After many years, again I got a chance to visit Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world. Yesterday, 22nd November, along with 37 comrades who have come from Calicut (Kerala) to participate in the 25th November Parliament March against PFRDA Bill, I went to Agra by starting at early morning. There was heavy fog due to which there was some in delay in reaching Agra.
Before that we visited Sikandra, where Mogul Emperor Akbar built his own tomb and is laid to rest. It was constructed in the 1600s (1602-1605).His two daughters are also buried there. With its grand gate, the magnificent tomb and the garden around is about 123 acres. What is the difficulty for the king to select the best hundreds of acres for his burial. Akbar’s tomb is said to be one of the inspiration to construct Taj almost in the same model.
We next visited the Agra Fort, which was the headquarters of the Moghul Dynasty from Emperors Akbar to Aurangazeb, 4 generations till the capital was shifted to Delhi. It is a mighty fortified fort and includes the residences of Emperor, family, ministers and the army etc. The lavish way in which the Moghul kings lived can be understood when going through the fort.
Lastly we visited the ‘most beautiful poem in marble’,Taj Mahal. It is the eternal memento of love Shajahan created for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. It took about 20,000 workers to build the same by 22 years. We took about 1-2 hours to see the Taj and enjoy its beauty. We could visit only the duplicate coffin of the Emperor and his wife since people are not allowed to visit the real coffin which is in the underground room. I had visited it when I came earlier. All comrades who visited it for the first time were enthralled though they had seen the photos earlier.
The security, whether in Agra Fort or Taj has become stricter and many places where we could visit earlier could not be reached now. And the number of visitors are at least ten times more. On earlier visits I could walk through leisurely and see all the places, but now, everywhere there are queues and it takes a lot of time to move and see. Population has increased and the urge for our and travel has also increased.
Everybody is happy and enjoy seeing Taj, but how many people think about the efforts and work put in the construction of this great monument. Thousands of skilled and expert workers have put in their labour. The Marbles and Red Stones were brought from far away. How difficult it might have been for the workers to bring it. Probably it was sheer exploitation of the workers, slaves and the poor people. But there is not much difference now also. The worker is always exploited by the powers be at that time.
Again we had to face the heavy fog when we returned. Anyway it a pleasure to visit the Taj once again.