On Sunday, Jan. 23 we were in the car by 9:00 am, driving to Agra from Jaipur across the farmlands of India. Once the shock of city life in India wears off, you get used to the different, shocking, unexpected, and bizarre. It's morning, so the street people are washing themselves on the sidewalk in open view, urinating, and bathing children. Scooters are loaded with families on their way to..., horns are honking, taxis are full of kids on their way to school, and people (1.2 billion of them) are preparing for their day.
We headed out to the open farmlands, and the farm families and small villagers are doing the same. We pass fields and fields of flowering mustard plants, farm villages, bee keepers living in tents by the flowering mustard plants, women walking with firewood balanced on their heads, toddlers running around with only shirts, young children flying kites, young boys/teenagers playing cricket, and women making cow dung patties.
Cow patties are made by the hundreds and dried on the side of the roads, farm fields, and the top of houses. They are used for fuel and stockpiled for monsoon season when firewood is wet. They are stacked in beautiful geometric patterns. They also make small shelters from the cow's dung and beautiful designs are scratched on the walls. Funny how one finds beauty and art even in cow poop.
After arriving in Agra, exhausted, our guide says see you at 6:45 for a sunrise trip to Taj Mahal. Sunrise at the Taj Mahal was wonderful.
The Taj Mahal is considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. It was ordered by Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his third but favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died during the birth of her fourteenth child. It stands as a beautiful symbol of eternal love. The Taj was built in Mughal style architecture that combines Islamic, Indian, and Persian styles. It took 20,000 workers and 22 years to build.
Now as I read the book I bought on the Taj Mahal it explains that there are at least two other wives of the shah buried on the grounds. Reaaally?! Humm, how does the "chosen one"wife feel about that?! The biggest monument to our inseparable eternal love and you buried your other wives on my mausoleum grounds?!
Melissa Jan. 25, 2011 10:10 pm
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| Morning sweeping |
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| Motorcycle family |
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| Juice vendor |
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| Taxi full of preschool girls on their way to school |
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| Milk vendors |
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| Street bread vendor |
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| Carrying water |
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| School boys hanging on to a very full taxi |
We headed out to the open farmlands, and the farm families and small villagers are doing the same. We pass fields and fields of flowering mustard plants, farm villages, bee keepers living in tents by the flowering mustard plants, women walking with firewood balanced on their heads, toddlers running around with only shirts, young children flying kites, young boys/teenagers playing cricket, and women making cow dung patties.
Cow patties are made by the hundreds and dried on the side of the roads, farm fields, and the top of houses. They are used for fuel and stockpiled for monsoon season when firewood is wet. They are stacked in beautiful geometric patterns. They also make small shelters from the cow's dung and beautiful designs are scratched on the walls. Funny how one finds beauty and art even in cow poop.
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| Dung hut |
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| Women making cow dung patties |
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| Bee keeper's tent & bee hives in mustard fields |
The Taj Mahal is considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. It was ordered by Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his third but favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died during the birth of her fourteenth child. It stands as a beautiful symbol of eternal love. The Taj was built in Mughal style architecture that combines Islamic, Indian, and Persian styles. It took 20,000 workers and 22 years to build.
Now as I read the book I bought on the Taj Mahal it explains that there are at least two other wives of the shah buried on the grounds. Reaaally?! Humm, how does the "chosen one"wife feel about that?! The biggest monument to our inseparable eternal love and you buried your other wives on my mausoleum grounds?!
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| Sunrise at Taj Mahal |
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| Oh, to be a fly on the wall of the Taj. |
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| Sunrise sleepyheads |
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| Symmtrical beauty |
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| The Taj Mahal is flanked on each side with a mosque. This is the one on the left. |
Melissa Jan. 25, 2011 10:10 pm
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