My Trip to IndraPrastha - The Taj, Mathura and Akshardhaam (Day2)

You may wake me up from a deep sleep and ask me about this day and I would be ready with all your answers. It is one such day in my life that I would never forget. Probably no one would ever who visited “The Taj” for the first time in their life.

We woke up early in the morning and set out to see the Taj before the sun comes up completely. I heard it looks great during nights especially on a full moon day. But believe me it looks extra ordinary during early hours of the day. I would suggest to spend a night in Agra and visit Taj early in the morning. Full moon might not be possible every time.

We took an entry ticket to see Taj and also a few tickets to take our cameras and video cameras inside. Remember… You can take your still camera inside the main gate but the video camera is prohibited. So if you are interested in taking some nice shots of Taj, I would suggest getting a video camera with a nice zoom.

Here is the entry to the Taj... Some construction was going on when we went there....

The moment I saw “The Taj”, I was dumbstruck. I was speechless... no words to say. No one around me were talking. Or may be I was so lost in watching the monument that I lost the track of things that were happening around me. All my friends forgot everything in the world and started looking at the magnanimous mahal ever made by a man. Its grandiose look doesn’t let any one look anywhere else. Many poets spent their lives praising its beauty. But nothing comes close to what it is.

Meee... Lifting the Taj... Dont try this...It was heavy ;)

And the Me with Taj... You need to wait to take a picture here... Should have removed those glasses

My buddy Vijayendra.... Checking out something he felt more intresting than Taj. You can see a mosque behind him. Even the mosque looks beautiful.

Another picture of mosque with me, Vijju and Giddi

This is at the top of the Taj. You can see the kalash there. It signifies hindhu-muslim relation ship.

We spent around three hours there. But it wasn’t still enough. We had so many plans for that day and we don’t want to mess things up again. There is so much to see and capture in your mind. I then decided that I should definitely come back to this place… but very leisurely.

We came out, did some shopping where Giddi got a couple of whips. :)Vijju strolling on Agra's road... Thinking very seriously about some funny stuff ...

And then started back to Delhi. We had a plan to visit Mathura. Mathura is around 50 kms from Agra. So by the time we reached Mathura it was almost lunch time.

Mathura is considered as the birthplace of Lord Krishna. There is a temple called “Keshav Dev Temple” which is built on the same site as Krishna’s birth place (a prison).

The other fascinating thing about this temple is that it stays very next to a big mosque. They had a very tight security inside and outside the temple for obvious reasons. Not even batteries were allowed inside.

Some Khund at Mathura... It is said that Lord Krishna used to bathe here every day.

Another pic of the same Khund

Mathura is famous for kachoris. You will find many shops near the temple. Find a decent one and get a few kachori’s before you leave. The next famous to kachori’s in Mathura are jalebi’s. No one was in mood to have any sweets, so we didn’t taste them. But we heard they taste really good. We went to shop for a while and as usual you need to bargain at least the fifty percent of the cost here also.

It was almost 2 PM and with kachori’s filling our stomach, we started off back to Delhi. We planned to go to Vrindavan, the place where Lord Krishna was brought up. But our chauffer told us that the entry to Akshardham would be closed by 6:00 PM. So we opted out Vrindavan. And the final destination for that day was decided to be Akshardham.

Check out the buses in Agra... too small for the crowd.

We reached Akshardham around 5:30pm. Akshardham is the most tightly secured temple I had ever seen in my life. The security is as good as you see in any international airport. You can not get take any type of electronic gadgets inside.
Since we werent able to take any camera's inside... Here are the pics from from Internet (Courtesy: Wikipedia)

Now a few things about Akshardham… Akshardham is sri Swamy Narayan’s temple. It contains so many things. You might have to spend a whole day to experience everything inside the temple.

The main temple... Its huge... and it looks as if the whole temple was build under elephants

It looks a bit commercial, but considering the fact that they have to maintain such a huge structure and all the infra structure, I felt it was reasonable. One of the famous things is a very big theater inside the temple. People say that the screen is as big as an Imax screen. Every day they screen a movie related to the Swamy Narayan’s yatra. We haven’t got a chance to see the movie as it was too late. The other important experience you can have is the boat ride. The boat ride is a journey through the Hindu culture and all. The journey is approximately for 15 minutes. But both the movie and boating are inter related at that time. We were supposed to take either both the tickets or none. So we opted no for the boat ride too.


And then there is this musical fountain(kund). This is considered as the india’s largest steep well. We threw some coins in to it. And at last was my favorite part. A garden with sculptures of all most all famous people related to India. I strongly suggest everyone to take time and go through this garden. It gives us so much history about our country that no history book gives us. Take your children and let them know our great history.

The famous lotus garden. Looks awesome...

I was completely satisfied after looking at the garden. Then we went to the main temple. Believe me, you have to visit this temple in night and you would be thrilled. All the lightings and moon light makes it look fantastic. It is best modern temple I have ever seen in my life. The artistic work needs a special mention here. If Taj gets 10 points to its beauty, this temple definetly deserves 9. Some of my friends gave it 11. Don’t forget to look at the top when you go inside the building.

The Dome inside the building. Check out the carvings... Too good..

After visiting Taj, Mathura and Akshardham, we were completely satisfied with the trip. But we never knew there is more to come which we never planned. We planned to take some food back to Shakti's(our host) place so that we all can eat together. We started having our dinner and suddenly were interrupted by some of Shakthi’s friends… The most lively delhites. :). We started talking and here starts the most exciting part of journey…

I am Back...

If you are wondering why I titled the blog “ I am Back”, I would suggest you to go through my previous blog before reading any further…

http://view-india.blogspot.com/2007/02/my-trip-to-indraprasth.html

It has been almost 3 years since we set out for this journey. I almost forgot about this blog until one fine day a very close friend of mine called me up and enquired about this. It took me a minute to recollect about the existence of such a blog. And then she said “Vamshi!! You need to complete this blog. It is not fair to stop it abruptly”. I wasn’t so keen on this. “C’mon it has been ages. I don’t even remember much part of it. Also I don’t have time to finish it now. I have so many other important things” I said. But there was no way I could stop her bugging me on this. She kept on asking me if I have started writing this blog. I never did. But that didn’t let down her spirits. She tried again.... and again. And at last I had to give up. Later I realized that I opened a new account for that blog which is now obsolete. And so here is the continuation of one of my adventerous trip. I realized how much fun we had on that day when I started writing this again. All thanks to my friend. And here I am dedicating this blog to the one who forced me to write this….For her... on her birthday....

Happy Birthday Pinky :)