In my earlier posts I tried
to give as much information on Agra-The city of Taj and about the Tajmahal
itself. I still feel few articles are just not enough to do justice describing
this great monument and architectural master piece. However, in this last post,
I thought it would be nice to give the first hand experience of my visit to the
city of Taj and my experience with Tajmahal.
This was my second visit to
Tajmahal. But every time one visits this monument the excitement and curiosity
level is the same. This time we went by Taj expressway, which itself provides a
world class travel experience. The expressway saves a lot of travel time. We
could reach Agra in just 2 hours from Delhi enroute Mathura –the city of
Krishna , which we visited on our return journey.
After a brief stopover at a
hotel named ‘Taj Agra’, we headed towards Tajmahal , which was just a kilometer
away. The word ‘Taj’ is in the soul of the city. The shops, hotel, and
restaurants - everything has taj attached to it. So staying in hotel with ‘Taj’
attached to it only added to our excitement.
One reaches Taj enroute the
Agra Fort, another great architectural piece. Taj is just about half a
kilometer from Agra Fort. The visicinity of Taj is full of activities. There
are guides looking for potential clients. There are camel rides, autos and
small tempos offering ride till Tajmahal which is about 250 meters from the
parking area. One has to use bargaining skills to get a good price or else one
feels cheated at the end of the day. The parking is always full and congested.
There is a meena bazaar and small shops selling souvenirs and a few eating
joints in the periphery of parking area.
I was little disappointed
with the facilities as it don’t fit the standards of this great wonder of the
world. Parking area is shabby and congested. The touts and guides irritate
sometimes when they are after you persuading that one needs a guide and to
avoid long queues. Every year millions of tourists visit Tajmahal and I somehow
feel that a system should be in place that allows a minimum of waiting time.
Anyways since the queue was
really long, we had no choice but to hire a sober looking guide who also
promised to take us inside through another gate (south gate) where the queue is
not long. Although contrary to his promise, we had to stand in queue for about
20 minutes.
Finally we entered the Taj
area. The very sight of the Tajmahal makes you forget everything right from the
long queues and the congested parking area. The moment one sees the Taj, one is
forced to say” no wonder, it is one of the Seven Wonders of the World”.
We could see the pride and
excitement in the eyes of the Guide explaining every bit about this monument.
The guide seemed to have good knowledge about the monument and its history and
he kept on testing our knowledge too. For instance he asked if we knew the real
name of ‘Mumtaz’. It appeared to me that the guide always felt the same
excitement and enthusiasm explaining this monument to each of his client. He
constantly called for our attention when he explained something about the Taj.
One can see the excitement
and enthusiasm in everyone around the Taj premises. Everyone seems competing on
clicking the best possible photo of Tajmahal from each and every possible
angle. Taj definitely is photographers delight.
There is a small museum
inside which has few paintings, artifacts, weapons etc of Shahjehan era. The
gardens surrounding Tajmahal is equally beautiful. Taj is known for its amazing symmetry and our
guide did justice to his job describing it in great details.
Taj is famous for its
“optical illusion”. The gateway is adorned with rich
embellishments such as floral arabesques inlaid in white marble, made from
precious gemstones, decorating the spandrels of the arches and especially the
ingenious black marble inscriptions of Holy Quran that are exquisite examples
of the expertise of Shah Jehan's calligraphers. An optical illusion has been
created here that the size of the lettering is consistent all over the arch
from top to bottom. It was done by gradually increasing the size of the letters
in a pre-calculated manner as their distance from the eye increased. This
effect is used as successfully on the main doorway of the Taj itself.
The tomb of Shahjehan and
Mumtaj always attract lots of visitors and there was yet another long queue for
entering the tomb. These days entry to the real tomb is banned .So we decided
not to enter and rather enjoy the beauty of Taj from all angles. The Yamuna in
the backdrop offers yet another dimension to the beauty of Taj.
The time just flies when
one is in the company of this mesmerizing beauty. We were inside Taj complex
for about 3 hours and still felt it wasn’t enough. But as is said “time never
stops” for anyone, it was soon dark and we had no option but to leave for our
hotel with the memory of this great monument in the back of our mind.
