A quick trip to Delhi and Agra

After a very long time am back to blogging. Last week we had a long weekend and that’s when a colleague and I decided to visit Delhi and Agra ( I know you all are collectively rolling your eyes…. And you are right…. It was toooooooo hot as the airhostess informed us almost gleefully on landing that the outside temperature was 46degrees C. ) As soon as we got out of the airport we were enveloped in heat. That was when I started sympathizing with the chicken (from the freeze to the oven).
We were eight of us including 4 kids. We had hired a car to take us around. First stop was the Kochar International hotel at Karol Bagh. It’s not much to look at from the outside but the hotel is definitely ok to spend a couple of days if you are not looking for 5 star accommodation. The a/c was in working condition and there was hot/cold water. There’s no restaurant but room service is available round the clock.
It was late evening by the time we got there. So after freshening up we went to the green park area and had dinner at anand bhavan there. It’s a good restaurant. The “chat” is def yummy there. After dinner we browsed around a bit and got back to the hotel.
The next morning we left for Agra. It’s about 220Km from Delhi. The roads are good. There are quite a few tolls on this highway NH2. Once you leave Delhi border you have to pay the out of state Rs500 tax. In between there are a couple of tolls where you pay about 50 and 25 Rs. On the way we stopped at the Manglam restaurant. It’s a rajasthani restaurant at Bhulwana (if I remember correctly). I liked this restaurant as the food is good and most important the rest rooms are extremely clean.
Once you hit UP you get to see people traveling on bus tops. It reminded me of all the emails with these pics which I thought were a bit too much. Seeing is believing. The rickshaws were also ferrying people many times over their capacity. I guess even the manufacturer would not be aware of the capacity of their rickshaw. Being Sunday it was market day at most places. There were trucks carting unbelievable amounts of fodder. The amount in each truck defeated all laws of gravity/ Newton and whoever else came up with any laws in physics.
It was past noon when we reached Agra and the Taj. There’s a lot written about visiting Taj on a full moon night . We were the ones to visit it in peak hot season in blazing sunlight!!! As soon as you enter through the main entrance it’s a feast to the eyes. After getting our fill of looking at the Taj and when the eyes did wander a bit we were puzzled by the sight that met our eyes. People were running. At first I thought they must be kids playing. Must be a school trip as we were pretty far off. But then it looked as if mostly everyone was running. We were now definitely puzzled. As we neared the Taj we realized that one has to remove footwear and then go up to see the Taj. Imagine 46degreesC is the temperature….. the marble is HOT and you just dip you feet in a small pool of water and then walk on that surface. No wonder people were running!!! The kids were disappointed that we had come all the way to the Taj and couldn’t go in. As it was too hot and even though they did try to walk without footwear their feet were soon burning up. So my friend and I decided to go out again and get the protective covering that was worn by some over their footwear. Were we in for a rude shock when we reached the main entrance. We were told that since the ticket was only Rs 20 for Indian tourists there were no footwear covers given. For foreign tourists since the ticket was much more, they were given the covers and a bottle of mineral water. My only grouse is the least the board of tourism can do is that put up a proper board saying that one has to remove footwear prior entering the Taj. So a person is prepared. The other thing they could do is keep a counter selling the footwear covers for Indian tourists. They will definitely make money. We walked out for 20mins in search of a shop selling these covers. No go. Finally we managed to get some covers and came back. Then we got down to actually going inside the Taj.
Whenever I visit a historical monument I always wish I could get into a time machine and visit that era and see the grandeur.
Just a point here. You cant take your car all the way up. So you have to park it at the car park quite a distance away and get a ride in either a rickshaw or a cycle rickshaw. The kids wanted to travel in a cycle rickshaw and after seeing the way the autorickshaws were being driven at break neck speed we opted for the cycle rickshaw. It’s Rs30 each way. On the way back we bought some of the renowned Agra Petha (which is a delicacy of Agra).
As it was nearly 1430hrs by the time we left, we were really famished and we stopped at a South Indian vegetarian restaurant (yes we did have south Indian food in the north).
After leaving Agra we visited Fatehpur Sikri. Just as we were reaching Sikri a man almost jumped on the bonnet of our car. We were shocked. When we stopped he introduced himself as a guide. So I asked him why he nearly committed suicide. He told me that it was off season. So he had not got a tourist for nearly 2 days. It really saddened me. So that was the way the guide found us instead of us finding a guide. Here too one has to remove footwear. So we left ours in the car itself. Though it was 1700hrs it was still hot but not as bad as earlier. The fatehpur sikri fort is immense and the Bulund Darwaza as the name suggests is really huge. I love this place. I had visited it in 1988. As the story goes… Akbar the great had 3 wives. First one was a Moslem, 2nd hindu and 3rd Christian. So the architecture of the sikri fort has all three styles. The pillars are in the hindu style with Islamic scriptures and the dome is in the Christian or Roman style. Inside the fort is the durgah of Shaikh Salim Chisti. Akbar did not have an heir and it was only after he took Chisti’s blessings that he got a son. After that Akbar built the durgah in red stone and later Jehangir (when he came to know the story behind his birth) rebuilt the same durgah in marble. Even today many people visit the durgah with the hope that their wishes would be fulfilled.
We left sikri and reached Delhi at midnight. The next day we were all a bit tired and decided to take things a bit slow. So we just visited the Qutb Minar. Then Humayun’s tomb. Saw the Lotus (Bahai) Temple from outside as it is closed on Monday.
A bit of shopping and lunch and we headed back to the hotel and then to the airport. Our delhi/agra sojourn over. It was back to good ole Mumbai and to the grind. I must mention here that even though it was so hot the kids enjoyed themselves and there were no complaints about the heat. It’s important to remember and drink water continuously in that heat even if you do or don’t feel thirsty as one can easily get dehydrated. An enjoyable long weekend.