Agra
After spending a day in Delhi - we headed off to Agra. Agra was the capital of India under Mughal rule. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_Empire
Driving from Delhi to Agra was quite interesting! My understanding of the road rules in North India is that there is only one rule -look after yourself!!! Apart from that everything else is just advisory. I saw people (including our own driver) clearly running red lights; others were driving on the wrong side of the road (it seems that the emergency lane is for driving up the other way!); lane markings were clearly ignored - you basically drive where ever you find space! In Australia we are quite used to finding slogans such as "Speed Kills", or "Because enough is enough" - but in Delhi it was funny to see signs like "Night or Light stop on Red Light" and "Lane Driving is Safe Driving"!
Although I'm quite used to seeing these traffic violations in Chennai (my home city) - they usually happen when the cars are moving at 40 kmh. But on this Highway to Agra, the speeds were approaching 100 kmh!!! It is no wonder that along the way we saw two overturned lorries along the way!
The best thing I saw (specifically for Martijn and Rebekka) were a few enterprising cyclists. As we drove along, we would periodically see farmers travelling along in their tractors (yes - on the same 100 kmh roads). So why trouble yourself cycling when you can 'grab' a lift? It was quite common to see cyclists holding onto the back of the tractor and easily coasting along! (I tried to take pictures, but we usually zoomed past and with the time lag on my camera, I usually missed it!)
At Agra of course the first thing we saw was the Taj Mahal. This was absolutely breathtaking! (Mehdi - credit for this goes to the Persian Architect who designed the Taj Mahal!) Supposedly it was initially even more beautiful with diamonds encrusted on the corners - however, these have long been looted by various invaders. (For the unaware - The Taj Mahal was built by the emperor Shah Jahan as a tomb for his most beloved wife Mumtaz. The story goes that he then wanted to make a similar one in Black Marble as a tomb for himself across the Yamuna river so that both the Taj Mahals could mirror each other. However, as he had almost bankrupted the state by building the first Taj Mahal, his son, Aurangzeb, imprisoned him in the Agra Fort, killed his own brothers and took over as Emperor! Shah Jahan then wanted to make sure no other building would surpass the beauty of the Taj, and hence had the architect blinded, and cut off the thumbs of all the stone masons so that they could never carve again!!)
After lunch we headed to the Agra Fort. Apart from being a military fort, it also has 16 palaces, state rooms, houses of parliament, public gallery for the emperor to meet the public, mosques etc. It also housed the jail that Shah Jahan spent the last days of his life in. After death, his daughter had him entombed in the Taj Mahal with Mumtaz. However, for giving her father that honour, she too was imprisoned by her brother Aurangzeb.
After visiting Agra I really wanted to watch "Jodha Akbar" again as it is set in this period!
Driving from Delhi to Agra was quite interesting! My understanding of the road rules in North India is that there is only one rule -look after yourself!!! Apart from that everything else is just advisory. I saw people (including our own driver) clearly running red lights; others were driving on the wrong side of the road (it seems that the emergency lane is for driving up the other way!); lane markings were clearly ignored - you basically drive where ever you find space! In Australia we are quite used to finding slogans such as "Speed Kills", or "Because enough is enough" - but in Delhi it was funny to see signs like "Night or Light stop on Red Light" and "Lane Driving is Safe Driving"!
Although I'm quite used to seeing these traffic violations in Chennai (my home city) - they usually happen when the cars are moving at 40 kmh. But on this Highway to Agra, the speeds were approaching 100 kmh!!! It is no wonder that along the way we saw two overturned lorries along the way!
The best thing I saw (specifically for Martijn and Rebekka) were a few enterprising cyclists. As we drove along, we would periodically see farmers travelling along in their tractors (yes - on the same 100 kmh roads). So why trouble yourself cycling when you can 'grab' a lift? It was quite common to see cyclists holding onto the back of the tractor and easily coasting along! (I tried to take pictures, but we usually zoomed past and with the time lag on my camera, I usually missed it!)
At Agra of course the first thing we saw was the Taj Mahal. This was absolutely breathtaking! (Mehdi - credit for this goes to the Persian Architect who designed the Taj Mahal!) Supposedly it was initially even more beautiful with diamonds encrusted on the corners - however, these have long been looted by various invaders. (For the unaware - The Taj Mahal was built by the emperor Shah Jahan as a tomb for his most beloved wife Mumtaz. The story goes that he then wanted to make a similar one in Black Marble as a tomb for himself across the Yamuna river so that both the Taj Mahals could mirror each other. However, as he had almost bankrupted the state by building the first Taj Mahal, his son, Aurangzeb, imprisoned him in the Agra Fort, killed his own brothers and took over as Emperor! Shah Jahan then wanted to make sure no other building would surpass the beauty of the Taj, and hence had the architect blinded, and cut off the thumbs of all the stone masons so that they could never carve again!!)
After lunch we headed to the Agra Fort. Apart from being a military fort, it also has 16 palaces, state rooms, houses of parliament, public gallery for the emperor to meet the public, mosques etc. It also housed the jail that Shah Jahan spent the last days of his life in. After death, his daughter had him entombed in the Taj Mahal with Mumtaz. However, for giving her father that honour, she too was imprisoned by her brother Aurangzeb.
After visiting Agra I really wanted to watch "Jodha Akbar" again as it is set in this period!
posted by Sandeep at 8:15 AM
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