.

So came the dhaba and they serve Parathas. Any kind any stuffing name it and it is on your platter. Well sea food lovers like me will not get prawn parathas here please. Aloo, gobhi, pyaaz, paneer, cheese anything and a huge glass of lassi. So we ordered a mix-“Let us taste all of it”. One each type and so they arrived. Royal they looked on the plates with the “Desi “butter melting on it daintily. In a spick of a second I forgot my daily gym routines and how my instructor has apparently warned me away from such tempting embellishments for the platter , mind and palate simultaneously.”Koi gal nee puttar”, said Manish winking (Manish is my childhood buddy).

Usually my eating habits as a Bengali has taught me that we eat some form of cooked vegetable with bread of any form. But aghast and alas. How do we eat these parathas? The answer is – Extra Butter .So came cubes of butter again. And lastly we quenched our thirsts for a second trial on our chords with a glassful of lassi. With our stomachs completely glutted we restarted our journey towards Agra. The roads were fine as we tested our vocal cords for any sort of bearable melody and tune. Well I really don’t know how melodious it sounded to our ears but yes, the trials were hilarious so was the laughter that trailed behind.

Huh…..We finally reached Agra. The town has many beautiful gardens. Though we did not have time to visit them which of course prompts us to have a second trip but they all seemed beautiful as we passed by them. Finally, we reached our destination.”The Taj Mahal”. Outside any famous monument in India, we find fake travel guides who apparently walk all of us through the history of the building. Well they cannot target us for all the easy bucks but for the foreigners it is easy. They are already mused by our culture and the architecture and it is easy to extract 600 INR for a narration which may not be completely authentic as well. I saw a white paying a guy some odd 500 rupees for what I don’t know! After parking our vehicles in the parking lot we had two options, either walk or take a carrier to the tomb. We chose the latter. A camel carrier J Manish ran to sit on its tail and it smelt awesome: -) What about the WOW(Women on Wheels). We chose seats which smelt less of the camel though there was no such space completely devoid of it. The experience was like that of a shacky dilapidated caravan slowly moving towards it destination with awesome fragrance of camel dung and the malodorous curtains hanging behind. Still I call everything an experience good or bad. At least it helps us opine which is a major part of triggering our grey hormones at the top. So we finally reached after our tryst with dilapidation and odor at its best.

I was impatient to see The White Beauty. I had heard a lot from my grandmother, mother, father and a trail of people who have been here. As I appeared the slit as physics would call it. I mean the entrance I had my natal glimpse of the beauty carved out of white stone. The closer I walked smaller it seemed and the farther I moved the larger it seemed. Well, law of optics and physics reminisced well in front of a historical legend. So I finally saw it. If I can pen down my feelings which are usually at its crest ,I would say I was mesmerized to see a white carvature standing tall beneath the clear blue sky. History says it took 22 long years to build this epitome of love- a prefect edifice signifying that eternal love existing beyond the realms of life and death or u can say mere existence. Perfectly shaped, it felt like I am standing in front of an acme of human talent in architecture.”Beauty at its best”

One of my friends blurted –“You are feeling so because it is the first time and you are still a kilometer away from the building. The government has not maintained it well.” True it sounded as I approached the building .It struck me that if our government had taken steps to maintain it how it would have looked. All the more enchantingly and divinely beautiful and magnificent more than what it is now.”Try on some anti wrinkle cream” like our silver screen queens of the olden and golden era. ROFL J. We were supposed to remove our shoes before we entered the tomb. The marble floor was really hot due and we turned around to see people tying polybags on their after they removed their shoes. Where to get them? They are sold outside which we were unaware off as we all were first timers in Agra. We ended up walking on the floor bare foot and finally reached the interior. We saw that the government has created a facsimile of the actual tomb on the top on order to avoid any crowd rushing underground where the Mumtaz actually rests .

I could not avoid the usual scripts on the walls of Indian monuments – “Pooja I love u –Ramesh” with a huge heart sign scribed beside. The bigger the heart seemingly more the ishq.My friend was right in saying that the closer you come to the building the lesser beautiful it seems.After our tryst with the wonder of the world we decided we should visit Fatehpur Sikri as well. However we had some die hard beer lovers with us who would move a step without the can and that’s when we were inspired to plan a next trip to Fatehpur Sikri. Our trip ended with a sumptuous lunch comprising Hyderbadi Biriyani, raita, parathas, aloo Dum etcetera with beers and breezers.

On our way back we did not forget to pick up some really nice Pethas for which Agra is famous for, besides the Taj and the Lunatic Asylum.:-)We missed the latter one purposefully guessing one of us might end there sometime in life. That way others will visit at least once.

Ciao