2018 India – Taj Mahal
Tuesday 9th January
We booked a driver to take us to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and then on to Jaipur. He picked us up at 6 a.m. as it was going to be a long day. We were concerned about the journey as someone told us they had been the day before and it was “very scary” because there was thick fog all the way. There were a few fog patches but nothing to worry about. We had a good car and driver so it was a very pleasant journey apart from the cup of tea he insisted we drank at a roadside stall. It must have contained two kilos of sugar and cinnamon. After a three-hour drive we reached Agra. We met up with our guide and started with a coffee and muffin at Costa Coffee.
Cars were not allowed near the Taj Mahal so the driver dropped us off a few kilometres away where we could take a tuk-tuk. Considering we were heading to one of the great wonders of the world I was surprised at how tatty the surrounding villages were. We had seen the occasional cow in Delhi but around Agra, they were everywhere, as well as wild pigs and goats strolling around like they owned the place, which I suppose they do.
Having witnessed the appalling crowds going to the Red Fort I was concerned that it would be even worse for such a famous tourist attraction but there was hardly anyone there so we were able to walk straight in. We passed a couple of derelict buildings and everything was still looking shabby when we turned a corner and there it was The Taj Mahal. I had been lucky to have seen so many wonderful places in my life but nothing compared to my first sight of the Taj Mahal. Maybe it was the sudden impact of seeing it after passing through the shabby surroundings? Maybe it was because I had seen so many photos of it since childhood and there it was in real life? Maybe it was even that my great-grandfather was married there in 1847 when he was stationed in Bengal with the British Army and there was some kind of psychic connection. Whatever it was, it had an almost physical impact on me. 
The Taj Mahal was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Our guide was very good and explained that what looked like mosaic was in fact, precious gems that were inlaid with great skill into the marble. He told us that when the building was finished the emperor ordered that all the workers be killed so nothing that magnificent could ever be built again. It sounded a tiny bit excessive to me but I later found out that it was just a myth made up to make tours more interesting. There was a lot of building going on at that time and highly skilled workers were far too valuable to be executed. We went inside but there wasn’t much to see as the original tomb was on the floor below us, but it was still an extraordinary experience.
After the tour our driver took us to the factory where descendants of the Taj Majal original workers still made amazing works of art using the same method as was used on the Taj Mahal. At the entrance to the factory a man was seated at a primitive kind of grindstone powered by string attached to a stick while his other hand ground tiny bits of glass and gemstones. The pieces were far too intricate to be ground by electric tools. 
Another man carved out the shapes in white marble ready to fit into whatever was being made. 
We were taken into their showroom and given our own personal assistant and for once it was something we wanted to do. There were finished pieces everywhere which ranged from large tables costing tens of thousands of pounds to small articles to be used as ornaments. They were all true works of art. They were sold according to the number of pieces that were used. We never normally get sucked into buying these expensive things but they were so special that we settled on a small mosaic containing nearly 500 pieces. It was going to be a pain carrying it around for the rest of the holiday but what a lovely souvenir of such a special day. [sg_popup id=”17801″ event=”inherit”]
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2018 India
