The Taj Mahal, "family" and other observations

For those of you that saw my earlier blogs you know that I was a bit overwhelmed earlier this week.  I tried to take things a bit easier the second half of the week and took Friday off to make up, a little bit, for the Thanksgiving weekend/holiday that I missed.  Friday morning a driver arrived at 10 to take me to the town of Agra, home of the Taj Mahal.  The Taj Mahal ("TM" henceforth :-) ) is closed on Fridays so my only task that day was to get to Agra and check into my hotel so that I could go see it "early" Saturday morning.  (I use the term "early" rather loosely because a couple of months ago I would've defined early as 5 or 6 am, but since I've been here, early has shifted to 8 or 9am!  Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things when I get back to the US!).  The trip from Gurgaon to Agra can take anywhere from 3 to 7 hours, depending on the day, time of day, etc.  For us it took 5 1/2 to get there.  That probably sounds long and horribly boring, but I have to admit - it flew by.  I finished a good book that I was reading and then I spent a lot of time just looking out the window and taking it all in.  As I've mentioned before, I could spend all day people watching here because it's so different from what I'm used to.  There are SO many people and they are all just going about their business living life.  I don't feel like I see people looking frazzled and rushing about their day (which is how I envision myself and many others in the US).  Often, they are just sitting around at their vegetable cart or tire shop waiting for what life is going to bring them next.  I wish I could adopt more of that attitude.  It seems like if life doesn't hand me chaos/craziness the peace and quiet will unnerve me and I'll make up my own chaos!  Anyway, I took a ton of short videos and pictures on the way to Agra... all were very typical of the sights on the way there.  I often don't speak in the videos so as not to create any biases but pay attention to some of the following:

• There's a picture of some women on the side of the road in their gorgeous sarees.  As I've mentioned, the women's clothing is just beautiful, EVERYWHERE, along dirt roads, crammed on the back of mopeds or in an auto rickshaw, etc.
• There were a ton of tractors on the "highway", pulling carts full of grain or vegetables, or maybe just by themselves
• There are tire shops EVERYWHERE.  At first I couldn't figure out what was up with all the tire shops, and how they could all stay in business and then I realized, "DUH, Brillhart, there are rickshaws, bikes and cars everywhere and they ALL need tires!"
• Anywhere you go it seems like there is endless unfinished building construction.  I'm not sure if the builders just run out of money, or, if I understood correctly, it seems like builders may start projects illegally and the local gov't may turn a blind eye at first, but once construction is really underway step in and look for bribes to allow the construction to continue... so some builders just walk away

One of thousands of tire "shops"

A number of folks (note the ladies in their sarees...) crammed onto an auto rickshaw

Some older folks crammed on a moped

Some ladies in their sarees

I've also taken some videos during the trip, just trying to capture the typical sights and sounds as you drive through a "town"

And here's one that shows some unfinished construction as well as a makeshift shantytown on the side of the road.  That's the worst "housing" arrangement I've seen since I've been here, but who knows what I haven't seen.

Agra:

I arrived in the town of Agra around 3:30 in the afternoon on Friday.  I was staying at a huge, beautiful hotel (the JayPee Palace Hotel for for those of you that know the area).  When I got there my first impulse was to sign up for Wi-Fi at the hotel so that I could get on-line.  I realized that this constant need to be/feel "connected" had been a bit of my problem earlier in the week, so I decided to stay completely off the grid until I got back to Gurgaon the next day (other than a pre-arranged phone call to catch up with a friend).  It proved to be a good decision > I used that time to read, watch some videos I'd saved on my iPad, think and generally just "veg".  It was surprising to me to realize how almost addicted I am to being "connected" whether it's through e-mail, cell phone, Skype, FaceBook, etc.  What a wake up call!  Where did the days go, thinking back to my time living in Budapest 18 - 20 years ago when I managed just fine with no landline, no cell phone, no internet connection and no FaceBook!  (Though I was thankful that the office had a fax machine so my family could reach me with critical/important news if need be).  I think I'll need to start taking a "technology break" a bit more often. 

I was also surprised to realize Friday evening that all I'd eaten all day was some fruit for breakfast around 9am - yet I  didn't get hungry until about 7pm that night.  I experienced the same thing on Saturday.  As I mentioned before, I don't know if it's the food here or (much more likely) my malaria medication, but something is overloading my system.....So the break from food other than fruit and veggies for two days was a welcome change.  (I'm also thrilled to say that - in accordance with my doctor's orders - yesterday was the first day that I was allowed to exercise again so I got in a short 5km run in they once I got back to my hotel in Gurgaon. I'm hopeful that being able to exercise again will be helpful).

OK, I'll get to the Taj Mahal soon, but there's one last thing "pre-Taj" thing that I wanted to talk about.  I'm not entirely sure, but my guess is that my driver, Manish, that brough me to Agra, after dropping me off at the hotel took the car somewhere more "acceptable" and slept in the car while I slept in the hotel (he wouldn't have been allowed to sleep in the car in the particular hotel I was staying in).  I didn't quite know how to process this information when I first heard it.  It seems absurd.  Yet it's quite normal nnd accepted here. I still don't know how to process it.

Taj Mahal:

Manish picked me up at 9am and we headed to the Taj Mahal.  They say it's absolutely gorgeous during sunrise, so many people try to get there for that.  If I didn't struggle so much to get up every morning (really, how many different things can I reasonably to blame on my "malaria medication"???? Heck, I'm gonna take advantage of it while I can) I probably would've done that too.... but instead, I opted for a 9am pick-up time :-)  Anyway, after we got to the parking area, I didn't know he was going to do this, but Manish went with me to the TM.  First we had to get tickets.  I've heard that they've only charged for admittance for the past 10 years or so.  Entrance for an Indian national is 20 rupees (less than $0.50) and Entrance for a foreign national was 750 rupees ($15).  With the $15 you get a bottle of water, shoe covers (you either need to wear the booties, or take your shoes off before entering the TM - all of the marble can get hot in the sun, which is one of the reasons nationals like to go early), and a "tram ride" to get you about 1km closer to the TM.  Manish bought his own booties and tried to tell me to take the tram and that he'd meet me there.  That obviously seemed like a ridiculous idea to me.  After sitting in a car for 5 1/2 hours the day before a walk sounded good.  So we walked.  About 1/4 to 1/2 mile from the TM all vehicles are denied entry so everyone must walk from that point.  Once we got inside the "gate" there were often signs showing that "regular" ticket holders were to go one way and "high value" ticket holders were to go another.  It really made me a little uncomfortable and  left a bad taste in my mouth.  Here's an example:

Anyway, by way of brief history, for those that don't know (I didn't....) the Taj Mahal is a mausoleum to memorialize "Mumtaz Mahal" (the nickname for the third and favorite wife of Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal emperor.  Mumtaz Mahal means "Jewel of the Palace" and she died giving birth to their thirteenth or fourteenth (I've read differing accounts) child.  Legend has it that she asked the Shah to build her a monument so beautiful that the world would never forget their love.  It took 20,000 laborers  17 years to build the marble monument.  It's absolutely beautiful and completely symmetrical, other than the Shah's tomb.  (His wife's tomb is in the exact center of the inner chamber, which is smaller than I anticipated - it seemed to me to be just smaller than the size of a little league baseball diamond, and his is next to it. Though actually, they are both buried in a crypt below those structures that appear to be tombs).  The whole place, the gardens outside, the entrance the outside of the actual Taj - with the various flower carvings (flowers were believed to symbolize paradise on earth) and calligraphy (see pics below), and the inside of the monument are all just breathtaking.  I'm sure that my pictures don't capture it, but I tried!  Please see below:

The picture of above is the Taj Mahal from the front (you can tell by the tree leading up to it. Now here's one from the side, which will look amazingly similar!

I tried to get some close-ups of the beautiful detail on the outside of the structure:

This is some of the calligraphy, and below are some of the flowers:

Here's a video of the inside of the Taj.  I know it's not great quality, but I wanted to give you some sense of the size:

Heading "home":

After visiting the Taj Mahal Manish and I headed back to Gurgaon.  It's funny, I've only been here 2.5 weeks, but I'm make my hotel room here in the Courtyard Marriott in Gurgaon my home away from home.  I actually missed it when I was in Agra and I'm sure I'll miss it this coming week when I spend Friday night in Mumbai (I'll be working there on Friday).  When I went down to the restaurant to grab some soup and grilled vegetables (in various forms) for dinner, one of the guys that worked there was walking by, saw me, stopped and said "Hi.  It's good to see you.  How are you?  I didn't see you a breakfast this morning?"  I told him that I'd spent the night in Agra.  He asked which hotel and when I told him he said "Oh, that's a very nice hotel!"  I agreed, but explained that I really just missed it here.  He smiled and said "Of course you did, you are like part of our family now.  We know you, you know us, we know what you like, your preferences.  You are a part of us."  It's true.  It made me think back to the job I had years ago in Pittsburgh where I would often travel overseas for 3-5 weeks at a time.  Without fail there were always one or two people that worked either at the hotel or at a restaurant that I frequented that I'd connect to, that somehow made me feel at home - at what an amazing feeling that is.... In Glenelg (Adelaide) Australia it was the lade that made my to go latte each morning, in Buenos Aires, it was "Luz" who brought me my room service breakfast - and would let me know if my co-worker (who wasn't always the most responsible) was up yet or if he needed some "nudging", in Brazil it was a bartender who taught me how to make an authentic Brazilian Caipirinha (and who is still a friend of mine today, probably reading this blog).  I know that I often underestimate the difference that a sincere smile and a kind, genuine word can make.  I was telling a friend of mine about this a week or two ago:  I hope that I can manage to take a little more of that home with me > to get less stressed about getting done all of the work or other things I feel pressure to accomplish and take more time to just slow down, smile more, show a genuine interest in people and just be a little bit kinder.  When I get stressed or frazzled, those are the first things that go out the window.  I hope and pray I can learn for them to be so much more a part of me that they are not easily shaken.

OK, I'm sure I had more observations, but that's all that I can muster up for now.  Besides, I'm sure you are tired of reading this novel!

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All the best! 

Sheri