Hello Everyone! We left Delhi early mornng on Sunday and started our 4 hour drive to Agra. The drive was very interesting and eye opening. We saw how the locals live such simple lives and always look so content. They use cow dung for fuelling their ovens and they build cow dung huts to shelter themselves when it rains. I even learned that some casts of then Hindu women cover their entire faces(like a Burkha) out of respect for their inlaws and their husbands, so it is not just a Muslim thing. We saw many IT institutes along the road, rickshaws crammed with upto 15 people and banana stands on every corner. We have starbucks in North America and these guys have banana stands. We arrived to Agra this afternoon and went for lunch to a place called Indiana. We had lamb and chicken tikka kababs and also Afghani kababs called Malai kababs which were really good...Rahim you could eat them too. We also had thali which was pure veggie. We also had hot and sour soup. You are probably wondering what kind of mix is that? Well restaurants here have a bit of everything..so we wanted to try.
So we arrived to our hotel and then meet our tour guide to start our day tours of Agra. We learned a lof more about the Mogul emperors of the 15th and 16th century. Akbar the Great was the third Mogul Emperor and he was quite liberal and tolerant of all religions in India. He had 3 wives, one Muslim, one Hindu and one Christian. His Hindu wife, Joda ,was his favorite and the movie Joda Akbar was about their lives. Anyways Akbar's grandson was ShahJehan and he was the one who built the Taj Mahal for his wife, Mumtaz. Azam and I saw the tomb of Akbar, and then we saw the Taj Mahal. We know understand why it is a wonder of the world. It is an architectural and artistic masterpiece. It has a lot of Muslim motifs and was just amazing to see in real life. We got attacked by all the local nuisances trying to sell us all kinds of trinkets and useless items and we had to dodge them a lot so that was the only downside. We then saw the rest of his palace and also Agra Fort. We saw where ShahJehan was exiled and saw the views to the Taj Mahal from his place of exile. The tour guide told us that exile was actually more like house arrest because he was exiled into his own home and most literature doesn't really mention that.
We then went to see local craftsment show how the art of the jewels and marbles that adorn the Taj Mahal are actually done which was interesting to see.
We are leaving Agra tomorrow to head to Jaipur but we will be going to Fatehpur Sikhri first to learn more about the Moguls.
I hope things are well back at home for all of you. Take care..I will update this from Jaipur!!
