Day Trip to Agra

I've known all along that I wouldn't have much time to travel and see other parts of India on this maiden journey, but I quickly decided that a day trip to Agra to see one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Taj Mahal, was a certainty. I booked my bus passage through Rao Travel and in the last minute Simar decided to come along.

I recently met a really sweet taxi driver named Ravi on one of my many trips between Zorba and the Embassy and elsewhere and have been calling him often. He picked me up at Zorba at 5:00 am this morning. The bus left an hour later from the neighborhood of Vasant Vihar which is where my pianist Arjun and his family live. The bus was comfortable with mostly Indian tourists aboard and soon we were out of Delhi and stopping for a road-side breakfast.

Our first stop in Agra was the very impressive Red Fort, an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Red Fort and the Taj Mahal bear testimony to a civilization which has disappeared, that of the Mogul Emperors. Agra's history goes back 2500 years but only during the rein of the Mughals did it became more than just a provincial town.  This 16th-century fortress of red sandstone was built in 1565 by the Emperor Akbar on the right bank of the Yamuna. Within its 2.5km-long enclosure walls it contains many fairy tale palaces such as Jahanguir Palace and the Khas Mahal, audience halls and two very beautiful mosques.

The Emporer Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal, was imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb in Agra Fort from which he had a view of the sublime building he erected for his deceased wife, Mumtaz Mahal. There in the distance it shimmers.....