Taj Mahal - A Supreme Prodigy

 

Ik junoon ek diwangi …. Har taraf har taraf hai ……

I opened my eyes with the latest song from the movie Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and turned the alarm off which I had set yesterday night for 5 AM. In an hour me and my family had embark on a road trip to Agra and witness the most beautiful marvel of the world, The Taj Mahal. Since I am vacationing in my hometown Jaipur; it’s fairly laid-back return drive to Agra in a day. We started at around 6:15 AM, the drive was around 4-5 hours one way and hence we also planned to cover Fatehpur Sikri,

Fatehpur Sikri is a city and a municipal board in Agra district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Built near the much older Sikri, the historical city of Fatehabad, as it was first named, was constructed by Mughal emperor Akbar beginning in 1570. It was built in honour of Sufi saint Shaikh Salim Chisti, who lived in a cavern on the ridge at Sikri, and foretold the birth of his son, who was named Prince Salim after the saint. He later succeeded Akbar to the throne of the Mughal Empire, as Emperor Jahangir.

Via Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatehpur_Sikri

From Fatehpur Sikri, Taj Mahal is just 1 hr drive, we touched Fatehpur Sikri at around 10:30 in the morning. At the diversion to Fatehpur Sikri from the main highway, you will find several youth troubling everyone to hire them as a guide but you can shoo them off because you can find basic info about the things to do there in this blog but if you are concerned about complete historical facts then yes you can hire one of them and remember that not to pay them more then 250-300 inclusive of all plain expenses which contains,

# Government CNG bus service, 5/- per person

# Door keeper to guard your footwear, 5/- per person

We paid 250/- for 5 people. Fatehpur Sikri is a remarkable place to watch and learn history about. It also has Buland Darwaja which is considered to be the biggest of gateways in Asia.

After an hour of excursion it was time to carry on our trip towards Taj Mahal. The rest of the drive was just 35 kms but the route goes within the city so it takes much longer time then you anticipate. We arrived at around lunch time and scheduled to have lunch before visiting the Taj Mahal.

Tip No. 1 – Places in and around Taj Mahal are insanely expensive with no worth to offer, the food we ate would have cost us practically 200/- anywhere in India with the class of restaurant we were in but the hotelier charged us almost 800/-. So either go to a five star or to a hotel away from Taj Mahal or pack your own food.

Tip No. 2 – the west entrance gate of Taj Mahal is always busy with tourists because its where all restaurant and normal parking is presented. So if you want to beat the crowd then you might want to consider the gate on the other 2 sides.

Tip No. 3 – You will find bullock carts, camel carts and government operated electrical vehicles which will take you till Taj Mahal Entrance from the gate entry point. Please don’t waste your money on that because the travel distance is not even 200 metres.

You will need to buy the entrance ticket which is about 20/- to get inside Taj Mahal. And remember that food stuff is not allowed inside so don't get any.

It was our misfortune or ill fate because we managed to pick the most despicable day of all. We chose to go on Sunday which wasn’t a regular Sunday, it was Sunday just after the largest festival in India, Diwali. Hence the whole country was on break and apparently each one of them was inside Taj Mahal. There was a mile long queue for both to buy tickets and to enter inside.

Tip No. 4 – Here also a tourist guide is not compulsory until you are very much interested in Taj Mahal’s ancient information. And if you hire one then again don’t pay him more then 300-400/-

Tip No. 5 – There is a different higher valued ticket for 510/- too which will help you to beat the crowd but this ticket will help you only while getting into a special queue to get in Taj Mahal. This will also earn you a free ride on government operated electrical automobiles which I cited earlier.

We still hadn’t recognized the volume of people were there to see the Taj Mahal until we got inside and the only words to label the circumstance was “Utter Chaos”

Tip no. 6 – Try to avoid weekend to visit Taj Mahal, particularly weekends after a festival

But as soon as you see the greatest mystical prodigy of all you will overlook everything. Taj Mahal in pictures is nothing, you can appreciate the brilliance only when see it in front of you, it’s just mesmerizing. The structure is so colossal that you will be astonished for first few seconds and rest of the time you will just keep ogling at it’s striking splendour.

Because of the crowd it was evident that if we try to get inside Taj Mahal, it will straightforwardly take the almost 2 hrs, you don’t believe it!! Well the following pictures will help you to accept it,

But we decided that if we have come so far then we will go inside which regrettably resulted into a waste of time because when you are inside Taj Mahal then you cannot see Taj Mahal, which SUCKs. Moreover inside Taj Mahal is just a Tomb of Shah Jahan’s third wife Mumtaz Mahal.

You need to take out your shoes before entering into Taj Mahal. There are shoe lockers available so please make use of it. Lets try to keep it clean and spotless.

Tip No. 7 – If you don’t have time then avoid going inside Taj Mahal, even the background of Taj Mahal is also not so remarkable.

In the end I would say only one thing is that I have not seen anything more massive and yet the most stunning in my life yet and everyone must pay this amazing place a visit once in their lifetime. Even a glimpse of it is worth a treasure.

We the people

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Yesterday I saw in the news that the accused arrested in Malegaon case are all granted bail. I started thinking that if it goes like this then the day is not far when all of us will die like any other beggar or pig. Forgive my language, my words are harsh and impolite but that’s reality.

Let me tell you what does US stands for?? It represents,

# Who does not have any Political background
# Who does not have any police correlation
# Who does not have nerve to fight against immoral
# Who does not have Strength to fight against immoral

“US” are the people who just want to be in this world peacefully.

Today no one wants to accept the reality, everyone is living in their own wonderland, people have time to gossip and condemn but they do not have time to make things any healthier. I know that many of you wont agree with me and many of you will say “There he goes again, doesn’t he have ANY work in the office”, I do have work in office but my obsession of writing and a blaze inside to do something does let me stop.

INDIA is filled with mainly 4 categories of people,

1. People who are not concerned about ANY thing in this planet, they don’t read newspaper, they don’t track any kind of information database, they are not worried who is Kasab, they don’t have any idea who is Pratibha Patil and these are the people for whom Indian president is either Manmohan Singh or Sonia Gandhi.

These people don’t have any Idea where world is going, they are not worried who is dead who is alive they just know that they have all the money in the world to buy anything. These are the people who don’t know what happened in Mumbai 26/11 (Believe me I know such people, I m not at all exaggerating), these are the people who say “This politician is good because he is from my constituency”!!! These People sleep all their life and cry on INDIA’S fate when they find roads are filthy, there is a traffic jam or when there is no electricity. They abuse to everyone but will never make a tiny effort to take accountability and attempt to make it alright.

2. This category of people are my favourite, they know each and everything what’s happening in this country BUT they don’t have endurance or guts to do anything, the best part is they don’t want to do anything. They just gossip about everything and each such topic ends with the note “India has no future”.

Country is in agony largely because of these people. They don’t want to stop on RED light if Cop is not there and if someone still is following the traffic rules they mistreat them. These people pass judgment on politicians that they don’t do anything, what have they done to pick a good politician?? They find faults on EVERY SINGLE THING about this nation but since they are SO IMPOTENT TO DO ANYTHING, they just adjust themselves and begin criticizing those people who in fact are trying to make differences by their efforts.

This category is SO HOPELESS I can barely give any explanation. They can’t even handle little things what they will make difference to the India.

If something is incorrect then instead of complaining about it they just get adjusted to that or they shout on that gatekeeper, housekeeper, sweeper or that waiter who they know cannot shout back on them. They just know to chatter and disapprove of things but when reality comes they are prepared to lick ANYONE’S ASS.

These people deserve to die in terrorists assaults. You will not do because it did not happen with you !!! Are you waiting for it to happen with you then you will act in agony ??

I bet that 50% people will not even recognize the person in the adjoining picture.

3. Third group is the people who are in reality doing something to make difference and generally get killed by our politicians or by terrorists, they are NGOs, Army, NSG, SALUTE to them but I don’t want to mention police because in my eyes they are still not doing anything apart from to humiliating us.

4. The final kind is what my friend (Arvind Mathur) called the other day is NANOrity, people like me, I want to do something for my country but my difficulty is that I m not permitted to do it because I have many responsibilities to deal with, I m not permissible to do anything which could jeopardize my employment. People have told me not to waste time by writing blogs at the time of recession because if someone finds out then my profession could be at stake. But dilemma is I am not normal, I JUST CANT ABSORB SOMETHING IMMORAL, I want to do all those things which will help me facing myself in mirror every morning.

# I am the person who stops on RED light EVERY SINGLE TIME.

# I am the person who raises his voice against WRONG instead of ignoring it.
# I am the person who is prepared to go to any degree against WRONG instead of changing my opinion.

# I am the person who does not pay bribe.

# I am the person who throws the waste in the DUSTBIN.

# I am the person who says THANK YOU even to a waiter, auto driver and even to the person who comes to collect my tea cup just because I am using his services, he is also a human being and he desrve appreciation too.

# I am the person who says SORRY if it’s my fault instead of fighting in the middle of the road.

# I am the person who follows the queue instead breaking the line and feel smart about it, LOOSERS.

# I am the person who does not allow food to get wasted, I don’t mind taking small quantity twice.

# I am the person who knows the significance of time.

# I am the person who knows the importance of money.

# I am the person who knows the meaning of self Respect.

I have not done anything enormous but I m self pleased.

I wanted to inscribe much more then this but the dilemma is if I write a lengthy blog people wont read it so what’s the use, anyways I don’t think more then 15 people out of 130 to whom I send read it :-)

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