Sights Along the Way

On our way to the Taj Mahal, the bus meandered its way through Haryana and Uttaranchal too. Haryana, with its beautiful fields on either side of the road, tiny huts on the fields, women with duppattas on their heads, trucks laden with crops, aplenty and auto rickshaws and jeeps filled to the hilt with people, made a real pretty picture. Almost all the boundary walls around the fields bore some message or the other, in big bold letters. Many of the messages were quite hilarious, an example being "For a happy married life, meet Dr. Raj every Saturday"!!! :-) Of course, the messages were all in Hindi and I had a fun time reading them. Remaining truthful to the picture/notion of India that prevails in a big way (even now) outside the country, we soon chanced upon a snake charmer, when the bus stopped at a traffic signal. Sensing the excitement of the people inside the bus, the man soon started playing to the galleries. Posing for pictures with his prized possession, he assumed the tone and broken English speaking skill, mainly reserved for tourists!

I must also mention the sumptuous breakfast of parathas that we had at a small eatery in Haryana, proudly proclaiming to be a resort! :-) This breakfast put to shame many an expensive gourmet meal!










While we made our way through Mathura, the city believed to be the birthplace of Lord Krishna, we passed a couple of beautiful temples. We also visited the Lord Krishna temple there, built around the prison room where he is believed to have been born. Unfortunately, cameras weren't allowed anywhere near the vicinity of that temple.











As we neared Agra, the traffic started becoming denser. However, the place still has an old world feel to it. Many of the houses and buildings there were of a dull red colour and seemed to be centuries old! Even their architecture and styling had that kind of reminiscent feeling about them! Also, around the town were numerous craftsmen shops, with artisans going about their daily work of fashioning beautiful idols and statues out of the most mundane stones and rocks! Just outside a handicraft shop that we stopped at, an old man was busy at work, carving beautiful miniature Taj Mahals out of blocks of white marble. The same shop also housed, in the guide's own words, "the biggest mini Taj Mahal"; a piece of art that was apparently made for an exhibition and was not for sale. Just below this beautiful piece, there also stood the model of a symbol of Mecca.