Agra - Going to the Taj Mahal

Gateway to the Taj - you can see a small part of it through the huge Mughlai style gateway. There are 4 gates to the Taj - i think this is the South gate, facing the Taj Ganj area which used to house the artisans and craftsmen from foreign lands building the Taj.

Everyone goes to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. My first glimpse of it though, was slightly disappointing. I had dumped my bag in my room in the Shanti GH after finding my way to the Taj Ganj sprawl - messy, but Paharganj still owns all - and ran the flights of stairs to the much fabled rooftop of the Shanti. And there was the Taj, milky white, in the distance, hovering over a congestion of huts, cheap guesthouses, and multi-coloured concrete buildings. But still, i put off visiting the Taj as yet - to fully appreciate it on a nicer (drier) day.

It rained heavily that day - the monsoon had come early, near the end of May. It turned the Taj Ganj's zig-zagging, trash lined streets into veritable rivers of rubbish, and completely concealed all the pot holes and huge gaping drains that characterise most of India's streets. Hence - my good deed for the day - i made an autorickshaw wallah roar in laughter by rejecting his ride and walking on into one such sinisterly concealed drain, dropping knee deep in trash water and joining the floating pieces of plastic bags and discarded food wrappers for company.

All in all, not a fun day out. I was dripping wet from the rain - and most probably smelt like the drain i had just fallen into, which is saying a lot, given the state Indian drains are normally in. It was nothing short of calamitous. Being forced to take a cold, cold shower in my room using water from the rooftop tank in the monsoon was not fun either. This was followed by having to wash all the drenched and foul-smelling clothes and boots and finding creative ways to dry them later on.

My first experience with the Indian monsoon - a very stark departure from the romanticised version you often read about. But yes, it descended without any warning, catching people on the streets, the sky breaking and sheets of water sweeping over the land in an instant, sending people running for shelter. And yet there is a certain jubilation, a certain joy in the rain that pours onto the parched earth and dusty streets after unrelenting months of summer.