DODGING THE Taj

On his first visit to Agra, PRANNAY PATHAK returned from the gates of India’s most-recognised monument. As he found out, there was more fun stuff to do outside

- PRANNAY PATHAK

LET ME COME CLEAN: AT FIRST, I failed to find myself positively charmed by the prospect of visiting the Taj Mahal for the first time. Packed-like-sardines would be an understatement to what our vengeful travel selves had done to the marble mausoleum— which suffices for India on most calendars and brochures—with the pandemic still at large. That coupled with the last surviving shreds of pioneerism and an elitist aversion for crowd favourites almost made me go, ‘Gah—Taj?’ But then I woke up one morning and left for Agra on a fogless December morning. And that was it.

Akbarabad, as it went by a few hundred years ago, was the city of the shayar Mir Taqi Mir (some bad students of history are hellbent on having it renamed Agarwala). First referred to as Agra by the Greek polymath Ptolemy, this city was a Mughal capital for close to a century. It was here that Akbar desired to erect palaces of copper and it was here that the marble mausoleums of Itimadud-Daulah and Taj Mahal were later raised. It’s one of three vertices of the hallowed Golden Triangle. Every year, thousands of foreign tourists pack their bags and set off for a trip to India for Agra alone, bravely ignoring every stereotype that you have sold and bought about travelling in this country.