Wow.... that was it at last.
Babul reached late night with one of the Jet flights landing around 10:30 pm. The taxi hired went directly to pick him up from the airport, came to my place where we left immediately after a quick change from his office clothing. The taxi driver Mr. Radhey Shyam was a non stop chatterer, and with his chatter all through the drive, we did not know how we covered the distance from Delhi to Agra. It was 4 AM when we checked in at Hotel Apollo, a walking distance from the Taj Mahal. We had already sounded the driver about our intentions of going well before sunrise to the river bank across the Taj monument.
The excitement was at its peak. There was no physical or mental tiredness after both of us having worked the whole day, Babul with an extra effort flying out to Delhi immediately after a whole day's office work.
We left for the river bank around 5 AM, reaching there in a quick time. One thing was good to have had Radhey Shyam as he knew Agra and its lane very well. And at that time of the night/morning there is hardly any soul to help one in getting to the right place in time. There was one cab with a foreigner couple whom we found to be driving around to get to the same place, and I think he followed us to reach the spot.
We could experience the high security set up for Taj Mahal. He drove us right to the bank, missing out the signage prohibiting entry of vehicles after a certain point. We apologized to the police post and he backed his vehicle after dropping us there. Radhey Shyam spent the time with the police personal around the bonfire while we stood in the cold waiting for the sunrise. They told him they were ready to shoot if he had not stopped the vehicle. He was wearing clothes matching commando uniform that too brought them to high alert. One or two police personals had already taken their position with the weapons ready to fire. In the darkness it is difficult to correctly identify. Not long ago another picket was attacked in the wee hours. So they were very much on the right side. They had been instructed to shoot in case of doubt with out fear. It was pretty shocking for him and all of us. Lucky we all parted in big smiles and bye byes.
February 2, 2008 7:00 AM
In the biting cold we set up the camera and started shooting in the very faint morning light. It was real great to have been there as slowly the intensity of light started increasing. We kept on moving towards the water and as the light was enough for us to shoot hand held, it was maddening trying to get to the various viewpoints. There was great fog all through, teasing us by wrapping the Taj in its cover. As the fog played we shot each and every move it made. It was quite a fruitful outing away from the 'Patel Shots', Babul said this term was used in the UK for postcard type photography. Well it was quite an amusing new term for me.
February 2, 2008 7:34 AM (0696)
We did not sleep till late evening. At least I had a nice nap late in the evening on our return from Fatehpur Sikri. Babul did not sleep and he worked on a few images and uploaded a few on his web gallery. I had not carried my laptop more to shed extra weight.
On 3rd Feb we got up slightly late, any way we could not enter the Taj Mahal complex even if we had got up early. It drizzled slightly, but for a very short spell. There after it was sunny all through with pretty strong winds. We spent many hours shooting pictures from various viewpoints and also enjoyed the happenings around. It is a lot fun looking at people trying to get their pictures shot by a battery of licensed photographers. They know their spots well and each of them make the people do things and in enthusiasms they do it but would laugh at themselves if they saw the pictures. Did a lot of people photography. We shot lots of amusing action taking place there. It was a great pass time. It was lots of fun. We spent our day there, if Babul did not have his flights booked for Mumbai leaving Delhi late night, perhaps we may have been the last people to walk out of the Taj Complex.
We left Taj Complex walking through a side busy road to take a quick lunch at Quality Restaurant. It was a second visit to this food outlet after we had our breakfast on our first in Agra. This time a young artisan danced to the tune of a local instrument played by his elder. Not much time to sit down to enjoy their music as we had to reach Delhi on time. We had a nice good meal of fish curry and tandoori roti, unfortunately tandoori chicken that we ordered was very dry and hard. By the way the food we had at Shere Punjab on way back from Fatehpur Sikri was real good.
Two intensive days of enjoyable photography seemed to be less even the traffic out of the city seemed to be in agreement. The roads were choked. Radhey Shyam being well versed with the city tried to take alternative routes and all these routes through side lanes were so choked that even the two wheelers could not pass through. The patience seemed to be tested of all the vehicle drivers. It was a nice feeling to be in the back seat in such a scenario.
Anyway we reached Delhi in time for Babul to catch the flight on time. A few aches here and there with tired limbs will take a few days to get back to normal. Over all an enjoyable trip.
I will be posting some images in here but most images will be posted in my website http://www.indergopal.com/ in the stock section. The link is not being mentioned as new web pages will be dedicated for this Agra trip.
I do trust folks following my Blog would look up the images. Give me something to smile by adding a few comments here in my Blog and if possible in my guestbook.
