Agra - Fatehpur Sikhri

AGRA - FATEHPUR SIKHRI TRIP

Welcome on the tour to the city of love! This is a travelogue of my Std.9 school picnic of five days to Agra and Fatehpur-Sikhri.

Visit to Agra

We were informed of this trip just before our final Std.9 exams. There was great excitement among all the students. We began planning all the things which we could think of for the trip. After the initial eagerness, we were counting down the days. Being a week-day on which we were to leave, I had packed my bags on the earlier weekend itself. Instructions kept pouring into us from all sides. The eagerness of being with friends for five complete days, away from studies, away from any thinking, only fun was reflecting from every student’s face.

Finally the D-day arrived. We had our school in the morning. Hardly a couple of students were actually paying attention to which sum the Maths teacher was solving or which sub-section had the teacher asked to read. No one seemed to have the patience to wait till evening. The fun began right from reaching CST. Being a week day, we knew the premises and around CST, it would be very crowded and that too at a peak hour of 5:00 pm. Hence, we took up the idea of ‘Car-Pooling’. Three of us shared a car of my friend S and reached CST. Having called us almost two and a half hours early, we had nothing to do. But when you are with close friends in a group, you never know how time flies past.

Waiting at the station with my friends

Within no time, our train chugged into the platform. A couple of hours later, we were lazily stretched on our births after an overload of dinner. We had gulab-jamun, rice, dal, two veggies, rotis, cucumbers, etc. It was healthy, nutritious and tasty too (everyone’s favorite paneer was there). Our group of 9H sat together and we played cards and ‘Antakshari’ (only the girls excelled in that part). Though everyone kept saying that he would not sleep, everyone’s wicket fell one by one!

Normally travelling to north India in summer makes us feel to be prepared for hot times. But that was to be later. We completely forgot our Geography lesson that temperatures go very low at night. Likewise, we also forgot to carry a cold cream for the same (everyone’s lips became very dry). Due to the excitement going on in the remaining part of the compartment, everyone was up early but shivering!

A clear view of the sun rising

We clicked photos of a blissful sunrise with cold air slapping my face at the window. The mercury rose as the clock ticked and two superb and interesting card games of ‘Challenge’ and ‘Badam Saat’ were in full swing one after the other. 15 players and 156 cards made ‘Challenge’ extremely interesting. In the beginning, we felt Agra was too far and we would be too bored by the time we reach in the evening. But we heartily enjoyed.

Finally we alighted at Agra and there was a lot of commotion at the station. Having journeyed for a whole day, everyone was tired and quickly hopped into the buses waiting for us. Seeing the village-like Agra, we were a bit shocked and did not expect much of the hotel. But it was just like its name: HOTEL GRAND! We had a nice dinner that night and after a power-point presentation on what all places we were to visit during our stay in Agra. After having a nice pillow-fight between us, we slept.

The reception area of our hotel in Agra

Waking up early and getting in the morning apart from adjusting with each others' morning routine was also a very interesting and an altogether new experience for us. To keep it fair, we tossed a coin to decide who will go first for a bath. That too was fun as we had to get ready very quickly.

They had arranged for a good breakfast and then we departed. We were to first visit the town that Akbar built – Fatehpur and Sikhri. Fatehpur and Sikhri are two very well built towns and come under the control of the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India). It has been maintained well and to control pollution around it, we need to park our vehicles at a distance and need to go to the entrance of the city only by a battery-operated bus which did not cause any pollution. We saw the perfectly built Hawa Mahal, Diwan-e-Aam, Diwan-e-Khas, Akbar’s Mahal, Jodhabai’s Mahal, Miriam’s Mahal and some other palaces. Of it, Akbar’s Mahal and Jodhabai’s Mahal were very detailed. They had separate summer and winter rooms! We saw the famous Panch Mahal which we had so much heard of yet only seen its photograph in the textbook. After seeing Sikhri, we walked down a bit and immediately reached Fatehpur. Fatehpur was quite big but its main part was a sort of central courtyard around which were all the important buildings – Darbar, Diwan-e-Khas, Shaikh Salim Chisti Dargah, cemetry, etc. It all seemed as if built just a few days ago! So perfect and neat it looked even after 350 years! Finally we came to the main part, the Bulund Darwaza. It was really majestic, huge and well fortified. No enemy could have easily even come near this door as there were strategic outposts around it and perfect windows for soldiers to fire from. There was a tank beside it from where the people residing in Fatehpur-Sikhri seemed to have drawn water. Akbar had ambitiously built this city and made it its capital. But since it lacked the most important resource for survival – water, he had to abandon it within four years of him making it his capital and returned to Agra.

The rear side of Bulund Darwaza

While on the move, we were always very thirsty and hence the tour organizers had kept 10-15 boxes of Bailley water bottles in the bus. The moment anyone asked for water, the tour leader threw a bottle of water and the person had to catch it! You miss the catch and someone else takes the bottle!

We returned to the hotel for lunch. After resting for some time in our rooms, we then set out for Agra fort. We were surprised to see a statue of Chattrapati Shivaji in front of Agra fort. But then our guide reasoned that since Shivaji had been kept here under house arrest by Aurangzeb over here, the Marathas who came here later had had that statue put up there. This was an even well fortified castle and perfectly suited to be the military headquarters of a kingdom or even the capital. It was very huge and by the time we saw the part open to public, we all felt tired. But the guide shocked us on saying that this was only 30% of the fort! The rest belonged to the Indian Army. We saw the usual common palaces present in all Mughal forts. But the best part was Shah Jahan’s prison from where he could straight look at the TAJ MAHAL which he had built. That was the first glimpse of the TAJ MAHAL which we had. But Shah Jahan's prison looked anything but a prison. It was more of a palace! There were depression and blocks carved in the wall. We came to know that there were diamonds, rubies, gold designs studded in all these empty depressions! We awed at the thought of how rich the kings must be! We were shown the place of the famous ‘Peacock throne’, with its well-known Kohinoor diamond. But all that is now in the British Museum! India’s wealth kept in England, as if in a bank; but a bank from where you can’t withdraw it! It saddened us but the area was so beautiful that we soon forgot about the stolen wealth and kept admiring the wonderful designs at every nook and corner of the castle. Exhausted but still enthusiastic, we returned.

Taj Mahal as seen from Shah Jahan's prison

For all the dance and masti lovers, there was a DJ called for the evening and a nice dance floor set up. It was fun and that night, everyone had a good night’s sleep! The next day we were to see the Wonder of the World!

Early next morning, we were given a wake up call. That too was fun – waking up when they rang the bell or a phone call came. We were very eager to visit the TAJ but had to wait longer since the organizers and our teachers had other plans in mind. In relation to our E.Ed project, we were taken to a water-treatment plant. This water plant obtained polluted water from the Yamuna River, purified it, and then supplied it to the whole of Agra city. Since there are effluents discharged from industries, there is a high salt content in the water which the engineers too can’t purify. That was the secret behind the –sea-water-like taste of our bathroom water. We were then brought back to the hotel and allowed to have fun for about half-an-hour. We hoped we would be now going to TAJ, but even then we were first taken to a shoe-factory where we were shown how leather shoes were made.

And then finally, we went to see the TAJ. It was 5 in the evening and we hoped we got enough time to see the TAJ. It has high walls at its entry and so it is a sort of a surprise the moment you see it from the darwaza. Till then, it is not visible from where you stand in the queue. We were awestruck by the beauty of this monument. How huge it was! We just tried to imagine how they might have built this wonder! And it truly deserves to be the Wonder of the World. It reflected the rich heritage and culture of India. We had a round inside and then returned to the gates by the time it was pitch dark. Here too, we had to park our buses at a distance and then come by a battery operated vehicle. But we had come out so late and in such large numbers that we did not get any bus. We had to walk all the way down!

And finally the center of attraction of the tour, TAJ MAHAL

The day had started on a low note, but the best was kept towards the end. For everyone else, the day had a very good end but I was not so lucky. My camera fell from on top of the TV as I had set it on a self-timer. Everyone had instructed me to keep checking if my camera was safe and to wear its belt while in hand to prevent it from falling. But never had I thought that such a thing could happen. That was the last thing any of us would have wanted to happen. I was totally shocked at what happened and after spending some time with our friends, I slept early. There was a quiz which we attended. I knew most of the answers but let go of the chance as my mind just could not forget what had happened with my camera.

The next day, there was no specific plan and so we waited for what was in store for us. And it turned out to be so – since we hadn’t got to take a group photograph in front of TAJ, we were to be taken over there again. This time, the TAJ looked even more bright and majestic in the fresh sunlight. We had a nice group photo clicked and then came back for the hotel. We had to depart for Mathura railway station at 2:30 and it was just 1:30 at which all our bags were in the buses and our lunch was over too. We then went back for our entertaining pastime – pillow fight – but this time among almost 9 boys. We had invited the boys of the neighboring room and we had a ferocious fight for about half an hour.

Finally, we departed from the wonderful hotel and from Agra for Mathura with very nice memories. We had done many things and had enjoyed a lot as a group. In the one and half hour bus journey we all slept. Since we had planned to stay awake all night in train, we had a nice sleep in the bus. We just wished to stay for some more time but we had to return and get back to our normal routine. Yet we took a positive outlook and felt that we still had 16 hours to spend together. We heartily enjoyed those 16 hours in the Garib Rath playing cards, UNO, and playing a round in which we had to tell good and bad points about a student. It was interesting. Finally, we came back to school from Bandra by an arranged bus.

This was a great learning experience for all of us of how to adjust along friends and how to enjoy and make most use of all that provided to us. I learnt another lesson to be extra careful thereafter about valuable things. I felt that we had spent all those moments of the trip judiciously and enjoyed everything shown to us. We felt as if it was a peak into India’s glorious past! A truly unforgettable trip, which I will cherish forever.

I thank dada, aai and baba for sending me for this trip and our school for arranging such a wonderful trip!