The Taj

Over the weekend we had a fantastic trip to Jaipur, Agra and Delhi. We started by flying on Spice Jet from Chennai to Jaipur and were picked up from the airport by Colonel Singh. He served for the Indian army for 23 years and fought in the Pakistan-India War in 1971. His wife and the colonel own a kind of bed and breakfast called Shahar Palace, kindly recommended by Colin and Nicolette when they came to Jaipur. It was fully equipped with AC (our one requirement) and good food. The best aspect of the place was how peaceful it was. We slept without honking cars, yelling and loud music and were awoken by the rooster crowing in the main courtyard as opposed to the marching band that seems to play at sunrise every morning in Vellore (why? I don't know but I do mean real marching band complete with drums and horns).

The monkey that ate breakfast with us at Shahar.

We started early the next morning by touring Jaipur, "the pink city" and capital of Rajasthan, which has its own unique charm. The buildings on the main street of the old city are all painted pink (the color of hospitality) and the city has maintained a majority of the old architecture. The streets remain chaotic, true to Indian culture, but included in the chaos are camels, horse drawn carts and elephants waiting at stop lights and hauling cargo.

Our first stop was at Amber Fort. Erected in 1592 by Maharaja Man Singh this was a huge palace on the top of a hill that used to house the maharaja, his numerous wives, concubines, eunichs and children. The steep incline to the top was made a bit easier by taking an elephant ride to the front entrance. This being my first time to ever ride an elephant I was quite excited. These are huge animals! They are each beautifully painted and you sit on top of a platform on their back as they lumber up the hill. Once on the top we were hounded by people selling various items and telling us they "have the best price for you!!" We quickly ducked through the entrance into the main courtyard where our tour began. Each millimeter of the place is ornately decorated and I can not even imagine what it looked like when it was in use. The walls used to be painted with real gold and with gems inlaid into the stone. Paintings and carvings of the gods were placed in every possible location and the views from the front door were breathtaking. The main meeting area once housed the largest carpet ever to exist and above it hung a 15 foot chandelier sent from Czechoslovakia (thought Lizzy would appreciate that). Since the fort is no longer in use most of these items were moved to the City Palace museum, or stolen. The design of the palace, however, is in and of itself impressive. The maharaja had separated the palace into summer and winter sections. The summer part is made of white marble that has small canals where water was pumped out from under the ground and circulated throughout the main rooms to provide a home made air-conditioning system. The winter portion relied on good old fashioned fire! Using curtains to hang along the outside of the buildings the inside of the rooms were carved then painted with a silver finish that would reflect whatever small amount of light was present in the room and retain all the heat.

The elephants waiting to carry us to the top.

After the fort we went to City Palace which was where a later maharaja moved after he got bored with his fort (it's really not surprising there are so many poor people here when they spend all this money on their palaces). We did a bit more sight-seeing, visited some tombs, did some shopping and got henna done on our hands then called it a night. The next day we drove to Agra and stopped at Fatehpur Sikri. Fatehpur Sikri was built by emperor Akbar between 1571 and 1585. This too had the ornate decorations, which I am sure used to be incredible. The interesting notes about Akbar was that he wanted everyone to be accepting of all religions. In turn he had a Hindu wife, a Muslim wife and a Christian wife (along with 233 concubines). He has a separate house built for each wife but throughout the fort the resounding theme is the intermingling of these religions existing within the same space and melting together peacefully into one entity.

The other note about Akbar was with all these women in his life he was unable to father a child. He visited the Sufi saint Shaikh Salim Chisti in Fatehpur who predicted the birth of an heir to the throne and when the prophecy came true Akbar built this city at the home site of Shaikh. Now, being medical students and witnessing our own share of gossip at university hospital, we are not sure how he was suddenly able to have a son at this time and never father a child again, but that's history now! At any rate, the Hindu wife had the son and she coincidentally got the largest house.

From here we headed to Agra, a dismal and disgusting town with the perpetual stench of sewage in the air, to see the Taj Mahal. As one of the wonders of the world I do have to admit it was breathtakingly beautiful. After studying about the construction and the story behind it in high school art history class it was amazing and humbling to actually be standing in front of the actual structure. For those who do not know the story behind it I will tell you, as Ms. Russell told us in high school. It was built by the Emperor Shah Jahan in 1631 as a memorial for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, after she died during childbirth. The building and designing of the structure was a fantastic feat. Individuals from India to Europe helped in the process and the final product is a perfectly symmetrical structure of white marble stone inlaid with gems and carvings set before a reflecting pool. It is a rumor that when the emperor died he was going to build an identical building in black marble directly across from the Taj Mahal, also perfectly symmetrical, for his own tomb. However, the emperor was overthrown by his son and sent to jail for the rest of his life. When the emperor died his son buried him in a tomb next to his wife completely throwing off the symmetry of the Taj, I think it was to spite his father.

The grand and glorious Taj!!

We saw a few more sites in Agra then left as quickly as possible. I really have to say the pictures of the Taj do not do it justice. The two dimensions presented in the photos can not capture the reflection of light or the vibrant colors and intricate detail of the marble inlay work but you can probably close your eyes and imagine!

We made it back safely to Vellore again after a stop at McDonald's in Delhi (moment of weakness) and a quick plane ride. Tomorrow I start CHAD and get to go see some of the villages and where all the patients live!