Thursday 3-7-13
I got up early to join another IBMer on a trip to the Taj Mahal in Agra. We left at 7:30am as it takes 3-4 hours to get there. But as it turned out, this time we were taking the brand new Yamuna Expressway, built especially for the trip from Delhi to Agra. It also goes by the new F-1 racing facility in India. There was practically no one else on the road and we were soon traveling a swift 90km/hr to Agra…still took 3 hours. :)
The first building we saw in Agra was the Red Fort (there is one in Delhi as well – built by the same guy – but I’ll get to that in the next update). It’s called the Red Fort for the obvious reason that it’s built out of red clay bricks and so…is quite red. And quite old.
Then we got to the Taj Mahal where we had to switch to another vehicle (electric as no gas engines allowed near the Taj Mahal) and another guide (apparently the Taj Mahal falls under the auspices of the United Nations since it’s one of the 7 Wonders of the World, only UN sanctioned tour guides are allowed).
According to the official story Shah Jahan, a Mughal emperor of India (apparently he may not have been a Mughal) had married for the third time (he 47 and she 17) to a beautiful Persian woman Mumtaz Mahal, because his first two wives had bared him no children. As a Muslim he is allowed four wives as long as he takes care of them for the rest of their lives.
Mumtaz had 14 children and six lived to adulthood including four boys and two girls. On her death bed after delivering the 14th child, he professed his love to her and she said “prove it”. She had him make three promises. One, do not marry again. Two, build something lasting to show his love and three…I forget. Doh! Can’t find it on wikipedia either. Oh well, maybe Mark will remember.
There is a LOT to learn at this place and not the least is how the marble was made and how the gems were inlaid in it. All the color and art on the building is made from precious and semi-precious stones, inlaid in the marble! It’s incredibly detailed and manual process. We stopped at a marble place where the descendants of the original workers work and they make beautiful pieces. The marble is at once non-porous and very dense and also translucent! They actually put a light behind it and the marble glows! Here is a chess board I really wanted to buy…but it was $3,000!
After the visit to the marble place, we went to a restaurant in Agra and I finally found my yellow curry dish! It was kind of greenish yellow, but it was great! Mark was not too interested in expanding his horizons and so only had a bowl of soup. He did try it and thought it was too spicy. I think he liked the buttered Naan though…that stuff is like crack to me. Great meal!
We headed back to Delhi and as we went through Agra, there were a LOT of cows on the road…in fact, we saw one in the back of a cart, it must have been dead. Not sure what they do with the dead cows in India. I’ll have to ask somebody.
It was a long day and I slept like a rock, but we had more to see of Delhi starting at 10am on Friday!