Drive, Drive, Drive...Taj...Drive, Drive, Drive


We left at 9:10 a.m. for Agra. It was about a quarter to 2 when we arrived. On the way, our car's driver's side mirror was smashed and a rickshaw swiped our right-rear fender. We were stopped twice by protesters blocking the highway. Somehow the drive home took just as long, even though it was somewhat less eventful (except for hitting a dog). Oh, and yes, the Taj was amazing. To put it in perspective, the nine hours we spent in a car were worth the hour or so we were able to spend in the presence of the Taj.


The day started inauspiciously enough. We were stuck in regular Delhi traffic for the first 45 minutes of our drive. Finally the road opened up a little bit. There were fewer rickshaws, but the number of carts being pulled by water buffalo, cows, and camels increased. We were stopped at the border with Uttar Pradesh in order to pay some sort of tax. Our driver disappeared for a good 20 minutes. We gave him 500 Rs to pay the tax, and when he returned he had a bag with some food in it, but no evidence of having paid any "tax." The booths ahead were not manned, so it's not as if we had to show proof of payment of any tax. But this is India, so we shrugged it off and settled in for the rest of the ride. While we waited we had to keep the windows rolled up to fend off the vendors. One man had a bear on a leash and hit it to make it stand up on its hind legs, following which he expected some sort of payment for the bear's trick. It was quite sad. So we sat in a stuffy car amidst what seemed like hundreds of trucks, parked on the side of the road for some unknown reason.


Later, when traffic came to a dead stop, and cars ahead of us began turning around, our driver did the same. We were on a divided highway with two lanes in each direction, so this meant we were no going in the wrong direction. At a cutout in the divide, the driver crossed over so we could continue heading south. On one hand we were lucky that the northbound traffic was also stopped, since it meant we could head south on the northbound side of the road without driving head on into oncoming traffic. On the other hand we were unlucky, since it meant we eventually hit the same obstruction that had stopped the southbound traffic. The obstruction was some sort of protest. Large pipes had been dragged across the road. People were chanting and waving signs and flags. Eventually some military personnel cleared the protesters and their pipes, and traffic began moving--that is the northbound traffic, which we were now facing, began moving, and the southbound traffic, on the side of the highway we should have been on, began moving. We were stuck, trapped by the flood of cars and trucks now rushing northward. Finally the military personnel held up the traffic long enough for us to turn around. We headed back to the cutout and crossed onto the proper side of the highway. I'll save the details, but a similar event happened further down the road.

Eventually, we entered Agra, a gritty industrial city. The Taj, of course, couldn't have been located on the northern edge of the city. Instead we had to pass all the way through the city on narrow gridlocked streets. Our driver began passing some trucks that seemed to be the cause of the gridlock just as a rickshaw decided to pull out from behind the trucks. The rickshaw swiped the right rear fender of the car. Perhaps "swiped" is too gentle a word. Our driver stopped the car, went over to the rickshaw driver, and grabbed the keys from the rickshaw driver. Were we a bit perplexed. I suppose our driver had no recourse, so he decided he'd just take the rickshaw's keys. They would have been of no value to our driver, but perhaps the rickshaw driver would be out of luck, unable to restart his rickshaw once he turned it off. It was rather odd. But this is India. Earlier, when another car smashed our driver's side mirror, our driver stopped the car, but the guilty vehicle sped off. So our driver picked up the smashed mirror and jammed it back in the housing. After both incidents, our driver began driving faster and faster, as if he was chasing the culprits. It's hard to describe what this was like since his normal speed of driving was so chaotic.

Well, as I said above, it was all worth it. The Taj was amazing. When you walk through the gate and view it for the first time, you get goose bumps. It made me think a lot about the possibility of objective beauty. But when I asked Claire about the experience today (the day after), her most vivid memory was an old man who kept blowing a whistle to direct people off a protected area of grass. I asked her if she thought the building was beautiful and she didn't really respond. So, if something can be objectively beautiful, wouldn't it be experienced as beautiful by all people, regardless of culture or age? Maybe I shouldn't be concerned about other's experiences. For me it was moving, and something I'm grateful to have experienced in my lifetime. It was worth the 750 Rupee/person entry fee. It was worth dealing with the relentless hawkers and beggars who hound you the instant you get out of the car. It was worth the nine hours we spent in the car. Unfortunately, pictures simply can't do justice to the Taj, especially not my modest efforts. So the pictures I chose to include below focus more on Claire and Luc than on the building.


Posted: Tue - December 13, 2005 at 07:33 PM          

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