Purpose

SriVari Mettu

That's the place you need to go if you have a trip to Tirumala (Tirupati) in mind, and want to climb the hill on foot.


The regular route from Alipiri is just fine too, but it is quite long and boring with all kinds of distraction and the sound of vehicular traffic nearby jarring your ears all the time. So, for those who like the quietness of nature, the footpath from Sri Vari Mettu is the most welcome relief.

As far as the legend goes, Lord Venkateshwara himself left for Tirumala by this route. The same route was then followed by sages such as Annamaya. Later on, the rulers of Chandragiri among whom Krishnadevaraya's name is also mentioned, have used this route to reach the abode of the Lord of Seven Hills. The scenic route is well paved with 2400 steps of smooth granite stone slabs, and the entire route is covered with modern tin-sheet roof. Drinking water is availble almost every 200 steps. Sudharshan token is given at a counter at the 1,200th step, and the tokens issued here are verified and stamped once again at the 2,050th step. You can identify with nature at its full beauty here, as you are surrounded by tall trees and plants of colorful flowers. The air is cool and pure, with the scent of flowers and the sounds of various birds chirping and calling.

Once you reach the top, you can join the darshan through a separate queue meant for pilgrims who came up the footpath either through Alipiri or SriVari Mettu. Even hot milk is provided free on the way, as is done in the more popular Alipiri path. I went on a Thursday. We started to climb at 6 in the morning, reached the top around 7.15, and were able to get darshan of the Lord by 9 am and were out f the temple complex by 9.30!

To reach SriVari Mettu, you need to first go to Srinivasa Mangapuram, about 15 km to the west of Tirupati, where the temple of Lord Kalyana Venkateshwara is situated. Depending on when you reach there, you can have darshan at this temple and leave for the foothill which is about 3 km from here, with very well laid road leading to the place. If you have a cab, you can ask the driver to drop you at this point and then come up through the Alipiri route. If you are on your own, then it is better to book accommodation at Tirupati town, catch an auto early in the morning. They charge Rs.200 for the drop. After darshan, you can come down by the regular TTD bus.

The Srinivasam complex opposite to Tirupati Bus Station is quite huge and a range of accommodation to suit your budget is available here. Staying downtown also gives you the advantage of spare time to go around the other temples in Tirupati before retiring to bed. I'm sorry I don't have photos to include, as we had kept our cameras and mobile phones in the room itself as these are not allowed into the temple.

Happy trekking and happy darshan!

Awesome Agra

I remember visiting Delhi and Agra for the first time some forty years ago, when my father, a railway employee, took us there for a holiday. I was in my teens, we were not very well off then, and the infrastructure, I think, was also limited. I remember him taking us around Delhi on a phat-phat (auto rickshaw with a bigger body and fitted with motorcycle engine) driven by a Sardarji – a quick tour to see the Parliament House, Rashtrapathi Bhavan, India Gate, Teen Murti Bhavan and the Big Masjid, all from the outside and back to the railway station for food!  Either there were no restaurants or my father could not afford one, too vague memories to focus on the details. We made a quick one-day trip to the Taj Mahal by train. The memory of standing awe-struck by the sight of the marvelous Taj Mahal from the entrance is still fresh in my mind.

The second time was about 8-9 years ago, when I could take my family (my wife and two children) out comfortably, availing the leave travel concessions – mine for the expenses and my wife’s for the train tickets by air-conditioned class. Delhi had grown big by this time with an explosion in traffic, hotels, restaurants and shopping malls. With the death of several members of the Nehru family in the intervening period, their residences had been turned into memorials and added to the tourist map of Delhi. We had gone at the peak of summer and engaged a car throughout our stay, for going to Haridwar and Rishikesh on one side and Mathura, Agra and Jaipur on the other side, keeping Delhi as the base. I do have good memories of that visit, along with some nice photographs taken with my Nikon AF 35mm compact camera. All this was before the age of digital cameras.

After the advent of digital camera and after I acquired one, my interest in photography has undergone a sea-change. The eagerness to click anything attractive has opened my mind to learn about the things I shoot, thus improving my knowledge of flowers, insects, birds and places. My willingness to share this with others through the internet has improved my writing skill too, and the appreciation received from people all around encourages me to travel more, photograph more and share more than ever. It is thus you are reading this now!

The Taj Mahal has been on top of the list I wanted to record and share. An opportunity came my way when I had to visit Delhi on work on an extended stay. As soon as work was over, I pulled my family from Chennai to join me in Delhi and off we took to Agra. Since we had already travelled the same distance by car during the last trip, we decided to skip Mathura and take the train to Agra this time. Arriving around noon, we were immediately engulfed by a group of taxi drivers. Shirking them off one by one, we made our way to the pre-paid taxi booth, but one particular driver was following us from the beginning and we were directed to engage his taxi at the pre-paid booth. A little convinced now about his genuineness, I engaged in conversation with him.

Talking to the driver (me in broken Hindi to him and he in broken English to me), I found that there is a set of taxi drivers who have formed an association with the intention of protecting the arriving tourists from touts and cheats and taking them safely through places in around Agra. He introduced himself as Surendar Sharma and taking in my arrival and departure details, suggested a good itinerary for the period of our stay. As his suggestion matched my requirements, I engaged him without any further hesitation, and that proved to be a good decision, as you will see.

Allowing us time to bathe and change (we had left Delhi at 7 am in the cold of winter), he picked us up again at 2 pm to first have lunch at a decent restaurant and then to take us to the Agra Fort. After that, he would take us to Baby Taj and then to the Sunset Point on the other side of Yamuna. The next day would be Taj Mahal in the morning, and Fatehpur Sikri in the afternoon before catching our train to Jaipur at 5 pm.

Part 1 – The Agra Fort

 

After a good North Indian food at a restaurant, we arrived at the Agra Fort. The Agra fort was astounding. Since we had a little more time at our disposal this time, we enjoyed seeing around the place at leisure and in good detail, taking in thoughts of how life must have been in the days when the fort was being built and how the place must have been teeming with rulers, servants, artisans, construction workers and their families. It was particularly interesting to observe that while the Taj Mahal might be the most wonderful monument of love on earth, its construction had so depleted the resources of the state and thrust hardship on the life of people as all resources were directed to serve the needs of those working for the Taj Mahal that the Emperor Shah Jahan’s son Aurangazeb thought it fit to dethrone and put him in a prison for the rest of his life. The place of Shah Jahan’s last days still evokes mixed feelings, one of awe and respect at his love for his wife and the enormous task he so passionately pursued and finished, and the other of pity for ending up a prisoner at his own son’s hands.

 

Well, the Agra fort is not just the history of Shah Jahan and Aurangazeb. It has a history of more than a thousand years and has seen many wars and many rulers taking possession of it by war. Agra was the capital of the Mughal Empire for five or six generations. It has been rebuilt several times and a number of additions and destructions have taken place in the walled complex. Today, a major portion of the fort is controlled by the Indian Army. What is open to the public gives ample evidence of the long history of the fort and the splendor of Agra itself. You can easily get lost in time if you sit and start thinking at every portion of the various parts of the fort. We took nearly two hours to go one round around the Fort, but for the interested person, even a full day may not be sufficient.

Part 2 – The ‘Baby Taj’

Even though I had okayed the driver’s suggestion to visit the ‘Baby Taj’, I had no idea of what it would be. Only after getting in to the place that I realized that this is one place in Agra that visitors should not miss. This building is actually the tomb of Mirza Ghiyas Beg, father of Nurjehan whom Jehangir married. Mumtaz was Nurjehan’s niece. Mirza Ghiyas Beg served Emperor Akbar and was given the title of ‘I’timad Ud-Daulah’, meaning Pillar of the State. After his death, Nurjehan commissioned this mausoleum, where, later on, tombs of other relatives of her family have also been added.

Leaving the mausoleum part aside, this building marks a landmark departure from redstone buildings and is completely don with marble exterior. It is often called the ‘jewel box’ and no wonder – you can see such marvelous work on marble done so beautifully in a building that is so symmetrical, that it can easily be said to be the model or inspiration for the Taj Mahal that was built by Shah Jahan some decades later – the octagonal design, the minarets, the garden around, the gates, et al.

       

I must thank our driver Surendar Sharma for suggesting this place, for I found this monument as interesting. astonishing and worthy of visit as the Taj Mahal itself. If you plan to visit Agra, please do make a note in your diary to add this in your itinerary. I assure you that you will not regret it.

Part 3 – The evening Taj

I could not grasp it when Surendar said sunset point, for the term is generally used only at places of high elevation like hill stations, or vast openness like seashores.

What he meant was the moonlight garden or moon garden as it is known, on the other side of Yamuna to the Taj Mahal. There is evidence to some kind of big construction plans at this place. There is talk that Shah Jahan wanted to build another building very similar to the Taj Mahal, but in black (or blackened) marble. The octagonal trench lends credence to this idea, but it has not been conclusively proved.

The view one gets of Taj Mahal from this place is fantastic. It must be more so when Yamuna is flowing full, with calm waters. The golden rays of the setting sun made such a beautiful impact on the marble dome of the Taj that we stayed put there for more than half an hour, just taking in the sight as the sun sank beneath the trees the western horizon.

After dark, it was a leisurely drive and some light window-shopping before heading back to the hotel.

Part 4 – The morning Taj

When I asked him what would be the best time to see an uncrowded Taj in the morning, Surendar’s immediate reply was “how early can you get up?” As with Archeological Survey of India heritage sites, the Taj also is open to public from sunrise to sunset, and the best time would be to be there at the start of the day.

However, since we had had a long day the previous day and even longer and tiresome day in Delhi the day prior to that, my family wanted a good rest and I was not allowed to get them ready before 8.30. After breakfast, Surendar dropped us at the west gate, from where the Taj Mahal is just walkable distance, though we rode a cycle rickshaw just for the fun of it.

Security is tight at the Taj. They allow you to carry your camera, mobile, money-purse (handbag for ladies) and a bottle of water. All other things are just not allowed. Taj Mahal is not open for public on Fridays - I was told that only those muslims who wish to offer prayer are allowed on Fridays, that too only into the mosque on the west side of the Taj.

Entry is through the main gate, which itself is a grand structure. I sighted hornbills on trees outside the gate, but they flew before I could find a spot from where to photograph them.

   

The Taj Mahal is so well hidden from the outside that the first view you get of it as you enter is just breathtaking. The beauty of the building takes its own sweet time to slowly sink in your mind, as you gradually cross the platform and enter the area where the fountains start, a good point to photograph the Taj Mahal without people obstructing the view.

Most cameras can hold a good full view of the Taj only up to half the distance of the fountain path, where there is another platform with benches for visitors to sit and take photographs with the Taj Mahal on the background. Beyond that, the monument is so huge that the camera frame would not accommodate it fully, and you have to only take pictures of parts of Taj Mahal thereafter.

Early February weather is so cool and pleasant that you do not get tired of walking around the Taj any number of times. Wearing shoes is not permitted on the Taj Mahal. On either sides of the Taj Mahal you can find a big gate with identical structure, the one on the west serving as a mosque and the one on the east, probably used as guest house, just to balance the other side. You are awe-struck by the symmetry of the design.

That reminds me of an irony that I read somewhere – the symmetry of Taj Mahal was disturbed by the very person who built it – for he was buried to the left of his dear wife's tomb which is placed right in the centre of the Taj Mahal.

The size of the Taj Mahal is to be seen to be believed. From a distance, people look like ants on the grand platform. The minarets are so huge that humans stand no comparison under them. The Taj looks beautiful from any side and any distance. We spent quite a few hours, catching as much of it in the eye of our minds as we could, before reluctantly leaving the place.

Good bye, Taj!

Part 5 – Fatehpur Sikri


In the afternoon we visited Fatehpur Sikir, a city built by Emperor Akbar in honour of Saint Salim Chisti who he revered and who foretold the birth of a son – later to be known as Jahangir. Though it took Akbar 14 years to build this vast complex housing the palaces of his three queens besides his secretariat, a huge courtyard, the marble mausoleum of Saint Chisti and the largest gate the Buland Darwaza, it had to be vacated in the next 15 years because it could not be sustained with supplies, for natural and political reasons.

A few interesting photographs of this place.

 

 

Good bye, Agra!  I know I skipped Akbar's mausoleum, but won't there be another visit to Agra?  I will cover it then!

Breakfast with Peacocks

Recently, I had been to Delhi for two weeks.  We were put up at the popular India International Centre which is situated on the Max Mueller Marg. The place had a nice, spacious dining hall with large windows presenting a good view of the huge trees on the other side. 

Life in Delhi is a little lazy, at least at the start of the day.  They had a very limited menu for breakfast, so our choice was invariably a paratha, a toast and a cup of chocolate.  Despite seeing us order the same thing every day, they took their own time taking the order and more time bringing the breakfast, leaving us to sit idle and just chat for over half an hour every day.  We were getting a little restless and impatient at this. Being a nature lover, my sights naturally set on the outside. 

The first two days went without much to see, except for the usual pigeons, bulbuls and of course, kites at a height. Delhi is so full of kites everywhere. As we were chatting, something big across the glass caught my attention. I could not believe what I saw through the glass.  I was simply not prepared to see this huge bird, our national bird the peacock, at such close range!  I quickly ran to my room and brought my camera.

I got up and went near the bird.  I thought I saw one bird, but there were more on the adjoining parapet! 



And more on the trees! 

Looks like at least a dozen of them live somewhere nearby and make it a point to enjoy the morning. 

From that day, I made it a point to remember to take my camera when going for breakfast.  The peacocks went missing for two days, but they made their appearance again on the third day and I lost no time in clicking them.  And, I thanked the staff for their leisurely service, giving me enough time to shoot!

Forgot to add, all the photos were taken through the glass.