Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri
I am back in Delhi after a short trip to Agra. Agra is really big with monuments – all from Mughal period. Apart from the wonderful Taj Mahal, I went to see Agra Fort and the fort at Fatehpur Sikri. The 2 forts were used by one or more of the Mughal kings during their tenure as king.
Taj Mahal didn’t impress me a lot – I don’t know why is this counted as one of the wonders. But I think the same thing applies for a lot of other wonders also. I have also come to realize that I just don’t have an eye for recognizing the beauty in the monuments. Here is the magnificent Taj Mahal:
The thing that impressed me the most about Taj Mahal was its painting-like look. If you look at it from a distance, you don’t see anything behind that and it just looks that somebody has put a large painting there. It looks so 1-dimensional. I have often heard people liking a good painting by saying “This painting is so real” but I have never heard the phrase “This real monument is so beautiful to look like a big painting” – I guess that’s the beauty of Taj Mahal.
Some of the pictures from Fatehpur Sikri and Agra Fort:
The tour guides outside the Fatehpur Sikri are easily the most annoying guides one will come across. They will pester you to death if you decide not to hire them – I had an awful time keeping them away from us – and more so because they saw a white lady with me, an easy prey for them. I even thought of paying them once just to keep them away – the place really need to put some checks if they want to keep attracting tourists.
i can totally understand, how terrible can these guides be, mine was organized by the routes guys as i had to show around Agra to my clients so had hired a car from gurgaon itself, but theys guys are seriously sick and oppertunist, they made me pay at every pillar and post of agra.
but nonethe less it was fun trip, though honestly if i had to make it on my own (esp on my bike) i would rather be in the hills!!)
nice pics btw which cam?
Yeah, monuments never excite me much either. Now that I think of these guides – it was so funny. When I didn’t hire them, they started ‘insulting’ me saying in a very rude manner “Are you a king of some place that you don’t need a guide? What will you understand without a guide?” and a lot of other things that I can’t mention here
I think to enjoy the beauty of any monument, one has to relate it to history… Relate it to the time and think about all the people and events and things linked to it in the past. A monument is just another building/ architecture, but if you really think about the past and history related to it, one would probably start looking at these monuments from a different point of view. But for that a little knowledge about history… Or the information from the right tourist guides can help (although I totally agree that these guides are very irritating …till the time u actually hire one!!!). ultimately I think this is all individual interest… Like some people are fond of arts, some of science while some in Sports!
Nice to hear that your experience about india. we are also planning to visit these places.