Taj Mahal

In order to escape the heat of the day (115 degrees) our driver picked us up at 5:30 a.m. and drove us to the Taj Mahal. The gates opened at 6:00 a.m. and their were no lines and relatively few tourist. The vendor kid's were already there; selling everyting from T-shirts, Taj books, Taj keychains, marble boxes, refrig magnets, you name it they had it! The bulk of these kids probably have never been inside the gates and actually seen the Taj Mahal. They are probably able to hawk their wares in five languages.

Doug was our tour guide and able to give us the history of The Taj Mahal. A brief summary is the building was commisioned by the Mogul Emperor, Shah Jahan, to house the remains of his favorite (yes....he had multiple wives) Muntaz Mahal. The Emperor, Shah Jahan, was able to see the monument completed from his jail cell in The Red Fort (which we are going to later on today). Shah Jahan was jailed and over-thrown by his son, Aurangzeb. The producer's of cable TV Reality shows would have had a field day with this dysfunctional family!

The Taj Mahal was timelessly beautiful, majestic and walking through the first gate and actually seeing it with the linear pools and walks projecting your eye's right to the center of the mass marble structure was a visually emotional esperieince. It is the best example of Islamic architecture in India and all Indian's regardless of their religion take pride in it. During the Second World War the structure itself was covered to try and camofloge it fromm being a possible bombing target, the same was true during India's two wars with Pakistan. There was a security check to get into the park and military protection outside of it as well as on the perimiter.

The backside of The Taj has a river running behind it (I should remember the name, Doug will be disappointed in me that I don't, but it is a tributary of the Ganji River. The river is very low, waiting for the monsoon season to fill it but there were a few water buffalo wading in it's water and an occasional garland floating. Doug said the garland's could be from a burial or perhaps from a morning Hindi Pujab. There were a few monkey's roaming around and we saw two water buffalo pulling a lawn mower cutting the grass. We heard many different languages being spoken and as we were told by our driver, most of the early morning tourist are western. He said Indian's don't want to get up that early in the morning and Kristen commented that the Indian's tolerate the heat better.

I'm back at the hotel right now. We all enjoyed a wonderful Indian/Western breakfast. This is the first time I have allowed myself to eat fresh fruit (I have had bananas) and it tasted really good. I hope I won't be sorry but I figure that a big hotel catering to foreigner's has to be careful about food preparation and sanitation. D&K are taking a nap before they cool off in the pool this afternoon. Their suite has a desk area, a dinning area (we had lunch served there yesterday after arriving here) a nice living room area, a bedroom with a huge four poster bed and a bathroom that is about the size of their entire MG apartment. The living room has a book case with books about India which DFO is enjoying purusing. The furnishing's are what would have been typical of the day's when Britian controlled India with the addition of the beautiful colors and fabric's which are definately Indian. I would love to bring yards and yards of fabric home and use them to accent and decorate my house.

Yesterday, late afternoon, the sky was filled with what looked like birds fluttering in the air. Doug pointed out to me that they were kites and as it got closer to dawn their would be more. Just like in Kabul, Afghanistan (remember the book THE KITE RUNNER) Indian's here in the old section of Agra love to fly kites. I'm looking forward to watching them later on today, that is if the pollution clears up.....we are about a quarter of a mile from The Taj and yesterday the pollution did not prevent you from seeing it.....today you can't.

When we were driving here from Delhi yesterday I commented to Kristen that if you asked an Indian child (from Delhi or Agra and probably other industrial large cities) what color is the sky, they would answer gray. The pollution from gasoline engine's and industry hangs over this area and indeed, the sky is gray. When were were driving through Mathura, India yesterday our driver was telling us that they government made a big refinery cut their production in half because the pollution was making the marble of the Taj turn black. Mathura, the sight of pivotal ancient battles with different empire's during Indian history was about an hour away from Agra.

The trip to India has taught me many things and first amoung them is about the environment. At home, I TRY and re-cycle, conserve natural resourses, etc. Here, I have seen first hand what happens when you don't. The pollution, the in-ability to re-cycle plastic (which has to be the curse of the third world) and over population would make any skeptic alter their thinking. Garbage is everywhere and living with it becomes as "normal" as living with green grass and flower's in a short period of time.........that is really scarry