Where to Begin...Our Journey to Agra.

In an effort to make things easy for ourselves, we planned this trip a week prior at Thugs when we read about a Government-run tour that coincided with the daily Taj Express train from Delhi.  Considérant que l’on allait visiter un truc très touristique, on pensait se simplifier la vie en optant pour quelque chose d’organiser. 

Fidèles à nos habitudes, nous avons visité 4 bureaux avant de finalement pouvoir acheter nos billets avec U.P. Tourism… mais c’est governemental, donc ils ne peuvent pas réserver le train pour nous, nous devious nous y render.  En route vers New Delhi Railway Station, nous avons laissé tomber l’idée de débuter un cours de yoga aujourd’hui.  Exploring all 4 corners of the railway station before finally finding the Tourism Booking Office, where Emma was told that due to her student visa, she was not considered a tourist and had to book in “General Quota” matlab (= meaning) 2^nd class, local population.  Well, us people were about to live a very cultural experience!

5am, the morning of- Parmjeet, our lovely Indian driver who understands f**k all in English (and later we were to find out, could barely read Hindi), is at Neelpadem Kunj to greet us.  At least he knows driving… or so they say.  Train left on time, so we had high hopes.  We were very much enjoying the experience, sharing our seats with a family that offered us food, small children dancing/begging for money in the isles, tea venders, etc.  Emma also enjoyed her first “Times of India”, in its proper context.  Turned out the Taj Express did not live up to its name – we boarded at Agra Cantt 2 hours late, implying that we had missed our tour.  Somewhat fortunately, there was an Indian family in the same boat as us and they argued in Hindi for an arrangement instead of a refund. We waited for the taxi driver in Indian Stretchable Time (IST), i.e 1.5 hours, missing the ancient city of Fatehpur Sikri. Instead, we visited an Hindu temple that has been under construction for the past 180 years. It is believed to be done purposefully, as it encourages craftsmanship in the region. Well, we can now say that under marble, there is brick!

We met up with the group for Agra Fort – a massive majestic red sand stone fort and palace, created by Emperor Akbar in 1565 and completed by Shah Jahan.  It became Jahan's gilded prison for the last 8 years of his life, as his son emprisoned him for having spent 40 million Indian Rupees of the public money to build the Taj Mahal. Le guide nous a montré de quelle façon Jahan pouvait avoir un regard sur son oeuvre - il utilisait un pièce de monnaie, à l'aide de laquelle, avec les rayons du soleil, il arrivait à avoir un regard sur le Taj, construit au nom de l'amour de sa bien-aimée. Two thirds of it is currently under military occupation, but the third that we have seen was well worth the visit. 

What is so beautiful about these buildings is the exquisite marble screens and the pietra dura marble inlay work that reflect and shimmer in moonlight. Again, our guide positioned us in a way that allowed us to see these effects with the sunlight. 

He went on to show us about the Hall of Public Audience where you could stand from any point and be able to see and hear the Emperor. Thanks to the sound architecture of the time. In response to this, the father of the family said to his son: "This is what we were, our potential, and what we can still become."

Last, but not least -  Taj Mahal

The most extravagant monument ever built for love.

“On ne voit bien qu’avec le coeur, l’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.” – A. Saint-Exupéry