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A weekend with SJ

Here is a link to more photos

One of my oldest friends, who is partly the reason I'm in India, came to India on work and to visit Delhi for the weekend। The one thing she wanted to see was the Taj,so we headed down there Friday after work by car। Deepak, one of our regular drivers took us for the 4 hour journey.

Tired from the journey, we ordered room service and watched 'The Last Samurai.' It was really sad. So much killing. I had to read a couple pages of my book, 'Bombay Time' to get my mind to stop racing afterwards.

We didn't get to sleep in as the Prime Minister was coming to Agra, so the Taj and the Agra Fort were closed from 11 am (or 12:30 depending on who you asked) to 5pm. Up at 7am to see the brilliant view of the Taj. What a building.

Was just as spectacular the 2nd time around. We met our guide, Ramesh, at 8:15am and headed off to learn about the Taj and the Agra fort.

I learned that there were guest rooms outside that anyone could stay in and that Shah Jahan was working on a Black Taj for himself on the other side of the river, but his son Aurangzeb imprisoned him in the middle, so it was never complete. His daughter then decide to bury him next to his wife, which broke the symmetry of the place. All the rest is completely symmetrical, hence why there is an identical building opposite the mosque that wasn't used. The one on the west is the mosque because it is in the direction of Mecca. Also, the script on the Taj, which is from the Koran, gets larger higher up to make it appear to be the same size.



We wandered around and took lots of pics. SJ was popular on Diana's bench!


After, we headed towards Agra fort, with a stop to learn how the inlayed marble is made. This is a skill that is passed from father to son, so anyone who does it is a descendant of one of the builders of the Taj.




The Agra fort is massive. It was built in the 15th century by the 3rd Mughal ruler and is where Shah Jahan, the fifth, was imprisoned/under house arrest by his 3rd son, Aurangzeb. Aurangzeb was upset as his older brother was to inherit the throne, so he killed the 2 older and next younger brothers so that he could. There were 14 children total and the wife died while giving birth.



After the fort we headed back to chill by the Oberoi's amazing pool, have lunch, doze, and then back to Delhi.

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