Sunday, August 27 Fatehpur Sikri, TAJ MAHAL

We all woke up extremely early for the second leg of our journey, from Jaipur to Agra. The drive took six hours, and the road was mostly good, but it was apparent we had reached Uttar Pradesh when the road became bumpy and filled with potholes. Uttar Pradesh has 200 million people, and is the cow belt of India. It encloses most of the Indo-Gangetic Plains, a vast, agricultural area stretching from Delhi to Calcutta. It is the heartland of Hinduism, but is also important to Muslims and Buddhists. The most famous sites of Mughal India can be seen here, exemplified by the Taj Mahal. The Mughals were a Turkish Muslim military ruling family who invaded and ruled northern India for two centuries until British rule. Gunpowder and superior military power enabled them to take over most of India. They let local kings rule over their territories, acting as a federal government, taxing these kings and amassing wealth. With this wealth they were able to build many cities and monuments, mostly in their capital cities of Agra, Fahtepur Sikri, and Delhi. We passed a highway Bharat Petroleum station where six employees waved to us to stop and get gas. Only in India would you have six people whose job it was to advertise to buy gas on the road. The turbans worn by laborers are different from Punjabi ones that are more often seen by Westerners. They seem racially offensive because it is a cloth tied around the head, but not in any particular way. On the way to Agra we stopped to view Fatehpur Sikri, which many people told me to visit in India. The royal city of Fatehpur Sikri near Agra was the seat of Akbar The Great’s government. The tolerant Akbar, the beloved Muslim ruler, was told by a holy man to construct his capital at Fatehpur Sikri. There he built a city, combining Hindu and Muslim architecture. The city was abandoned due to a lack of water, leaving the elaborate palaces, formal courtyards, reflecting pools, human-sized chess board, harems, tombs, and mosques largely intact and unspoiled. The complex was surrounded by huge sandstone walls, and had a white marble mosque with intricately-carved windows. You can pay to make an offering to the Sufi tomb, and hawkers are everywhere, selling postcards, jewelry, and marble handicrafts. We got into our hotel in Agra soon afterwards. Turns out Vijay is friends with the owner of Clarks Amer hotel. Luckily he made friends with the owner of a chain so we can stay here for a discount in both cities. I opened the curtains of my room and almost had a heart attack because a monkey was looking right at me from the window ledge. The hotel had good lunch, including a veal stew! I was shocked. We all got on the bus for the Taj Mahal. I got all dressed up in my best clothes because chances are, today I’ll be taking the photo that will be used as my Christmas Card. I made sure my hair was perfect, too. I was really excited to visit the Taj Mahal, because even people who don’t particularly enjoy touristy monuments are surprised and blown away by the beauty of the Taj. We had to offload the bus for an electric bus to minimize pollution around the building. Then we got off next to a swarm of hawkers, camels, horses, and bicycle rickshaws. The mode of transportation gets progressively smaller; what is next, a dogsled? While walking to the gate, hawkers were harassing me, so I told them I wasn’t interested in buying any jewelry, but I pointed at someone else and told them they were interested, and amazingly, they went to harass them. Usually the only thing that works is ignoring them. Indians are very optimistic people; ‘No’ means ‘Maybe’, ‘Maybe’ means ‘Yes’, and ‘Yes’ means ‘I’ll Take Two’. The Taj Mahal is the most famous example of Mughal architecture, and the most famous building in India. It is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, a World Heritage site, and timeless symbol of love. The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum built in the 17^th century by Shah Jahan as a monument to his wife who died in childbirth. It is situated on the south bank of the Yamuna River, originally meant to face an equally-commanding identical black marble monument. Unfortunately, his son Aurangzeb imprisoned him and did not allow him to realize this dream. The tomb took 20,000 workers and 22 years to complete. It is covered completely with shiny white marble that changes color depending on the surrounding sky. The Taj is adorned with semi-precious stones inlaid in the white marble, and scriptures from the Koran chiseled into the façade. Immaculate gardens of grass, trees, and reflecting pools surround the tomb. These gardens allow the person buried there to ascend to heaven from heaven on earth. It is not a typical Muslim tomb, which is supposed to be located at the center of a garden. The tomb itself is completely symmetrical except for Shah Jahan’s tomb alongside his wifes’, not part of the original design. Demonstrating the beauty of the Taj, the designers placed optical illusions within the building to make it more ascetically-pleasing. Because the eye sees far-away objects as closer together and smaller, the minarets face outward (which is also beneficial in earthquakes), and the calligraphy is small at the base and gets progressively larger as it goes up the tomb. Just as impressive as the outside, the inside is covered with floral carvings and semi-precious stones inlaid by expert families. This art is extremely difficult, and the families keep the art a secret. When Hillary Clinton asked one such family the secret, they replied, “I’ll tell you when you tell me the recipe of Coca-Cola”. Sadly, the Taj has become extremely commercialized. Everyone who goes to India comes here. With a ticket you get a bottle of water and booties for your feet. I’m surprised you don’t get a free toy with your ticket. Vijay says he’s been here about sixty times so far. Good thing he gets the Indian rate of 20 Rs, compared with the foreigner price of 750 Rs, 37.5 times more expensive. Some of the Indian people tried to get in fro the Indian rate, without any luck. I thought of one way I might have been able to; pretend like I was a deaf person. For obvious reasons, security was stringent (prohibited items include electronics besides cameras, extra clothing, tripods or bipods (how a ‘bipod’ is possible is beyond me), arms, explosives, food, and cigarettes). I’m glad that security is very tight. However, I hardly see the Taj Mahal as a major terrorist target; it’s the most beautiful Muslim building in the world. While my friends continue to remind me to stay vigilant in India, I feel like the safest places for me to be during terrorist attacks are mosques. Blowing up a mosque if you’re a Muslim extremist would be like killing your own mother. Waiting in line, I got really antsy and almost peed my pants. The place was swarming with tourists. Walking through the sandstone doorway, the white marble of the Taj Mahal was visible, absolutely stunning. However cliché it sounds, this is the most beautiful building I have ever seen. Because it was sunset, the white marble was reflecting the yellow skylit color. Tourists crowded around, waiting to take pictures from the perfectly symmetrical spot in front of the reflecting pool and row of trees leading to the tomb. I obviously went trigger-happy snapping photos. I also had people take numerous photos of me. We got a guide to explain about the mausoleum, and then we took a 40-person group picture. The center of the complex has a pool and benches, the most photographed spot of the Taj Mahal. From there I went to the tomb itself, which was very intricate and the inside was the fake tomb of Shah Jahan’s wife Mumtaz Mahal, who is actually buried in the ground under the tomb. You must remove your shoes; however, you can touch the building if you want. The sun was setting over the dirty Yamuna River in back, which faced the rest of Agra, including Agra fort and a lot of farmland and power lines. The onion-dome of the Taj became purplish red, matching the color of the sunset behind it. We left the monument because it closed. I don’t think they’d like the idea of a slumber party at the Taj Mahal. Everyone was harassed by hawkers while getting on the bus. My ear is still resonating with the sound of “Friend, friend, friend, friend, friend,” etc. One kid was trying to sell postcards from outside the window, so Kelly closed it, which he opened again. Kelly closed it again, and his hand was caught in the window, so he screamed, reminding me of a bratty kid yelling at an evil babysitter. He didn’t leave, and as the bus started to move, he jumped and grabbed onto the windowsill and rid it, still trying to sell us postcards. Unfortunately I had already bought five books to send to people, because I give him an A for effort. When I got back to the hotel, Nikhil had bought swords, and we had a swordfight.