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Aug. 12, 2009 Last Wednesday, August 5, 2009, I went on an excursion from Delhi, India, where I have been living for about 2 months, to Agra , the city where the Taj Mahal stands. Delhi, or New Delhi , as the capital of all India , is located in the National Capital Region (NCR), which is analogous to the District of Columbia in the U. S. But Agra is located in the state of Uttar Pradesh, one of the states that surround the NCR. The distance is about 125 miles. I went with a party of 40, almost all Indians, on a tour bus with a Hindi-speaking guide. Although I have been cramming to learn some Hindi, I could not understand the guide at all, except for a few scattered words. Hopefully, in the coming months, I will improve. The price of the round-trip passage on the bus, a slightly outdated jalopy by American standards, was about $20, and admission to the Taj Mahal itself was $10. We spent a couple of hours there, not huddled in a single group, but walking around individually. The Taj Mahal, which is the mausoleum of a princess of the Moghul or Mughal Dynasty, is an Islamic landmark, and though some obvious Muslims could be seen there, the majority, though Indians, were probably Hindus. There were a few foreigners present, Europeans for the most part, along with perhaps some Americans. The Taj Mahal is as fine as generally supposed. There is a long pool in front, and from that vantage point, I took some pictures. One may enter the mausoleum, but must doff his or her shoes outside. Inside it was dark, and though there were fine specimens of tracery, I was hesitant to take photographs there, thinking someone might be offended by the flash. www.mecnita.com/events2.htm In Agra , we visited Fort Agra also, a red sandstone citadel similar to Delhi ’s Lal Qila. We stopped at a mini-bazaar offering marble sculpture, silk brocade and leather goods. Around town, I saw several camel cabs, as well as ox carts and horse-drawn wagons, but no donkeys. Of course, cars, buses, trucks, auto rickshaws and pedicabs were everywhere. On the way back to Delhi , we stopped in Mathura and Vrindawan, two towns in Uttar Pradesh famous in India as the places of the birth and childhood of Krishna . Mathura is a congested, hot, slummy, antiquated place, where cattle shamble about freely in the streets, apparently considering themselves large four-legged people. Vrindawan is similar but features a throng of temples and bazaars. We bought garlands of flowers at the bazaar to offer to Krishna in one of the smaller temples, where we attended services, seated on the floor barefoot, in Hindu style. On the wall, in Sanskrit letters, the same letters that are in use in Hindi, I could see: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare. Anything more complicated than that would have befuddled me. We stopped three times at restaurants on the way. I could have done just fine with a sandwich, but it was their bus. I had mutton and French fries at one place, and skipped the others. Of course, we all paid for our own food. A very nice-looking Indian girl in her early 20’s invited me to come stay at her house for 2 days, probably not realizing how old I am. I extricated myself from this ticklish situation by lying to say that I have daily business in Delhi and am married. Alas! We left Delhi at 6 AM Wednesday and got back at 1 AM Thursday. We had four-lane divided highway most of the way, with rhododendrons, pink and white, in the median strip. But we also saw some squalid settlements on the outskirts of Delhi , where people were living in the most miserable poverty imaginable. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Visit my website here. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! 
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