I've always loved this day. Only time of the year when parents, relatives, teachers, No one has a say on how you are supposed to spend your time. No one bugging you, no one running behind you shouting 'Go study! Perfect day to laze about. Oh, technically, we are not supposed to chat or use the net, or even read the papers on this day i.e. typing and reading, which ain't allowed for students, cuz they've offered their books and pens to the goddess. But well, we skip that part of the tradition. ;)

For me, this day always brought something special. The time to try out new stuff. 

Two years back was the first time I tried out travelling. It was a casual trip to Masinagudi, near Ooty. With cousins. 

A calm and unusually quite place, where if you are lucky enough you get to meet the wild elephants and horses, even a tiger. Or if you wake up early, you get to meet deer and peacocks. Going there alone might make the drive enjoyable and stay boring. Take a houseful of cousins or friends with you, like i did, and you'd have a memorable vacation. :)

And so.. back to the present. This year's Vijayadashami, It was a long trip to Delhi, made shorter by Air India. :P

It all started with a long wait at the Cochin International airport, and then three hours later, am in Delhi! :) (at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi).

My first time flying in a plane, and I was lucky enough to get the window seat. All I could see was blackness above, lights and clouds below. Yeah, unfortunately, it was a night flight. But I enjoyed every bit, well everything except the searing ear pain you get just before landing. I wasn't sure whether it was my imagination or was I really seeing stars, moon and clouds.. It was really beautiful. The lights of towns and cities below looked the same everywhere, but it had its own beauty.

Even dinner aboard was tasty. They served tea and coffee soon after dinner. But somewhere in between, even after that hot cup of tea, I fell asleep. After waking up I couldn't let go of the fact 'I was just flying in my sleep', and no, not in a dream. For real! :D

Am gonna skip those parts where we arrived, checked out of the airport, and a little while later, checked into our hotel.

First day in Delhi was spent visiting some of those buildings that Delhi is really famous for. The Parliament, The North Block, The South Block, India Gate, Humayun's tomb, Qutub Minar. The rest of the places we planned to visit on the third day of tour.

After lunch, it was time to set on almost a 4-5 hour journey to Agra via the Yamuna Expressway. This is one of the best maintained roads that I've had a chance to ride along, in India. There are toll booths, in plenty, rest rooms and small, yet comfortable coffee joints, chat and tea stalls along the road. Traffic is very minimum in these roads. I think its because it was a Sunday, or it might be because of the heavy toll amounts we have to pay for travelling via this route.  

These are some pics I took with my phone (Nokia 500), while driving through Yamuna Expressway. I took them while we were on the move, and somehow managed to get these clicks! The sunset was too good, I hope you could make that out from the pics. :)

We reached a little too late at Agra. Long after the closing hours of visiting Taj Mahal in the evening. So, we had to wait till dawn. And wow, the wait was worth it. We could see sunlight playing with the marbles, both inside and outside Taj.

Early morning, around 6, we started the short drive to Taj Mahal.

This pic is my first click of Taj Mahal. Any one reading this post might be having different thoughts. Mostly about why I didn't crop off the crowd, well mostly heads, at the bottom. But mine at the instant I saw this click in my camera galley, was that this is all Taj Mahal's about, admiring the view and clicking memories. If you look at it once again, you'l know what I meant.

This one is a side view, taken from the side where sunlight first hits Taj Mahal. You can literally see half of Taj shining and welcoming the first rays of sun.

After breakfast, we headed straight to Agra Fort.

Now over to the part that I was longing to write about. All the things above was just an introduction! =)

All I had mentioned before was about different photos, where and why I took them..

Now comes my 'thoughts' !

Back to Taj...

You know the feel that you get, with goosebumps, cold wind n all, while you're at a cemetery.. I got that eerie feel, when I stepped in through the Gates and saw Taj Mahal in front, in all its glory. Yes, its kind of a cemetery, a beautiful one at that, made out of love, from a husband to his wife. I couldn't really understand all the fuss about this last fact, that Shah Jahan had it built for Mumtaz Mahal.

Back to Agra Fort...

I entered this fort, with admiration. For the planning taken to build a city within walls, its architectural excellence, the carvings and paintings inside in rich colours of Red, Yellow, Green, Blue.. But as they say, don't judge a book by its cover. 

As I went further inside the fort, it was a pity to look at the walls of a certain room. This room was supposed to have precious stone-studded paintings. 

This photo should have been tough to click, if the walls still had paintings made from precious gems n stones, which would've reflected the flash from my camera. But thanks to the looters, that isn't a problem now. They did go through so much trouble to carve out every single stone from this room. Now all these walls have left is shadows of stones that once adorned these walls. The scratches still remain on the marbles, a grim reminder of wealthier times.

Mumtaz Mahal-Shah Jahan story never made any effect on me. I didn't feel any ''wow, am at Taj, hotspot of tribute to lovers'' effect. Of course I admire the craftsmanship, dedication and hard work Taj Mahal shows off. Yeah, I meant the love of Shah towards Mumtaz, that drove him to make Taj. I couldn't accept that somehow. To build an architecturally magnificent building, taking years, just to fulfil a promise to his wife. I had no answer for my confusing thoughts on love and buildings, and finally, I came up with the theory that Shah Jahan loved marbles. It was everywhere. At Taj Mahal, In his room, his seat at the Durbar, all of it were made of marble.

As I was walking around, looking at marbles carved on, painted on etc, I came across an open room full of  marble paintings. It didn't actually look like a room. It was like an open space in between two balconies. The tour guide told us that this was Shah Jahan's room.
This place, where Shah Jahan was supposedly jailed by his son, was the only part of the fort that was reaching out and had a comparatively good view of Taj.
The room looked charming and inviting, even though it was considered as a jail.. But, we weren't allowed inside. So, There was a huge crowd here, each one of them with a camera trying to take a click of Taj through the open balcony. The tourist in front of me succeeded! His camera had an awesome zoom and I could see Taj Mahal clearly. As for me, I didn't take any clicks of Taj from here.. I was far busy clicking the paintings on the wall, they were very simple, yet beautiful. The colours had no sign of ever fading away.

The rectangular spaces from where light is entering, that's the balcony. And if you get a good position and look closely, Taj Mahal is visible through this.

This whole trip, I tried to click everything that caught my eye. Photos make good memories, and sometimes, if you manage to capture that perfect click, it'l stay with you forever. Some great Photographers take their time until they get that perfect click. The one that conveys the message crystal clear,.. you get the idea.. :)

So, I went around the fort, trying to get a good click of Taj, not that I had a camera load of them taken from in and around Taj.. But The whole idea was to capture the distance between Taj and the place where Shah Jahan was jailed (Agra fort), and made to have only a glimpse of his famous Taj, where as we all know lies his love, Mumtaz Mahal.

Finally, from the farthest corner of the Durbar, adjoining the women's mosque (Medina), I got my click :) From here, I could see the projecting balcony of Shah's jail and a clear view of Taj, The Yamuna and greenery connecting both monuments. 

Now, am not an excellent photographer n all.. But seeing this one makes me think am one! :P Well, I can think anything I want cant I?! :)

From this point of view, the Taj at left, and Shah Jahan's room/balcony at right, that's when it all dawned on me. My whole confusion as to why would someone built something like the Taj, solely out of love. Now my way of thinking was, you're in love, then you build something beautiful for the other while they're still alive, and both get to enjoy its beauty. But why built something, that's way costly, taking years to built, that too after his love's death.
After taking the above picture, and seeing how the Taj and Shah's room are so far apart. You can imagine them reaching out towards each other, yet never reachable.
That's when it dawned on me.
 There was love, and more strongly, pain.

Pain defines our loss. It confirms that what's lost is lost, and will never come back. We can categorise pain into, many, but the pain of love, now that lasts a lifetime!

Our tour guide was saying that after building Taj, Shah jahan had another plan, to make a black Taj Mahal quite near to the original Taj, for himself. That would have been the perfect plan in Shah Jahan's mind, the Yang to the Yin, all in one place. But, before he could kick off his new plans, he was jailed by his son. We might think that's cruel, but there's another explanation, told to us by guides; that Shah Jahan had used up tax money paid by his subjects to make Taj, and his son was actually preventing him from spending any more tax money by jailing him. Now, after seeing Shah Jahan's marble jail, I couldn't feel bad for him at all!

All Shah Jahan was allowed to have in his jail/room was a far away glimpse of Taj, which was and is holding his love, and well, tonnes of marbles, going by my first theory!

He would've really wished for a chance to visit Taj, If not for his lost love, for the treat to the eye that his Taj provided. Morning to night, shining as and when the sun and moon rays danced upon it.
After coming back home, every one I talked to, who had visited Taj before, told me the best time to visit is during night, when its a full moon.
That would be cool! But day time is not that bad either. If you reach early enough, its beautiful to watch the sun playing with its rays on the marbles. Besides, its the best time to capture pictures of Taj, its gardens, the blooming trees around Taj, the Yamuna, and a far away Agra Fort.

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Our next stop was Vrindavan-Mathura.
I don't have any opinion about these two places, other than the fact that they weren't what I had imagined them to be.
Only thing that struck me at Vrindavan was that -
I saw a child begging for money.. He was even running behind a family until they noticed and wanted him to stop following them, so they gave him something.. This boy was wearing a torn and faded tee shirt, which was obviously something given during festivals for promoting the place.. Cuz the slogan in his tee said 'I lost my heart in Vrindavan'. It seemed ironic..
There were cows around too, but no one seemed to notice them until one of them accidentally stepped onto the road disrupting traffic.. Yeah, I really lost my heart in Vrindavan!
 
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We started our return journey, from Agra to Delhi soon after dusk. I really thought I'd lost my appetite for the night. But, our next stop was at a roadside Dhaba. There were rabbits, white ones, roaming around. They looked cute with white shining skin and red eyes. The Dhabawallas give them carrots and cucumber on a plate. After a hearty meal the rabbits seemed to disappear into the night.

Here, at the Dhaba, we were given a menu and we had no idea what to order. Every curry in Delhi seemed to have paneer in them. We were kind of tired after having paneer butter masala, paneer sabji, palak paneer etc and wanted to try out something different.
The Dhaba uncle suggested cheese pulao, baingan bharta, rotis, vegetable kofta, and yep, paneer!
Cheese pulao came in a big plate with a big slice of cheese on top. Every one around the table took a taste of this and wished me goodluck. None of them wanted a second helping.
For me, it tasted good..really good! Mixing the cheese and rice made a tasty combination. And, I finished off the big plate of pulao on my own. :P

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Next day, our first stop was at Birla Mandir, followed by Jantar Mantar.
Jantar Mantar looked complicated. It showed off the architectural, and most importantly, astronomical skills of some of the great minds, that lived here long back.




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We couldn't miss visiting the three places of importance in Delhi, Indira Gandhi Memorial, Rajghat and Red Fort. Visited Lotus Temple too..

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A ride in Delhi Metro, after 10pm was new to me. Since back home, our Cochin metro is still in the making.

I slept well that night, knowing it was my last night in Delhi. The three day tour of Delhi was coming to an end (to and fro journey not included).

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The next day, it was pack up and we checked out from our hotel.. We did have some hours to spare before our flight.
So, we decided on visiting Akshardham. This place is like a photographer's paradise. Sadly, no photograph was allowed inside. We just had to rely on our eyes and the brochures they gave us for remembering this beautiful place. (More about Akshardham).
As it is a temple, prasad is also available.

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The last few hours we had left in Delhi, we spent shopping. Didn't waste a minute of it! :P
Delhi airport too offered a very large collection of different stuffs. I bought chocolates. :)

Inside Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi

And then, it was goodbye to Delhi...

Travelling- it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller - Ibn Battuta.

Travelling did leave me speechless!! That's why it took me almost one month to start writing on it. :)

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Disclaimer: The content in this post is just an account from experience and any reference to objects, places, living/dead were not intended to hurt any regional or religious sentiments. If it did, kindly inform me. (E-mail)