It's 11:00 PM now, at Agra Cantt railway station. We are here because Mahakoshal Express was five hours late. It was like the wait at Jaipur Juntion a year back. I don't know why we chose to wait for it - probably laziness. The journey to Gwalior takes only 2 hours, and we could have caught another train or a bus. The waiting room was crowded. They are always interesting places. You see all kinds of people here. The huge crowd of girls from some university in Bijapur, mothers trying to pacify crying kids, people with laptops open, people reading books, people changing clothes, and people writing diaries...
The bus to Fatehour Sikri kept us waiting. It started more than an hour later. It was extremely clean - littered all over with banana and groundnut peels. Needless to say, the ride was extremely uncomfortable (The return journey was worse).
Fatehpur Sikri is a ghost town. Designed by Akbar to be his capital, it was occupied barely for 14 years before the capital was shifted to Lahore - probably because of the shortage of water in Sikri. Major tourist attractions here are the Buland Darwaza - the largest gate in Asia, the Juma Masjid and the palace complex, housing the various palaces of the queens, and the huge courtyard, where Akbar used to sit on top of the Panch Mahal and listen to Tansen's music or play 'Pachisi' with live dancers as the game pieces. Today, it no longer bears the look of a "ghost town" thanks to the multitude of hawkers and guides.
Guides at Fatehpur Sikri are a nuisance. From little kids aged 10 to old people aged 80, everyone professes to be a guide. They keep nagging until out of desperation, people agree to their demands. Our bible had warned that most of what they say was pure fiction. We were stern in refusing their services, but soon some of them were back again, trying to sell us photos. One guy even offered to take pictures with our own cameras for a fee. The dubious claims of these guys were on show on many occasions. At the entrance was a guy pointing to the well and explaining how the water of the well was used for Akbar's troops in the battle against Rana Sanga. Another was pointing out the blue Persian tiles in Jodha Bai's Palace to two Chinese ladies. "Look at them, that is a Chinese tent. This palace was built with Chinese architectural patterns," he said. Needless to say, the ladies were extremely happy. From another guy, I learnt that Tansen invented Indian classical music, and the seven notes that are used in music. The prize however went to the guy who got into Akbar's treasury and claimed that this was the palace for princes and princesses to play hide and seek. He even gave a demo of how they played the game!
Pic of the day:
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Enjoyed it ...........
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