Man there are a few days which you never tend to forget and recalling those days you get charged up.
Even I had a few days like these, but not many though.
Anywayz let me get to the topic.
So I was in Delhi on a vacation and that particular day we were supposed to leave for Agra to see the famous love symbol TAJ MAHAL.
If u have been to Delhi then you would know how fucked up that place can get, if u have to travel through the city frequently.
And same was the case with me.
I hate getting up early in the morning but that day I woke up bloody early, I guess it was 4 or something, washed my hands n face with the almost freezing water (as I didn’t have the guts to have bath). Initially I thought what a crap day it is, as I had to wake up early, but never knew what was in the store for me.
As I have already told u I was supposed to leave for Agra and that was the reason exactly why I woke up early in the morning.
It was 5 when I finally got ready to leave for the traffic of Delhi. My train's time was 6:45 but I had to leave the place at 5. If u live in a normal place it would take you about half an hour to travel a distance of 20-22 km but in my case it took me thrice the normal time. Hence I started in an auto, prepared myself to sit in it for One and a half hour, but I was seriously not prepared to share the seat with the driver, as my brother my mom n my father occupied the rear seat. OK wait let me introduce them to u, meet my brother Amritansh alias "Shanky", he is the person you would hate to meet if u want peace in your life. My mom supports Shanky for everything and anything he does, and whenever he does anything crap, I don’t know why, but I have to take the blame. Meet my father, he knows whenever I am right but he would never tell that to mom. As "what’s the use in arguing and wasting time". So basically this is how things go in my life. What I do is wrong (according to my mom) and what I say is crap (according to me).
So you too can quit reading this whenever you want as it is not gonna be of any major use to u anyway. Now enough of intro’s let me get back to the auto.
So there I was sharing the seat with the auto man and the engine under our seats made us vibrate every time he increased speed. The nonstop vibration made my ass go numb for the rest of my journey in the auto.
The traffic was not as heavy as I expected as it was early hours of the morning and we sailed smoothly and reached the destination 15 mins early (thanks to the high speed with higher vibrations) and at last I took the sigh of relief and felt the sensation coming back to my butt.
Well the station was crowded as you would expect, the train was a little late as usual.I was just window shopping in the platform when I found the book “5 Point Someone” I have heard a lot about this one but never saw one in flesh and blood. I bought the book at the very
moment.
Well the train finally arrived and we had our seats in AS1 was the Ac coach with 5 seats in a coloumn 3 on one side with a passage in middle an then the other 2. As you know we were 4 of us, so 1 had to suffer, and yes what you are thinking is exactly right. I WAS THE SUFFERER.
I took the window seat as anyone would do. The train started to fill and foreigners started hopping in. The seat beside me was empty and I desperately wanted one of them to sit there. And yo what I wanted really happened, the chick who sat beside me was actually a foreigner an Australian to be specific. Well as she sat she took over not only her seat but half of mine as well, calling her fat wouldn’t be sufficient, as even fat people are normal and they occupy only one seat. But she was much more than what is called fatness. She occupied the hand rest on my right, no not with her hand but her tummy was bulging out way through from where it was supposed to be.
I was looking to strike some conversation and no I didn’t start “ARE YOU GOING AGRA” as it looked quite obvious and would sound crap.
Instead I asked her “HAVE YOU SEEN TAJ MAHAL BEFORE” and she said “Yes three times before” (damn she belonging to another nation had seen this property thrice and me being an Indian was going for it for the first time). Anyways I asked her, nation and she replied AUSTRALIA her profession, works as some assistant in some hospital in Sydney, Australia.
Soon a newspaper waala passed by and she bought THE HINDUSTAN TIMES from him for “Rs THIRTY TWO” this was the rate he had told her and this was what she paid. By the time I could react the fella was gone. I asked her if newspaper are this costly in Australia as well, she said “No they are quite cheap over there”. “They are quite cheap over here as well” said I.
“It costs just Rs1.50ps”, “He has made money out of you, and that too 20 times more.” “Well” she said “Doesn’t matter”. Yaar now if this doesn’t matter then what matters, I guess even I’ll start selling newspapers to foreigners, if not 20 times atleast at 10 times higher rate.
I introduced myself and she introduced herself as Jenny, Jenny for Jennifer.
We talked a few crap things for sometime like what she likes and hates in India and Australia and so on, and I guess I bored her a little too much as she dozed off soon. Leaving me and my book alone. Nothing major happened in the journey as she was sleeping most of the time and I was isolated from the people whom I came with. The train was pretty fast and it didn’t take us much time to reach Agra. The station came and everyone started vacating the cabin. I followed Jenny, to get down, but man instead of alighting she literally jumped from the coach onto the platform and I could feel the earth shake. I caught up with my parents, and we were now heading towards the guest house in an auto and yes, once again, I was sharing the seat with the automan, and both of us were sharing the vibrations. Though this time we reached the destination a bit early so no major damage to my butt.
The guest house was pretty good and the food was just awesome. My brother and me got a separate room away from our parents which meant we could stay awake late night.
After having lunch, we were off to see the Taj Mahal. We were in a rickshaw (my parents in one and Shanky and me in another), but it wasn’t of major help anyways, as even the rickshaws weren’t allowed to go near the palace due to pollution reasons. Now please anyone explain me that how can an manly handled rickshaw without any engine contribute to pollution, and there was no use arguing with the officials so we had to walk all the way till we reached the entrance.
The huge gates welcomed me as though the king was going to enter, and I myself felt royalty creeping in too, but the feeling washed away when I saw looong line waiting to enter. And I too was compelled to stand in the queue like all others instead of entering in a chariot like a KING. Well papa bought the tickets and we were waiting under the sun to enter.
Well when I saw the Taj, I really cant explain the feeling, I almost went mad clicking photos and clicking photos and clicking photos, I finished my new reel and I guess it was worth it.
The journey back to the guest house was in a tanga, yes a tanga and I sat in a tanga for the first time in my life. And here again I shared my seat with the charioteer (the driver of the tanga) and I must say I enjoyed it, as there was no engine underneath me so no vibrations and this was the best place to enjoy the ride. Yeah the man charged us few extra bucks but going the Australian way I thought “DOESN’T MATTER”.
Then we went to the Lal Kila of Agra. I didn’t find anything that interesting (neither the monument nor the visitors) in it and we moved out quite early. On the way back a guy was selling hunter(the chabuk), and they were really beautiful ones, according to him it was pure leather but how are we supposed to believe what the salesman says.
Well on asking him the price of one he said Rs. 700/- only, I was stunned I asked him to clarify that I want only one not the whole shop. He said “Yes sir one costs Rs. 700, or else how much you are willing to pay.”
I said Rs. 50/- (ya I know my and his rate had hell lot of difference)
To which he said “Ok sir give 500” is said “No 50” he came down a little more 300 and I was still stuck at 50. he came down further 200 but I was hanging on 50, he said 100, and I by this time had fell in love with 50 so I stuck to it. And yes I got it in Rs. 50/- This bargain was hilarious, looked like a joke, as the item he wanted to sell for Rs. 700/- sold for 50 bucks.
Anyways that was the last major thing that happened during out visit to Taj Mahal and Lal Kila (as I don’t want to mention the bargain with the rickshaw waala, yah he gave us some 3 rs discount).
We reached the guest house (safely). And then Shanky and me decided to spend the evening by going to the movie “LAGE RAHO MUNNA BHAI”.
Well if I didn’t tell you, then I live in a place where good movies are banned eg this one, the morons in Vizag don’t like good movies and hence we have to miss the nice ones. And thus this movie too never came to our city, well anywayz as I was in Agra and here the case was different (as people liked good movies) we decided not to miss the opportunity. And we had our dinner as soon as possible and were off to the theatre by 8:30 as the show started sharp at 9. (and ya that food was just superb I can still remember the taste, and if ever I go Agra again I will surely go to that guest house for that dinner)
Initially I was wondering whether we will get the tickets or not, but to my surprise the hall was not even half filled we took our seats and the show started soon.
The movie was one of the best that I had ever seen (no doubt in that).
Well if u wanna know about the movie then you can visit any search engine and look for the review as I don’t want to take the pain of mentioning the scenes here. And I guess most of the people have seen the movie and to the Vizagites I hav sympathy for you all as the movie has not yet arrived in the city.
So this was almost the ending of the day.
And yah we came back to the guest house (safely again).
And papa and mummy were off to the bed asap, Shanky and me did the same. I started off with 5 Point Someone once again, and don’t know when I dozed away.
And so this was the day.
I don’t exactly know what made it so special but I remember everything that I did, like a movie recorded in my mind.
And if you have read this far then you deserve to know that I rate this day as one of the best days of my life, the reasons to which is not known.
Thanks :-)
