Swapneel Shah

…This post is part of the Rajasthan Trip series of posts where I record memories and experiences from the trip…

After a decent day at office, Friday evening I rushed toward Bangalore City Junction (SBC) to check the status of my ticket… Confirmed!!! And the journey started on a good note… The journey by Karnataka Express was mostly uneventful, except for the 45 minutes between Itarsi Junction and Bhopal Junction; which deserves a separate post outside of the trip… Will write it soon… After a 36 hour journey by the Indian Railways, I reached Agra on Sunday morning…

Yes, a Rajasthan Trip that  started from Agra (Uttar Pradesh)…

Getting out of the Agra Cantt station I was invaded by loads of Rickshaw Drivers and I thought I was prepared well with the inputs from Nimesh and Pravin last night from their experience… But still ended paying out 20 Rupees to reach the hotel which was hardly few hundred meters away from station… For the first time I thought the Rickshaw’s in Bangalore were lot better… Getting ready, our first task was to reach out Fatehpur Sikri…

On the way from Agra to Fatehpur Sikri-

100's of pilgrims walking to some place in Rajasthan... (Picture looks nicer in full resolution... Click to enlarge...)

From the outskirts, even before reaching Fatehpur Sikri, we were literally attacked by so called guides at all corners, while getting passes, while parking and even directly blocking our vehicle… We kept going mum and saying a ‘NO’ again and again until we finally came to our first structure of the trip Buland Darwaja…

Buland Darwaja - meaning 'high' or 'great' gate in Persian, is the largest of gateways in the world. 53.M high and 35 meters wide.

As we walked up the 42 stairs, we were again greeted by another set of aggressive guides and finally we gave up and hired one for Rs. 30… At least it kept the rest away as we already had one!!! I didn’t really care about the long history of years, emperors, wars, etc. etc. that our guide was enlightening us with… Nimesh and Mayur were keen on listening and I chose to click and look around… Also got a good group snap clicked from our Guide… For me, thats the best a guide can be used for… So thats the four of us who were on the trip…

Mayur-Nimesh-Pravin-swapsshah

Yes, he indeed told us an interesting fact about the place – Few scenes from a Shahrukh Khan movie Pardes were shot here… That was good enough for me…

Entering in from Buland Darwaja, the sheer size of the rectangular Jama Masjid amazed me… The Buland Darwaja and the Tomb of Salim Chishti are also a part of the mosque complex…

Jama Masjid- The mosque Architecture marks the phase of transition in Islamic art, as indigenous architectural elements were blended with Persian elements...

Jama Masjid- Architecture on the other side of Buland Darwaja... Taken from left side of the Tomb of Salim Chishti...

By the time we were done with the pace of our guide and others following him to each complex in the area it was almost 11:30 and since Taj Mahal was the major point on Agenda we skipped nearby places like Panch Mahal, Diwan-i-khass and Anup Talao and headed back toward Agra…

………Continued on Page 2 (Agra- Taj Mahal)