Taj Mahal revisited, this time as a guide!

Almost anybody who has the fetish for travel and has the monetary resources and luck in their have-a –sack has visited the Taj Mahal. I have been fortunate enough to visit the monument  twice. The first  when I was a kid in class 6 when I was the ‘Kebab mein haddi’ for my parents in one of the most romantic  places of the planet.  However I will talk about my second visit that happened in late 2008; this time I was not only a tourist, I was a tour escort too. 

The time was about 22.00 hours in late October in Delhi. The pre winter chill had begun to scare people like me who had never lived in the North Indian planes before.  I had resigned and was serving the notice period at one of the leading tour operators of the world (as I wrote in the first post, I won’t mention its name). Although the office hours officially ended at 1800 hours, we were working late as it was peak tourist season time in the country.  I got a call from my immediate supervisor who was busy with a conference of scientists that the company was organising, “ Aabeer, wanna  go to Agra ?”. “What? When?” I said. “tomorrow! We have received an nth hour reservation for a same day Agra trip of about 11 pax, and at this hour we won’t be able to hire an escort. It’s your call entirely, but remember this can be a great add on to the revenue from these clients”. “Yes” I said immediately. Not because I wanted to go beyond the call of duty and become a hero for the company, but because I wanted to try something new. Besides I love to talk a lot, and where else would I get the opportunity to speak to 11 strangers of different nationalities, educating them about my motherland.

Photograpy - Carl Beard - a fellow traveller in the journey

I stayed in office overnight as I had to leave by 4 in the morning the next day. Worked till midnight sending out vouchers to hotels and branch office in Agra and then slept on the table (sounds pathetic and it was). By 5 in the morning we loaded all the guests in the bus from different hotels are left for Agra. I took the microphone and started talking like a guide “Good Morning, I am Aabeer.... we have just embarked on a Journey to one of the most glorious cities in the world, Agra. Agra along with Jaipur and Delhi constitute of the Golden triangle tourist circuit of India. We shall be visiting the Taj Mahal, which  is one of the most visited monuments around the globe, when we see the monument through  our eyes, we shall realise its reason for being so.... we shall be covering a distance of around 206 Kms and it will take us.....”. “Hay what’s that to our left?” a voice interrupted.  I looked there and was speechless, because I did not know what it was, being new to Delhi, I had never visited that monument. I asked the driver “Tughlaqabad Quilla?”, “Haan Ji” he replied, I informed the clients. I decided to shut up after that and took my seat.  After two hours we stopped midway at a restaurant, where the Japanese clients were amazed to see monkeys playing along within the boundary of human civilisation. A 50 plus client informed me “Monkeys” as he pointed towards them, “Really? I never knew” I thought to myself, “In my country, monkeys are found only in the mountains, not in the city and they are much smaller” he continued. I smiled as I thought “In my country the highest density of monkeys is found in the South Block! And they are much bigger and meaner”.



Photography - Carl Beard

We drove further , eventually reached the outskirts of Agra, the first monument to greet us was Itmad-ud-daula , the mausoleum of Akbar, I briefed the clients about this, from there we picked up Altaaf (name changed) our guide for Agra for the day.  As we entered the Taj Mahal Complex, he started chanting out his script of praise for the Taj which he had mastered since years. “ ...... and so even if the earthquake hits Agra, the pillars fall on the side and the main monument is safe” he exclaimed ” . Honestly I think the tourist paid a deaf ear to his words. The Taj Mahal doesn’t need words to be praised, it spellbounds you, leaves you speechless and time and again makes you feel closer to heaven.  All of us then clicked pictures with the monument in the backdrop.   While returning Altaaf announced “Congratulations! Former U.S. president Bill Clinton after visiting the Taj said there are two kinds of people in this world, the one who have seen the Taj Mahal and the one who haven’t, you are a part of the first league.” Everybody applauded. “Clinton must be saying that after every monument he visits!” I thought.

I made good friends with two of the clients, Carl Beard from U.K. and Tajima, a Japanese residing in U.S. the former I troubled entire day as he didn’t make an advance payment for the tour, he made it during the tour, he also mailed me the snaps of our tour. Tajima wrote my name in Japanese on a visiting card and gifted it to me; I returned the favour by writing his name in Devanagiri script.

We were supposed to visit the Agra fort after that, but Altaaf had other plans. He diverted the bus to a Marble complex. It was basically a means to earn commission. “Gentleman, the artisans that you see over here belong to the same dynasty as that of the craftsmen who carved the marble of the Taj Mahal.” After a while I asked him in a very soft voice only for him to hear, “Really??” he stared at me. This took a lot of time. After this we went to hotel Taj View (current day The Gateway, Agra) for lunch. My bosses in Delhi were getting worried that the customers won’t be able to visit the fort and would complain, but Altaaf played very smart. Eventually we couldn’t tour the monument; however we just parked our vehicle in front of the Fort. Rushed and clicked Snaps with the fort in the Background and rushed back to the bus as we needed to reach Delhi Airport on time for the clients to catch their flight.





Photography - Carl Beard

“Gentleman, what we just did was the fastest invasion of a fort in the history of mankind!!” this comment was greeted by a lot of applause and laughter. The tour came to an end as we started proceeding towards the national capital. While looking out from the window, into the vast barren fields covered with a blanket of fog I started thinking again, “the first time I visited the symbol of romantic love with my parents, the second time with 11 men (scientists to be specific), the next time will definitely be when I have a wife and yes I will definitely share it with you on my Blog ‘The Road Behind’.