Travelogues  
India Revisited – 5

Via Agra

We decided to go to Agra by road. A Toyota Qualis has now replaced the ubiquitous Ambassador car in India for any road trip with a large party. The disadvantage however is that it will only take ten passengers (including the driver). I have traveled in the Ambassador with more than fifteen people, packed like sardines. I missed the feeling of nostalgia for the stifling ride of my student days, when I used be packed and sent to Manipal from Mangalore in an Ambassador!   

The road is in good condition but the scenery in Uttar Pradesh has changed little despite the economic boom India has been enjoying. The poverty and the squalor, the masses of humanity in disarray, the beggars, and the animal trainers with their pathetic monkeys, and bears on chains, jolted me back to the reality of India. On the contrary, so far I had been seeing parts of India that was very different than here. Mangalore is a quaint city and the affluence of the people living there is obvious and in plain sight. The part of Delhi I was traveling was well kempt and clean with flowers and shrubs planted on the roadside with large roundabouts with lush green lawn. But Uttar Pradesh was another story. I could not help but feel sorry for the downtrodden people, and the de-fanged cobras in the basket of the charmers, looking pitiful while raising their hoods and flicking their tongues or the pathetic dirty black bear restrained on a chain.

It takes more than four hours to ride from Delhi to Agra. One could travel by train but a car comes in handy for going about sightseeing as tourists. On the way we stopped at Sikandra, where Akbar is buried. The site has been cleaned and groomed but not many visitors could be seen. The grave is in a dark crypt under a large dome. A man with an oil lamp stands next to it and will coo to demonstrate an effective echo in the chamber (for a small donation). The path to the burial chamber is sloping down. I am not sure why but the urban legend is that when people walk inside they will be forced to bow their heads as if in respect (though they will actually look down so that they may not miss a step). I cannot imagine Akbar being so vain, but then the tomb was built later by his successors. However, the construction of the tomb had been started by Akbar himself while he was still alive, but after his death, son Jahangir had changed the plans in a major way. The monument is a tribute to Akbar’s idea of inclusiveness, as it is an amalgam of both Hindu and Persian architecture. The multiple terrace-like architecture is reminiscent of Akbar’s capital Fatepur Sikri, near Agra.

– Continued

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