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Delhi - Haridwar - Rishikesh - Agra

Hi there,

I am back again with a yet another exciting article on my recent trip to Delhi-Haridwar-Rishikesh-Agra.

It was an amazing memorable trip!!!. Should be my 7/8th trip to Delhi, 3rd trip to Haridwar and 2nd trip to Rishikesh and Agra, first was at the age of 9 years.

So, without going round and round, coming straight to the topic, let us start our virtual trip to these beautiful places of Incredible India - Hindustan, meri Jaan!!!

Since my MBA classes are on Friday and Saturday - 19:00 to 21:30 hours and Sunday from

09:00 to 14:00 hours, we (my parents & I) planned a trip during the week.

8th Mar, Sunday

18:15 hours - Depart Amchi Mumbai by 2953 - August Kranti Rajdhani

                    Had nice tea and evening snacks & Dinner on train (included in fare)

9th Mar, Monday

10:50 hours - Reached Hazrat Nizammudin station (Delhi). Mr Ram Vaidya, Director

                      R&D, Johnson and Johnson had boarded the train at Savai Madhavpur

                      Station. A thorough gentlemen, down to earth, we enjoyed his company till

                      Delhi.

10:50 hours - Our driver Anil was waiting for us with our rented Lancer for our onward

                      trip to Haridwar.

13:00 hours - Had amazing "Shikanji" at Jain Shikanji in Modi Nagar (famous in Delhi.

                      It's a sweet fresh lemon soda) but amazingly refreshing. Loved it!!

14:30 hours - Lunch at lovely "Cheetal Grand" restaurant - amazing food. Had some 

                       light snacks coz I had already had two full glasses of Shikanji, but a treat to

                       tummy.

17:45 hours - Reached Swami Ramdev's Patanjali Yogpeeth. Beautiful place, well

                      maintained, but the staff needs a bit of training to deal with customers as

                      they seem lost. Anyways, but all in all, a pious environment created!!

                      Exactly opposite this Grand Ashram are "Poplene Trees". Our driver, Anil

                      informed us that these are used to make matchsticks. I remembered

                     "Robin Sharma's book - Greatness Guide" where in a chapter he 

                      had mentioned that these drivers have a huge treasure of knowledge.

                     Hmm......very very true.

18:15 hours - Reached Haridwar, luckily the evening arti was on. We were lucky to

                      attend it. Have flowers and Diya float on river Ganga. Gosh!!! That was

                      such a wonderful divine feeling. We distributed food and fed 25 beggers.

                       (In Haridwar, they have a bowl of Rice, Puri, Sheera, Dal and Sabji @ Rs

                       4 each, so for 25 beggers it was just Rs 100)

10th Mar, Tuesday

04:45 hours - Woke up and sat on the banks of Divine Ganga, My God!!!! Cant express

                      such a superb pious feeling - early morning, fast flowing Ganga, even

                      before dawn, sanctity in the surroundings.... Too good!!

06:00 hours - Left for Rishikesh.

07:15 hours - Visited Ram Jhulka, it was chilled here. Enjoyed the early morning

                       beautiful view.

08:30 hours - Visited Gayatri Bhawan. Its more like a "Samadhi" kinds. Can be missed.

                      Proceeded to Patanjali Yogpeeth for healthy breakfast and yes delicious

                      Lassi!!!

15:30 hours - Visited Akshardham Temple, Delhi.

19:30 hours - Visited Dilli Haat near AIIMS, Kidwai Nagar, New Delhi - this is a

                      paradise for Shopping lovers. Its kind of a huge ground with  

                      multiple stalls dedicated to Regions. There are stall like Hyderabad, Kashmir,

                      Assam, Misoram, Lakshadweep, UP, Rajasthan with their specialities   

                      such as Pearls, Pashmina shawls, Lucknowi, Hyderabadi Biryani,

                      Rajasthani Matka kulfi etc. You also have creative Mehendi and sketches

                      stalls to have your live sketches done in just 15 minutes. Good one!!

11th Mar, Wednesday - Holi - festival of colors

04:00 hours - Woke up

05:15 hours - Left for Agra. Being "Holi" - festival of colors, majorly celebrated in

                      Northern region, everyone had advised us to cancel our trip since there             

                      might be some problem.

07:40 hours - Reached Agra. Even the Driver was amazed that we managed to reach

                      Agra within 3 hours on a clean, traffic free road.

08:00 hours - We hired a Camel rick for Rs 125 for to and fro the main gate (bargained  

                      from Rs 100 one way) and a Guide for Rs 75 (bargained from Rs 275). We

                      were treated like VVIP (Very Very Important People) everywhere coz of          

                      limited tourists, deserted highways, deserted restaurants.

                      This tour was one of the superb tour ever done with amazing facts

                      shared by our Guide like:

• a) There are 4 gate - East, West, North and South gates. Main gate of Taj Mahal has 22 domes. The figure "22" is a very special figure as far as history of Taj Mahal goes.
• a. The Taj Mahal took 22 years to be constructed (1631 to 1653)
• b. 22,000 workers worked on this splendid wonder of the World
• c. Steps in the Taj Mahal are 22 in number
• d. Total cost of construction was Rupees 2.2 million ie 22 lakhs
• e. Shahjahan died on 22nd Jan 1666

 

• b) The fountains are in the centre of the entire premises. The structure on the right of this fountains is exactly the same as that on the left. Except the tomb of Shahjahan beside Mumtaz's tomb (which is again kept in the centre of the White wonder creation. 
• c) There is a mosque built with red stones on the West - left of Taj Mahal. Because of the symmetry logic, there is same structure on the right as well but this could not be called a Mosque (since Mosque is always in West direction) so it was termed as a Guest house. But there can not be a guest house near a tomb and hence this was unused. 
• d) There are 16 Gardens, 8 on the either side of the fountains and 53 fountains in all. This is again co-incidental to the year of completion of construction 1653, amazing!!!!
• e) One more special feature of these gardens is all 16 of them are in square shape. They are the only one square shaped garden in the entire world. Initially Emperor Shahajahan had planted fruits, vegetables and nuts trees but when it went under the rule of Britishers, they beautified the whole garden. 
• f) The architect who worked on this wonder was from Turkey, an earthquake prone country. So his prime intention was to safe guard this extremely precious creation from any natural disaster. Hence he used Ebony wood, which is most expensive, very strong and shock resistant wood. This wood requires moisture. Hence there are 68 wells under the Taj where the Ebony Wood is floating. Hence also the logic on constructing Taj on the banks of River Yamuna. 
• g) The 4 pillars of the Taj are also strategically constructed in such a way that the front two tilts towards the outer side while the two behind tilts backward. Incase if someday they fall, there will be no harm to Taj Mahal. 
• h) The dome on Top of Taj is 30 feet in height 
• i) The doors have Mica Sheets which look like glass or plastic see-through door. This mica sheets help control the room temperature 
• j) It is made in Persian style. Persians consider Fire as God. The door architecture resembles to those in Haz Mecca. It is made of 5 stones since a Muslim performs "Namaaz" 5 times a day 
• k) The White Taj Mahal building took 17 years for its construction since it has real precious stones used in the single carved designs on marble and the gardens, fountains, surrounding red stone buildings were completed in 5 years. 
• l) Emperor Shahajahan immensely loved his wife Mumtaz, when she died he was in the battlefield. He ordered to bury her body till the war was on. After the war, he took her coffin to Taj and cremated her second time on the left of Taj. After the completion of Taj, he took it out and again put her coffin in the basement and created a tomb in the centre of the white wonder. Even the domes in the Taj are in the shape of Diamonds cause they were Mumtaz's favorite 
• m) In the courtship of 18 years, Shahajahan and Mumtaz had 14 children. Out of which 8 had expired and only 6 survived. Out of this 6, 4 were males and 2 girl child. 
• n) Shahajahan was to inherit his empire to his elder son - Murad. When Aurangseb, his second son killed all his brothers and put Shahjahan under imprisonment. Shahajahan's daughter Jahanara Begum Sahib, loved him immensely and did not marry to look after her father. She was with her father throughout his imprisonment period. When he expired she obtained permission from Aurangzeb and kept Shahajahan's coffin in the basement with Mumtaz and created a tomb on the left of Mumtaz's tomb. This is the only asymmetrical aspect in Taj Mahal

10:45 hours - Left Agra. I was extremely happy with the wonderful details provided.             

This tour's credit fully goes to my Dad who was very confident

on the tour while we as usually backed him with full zeal. 

14:00 hours - Visited Lotus Temple of Bahai community. Beautiful architecture.

Amazingly divine silence and pious, very well maintained surroundings

14:20 hours - Had Lunch

15:30 hours - Visted Kutab Minar, Red Fort, Rajghat - Samadhi of Mahatma

Gandhi, Indira Gandhi "Shakti Sthal" and  Rajiv Gandhi known as "Veer Bhumi"

17:30 hours - Reached International Doll Museum, which was unfortunately closed on

eve of Holi festival. This is another beautiful must see place in Delhi

hosting a collection of dolls in three floors. From my childhood memory, I

remember there are few dolls aligned which display how an Indian elegant

Saree is worn by a lady. Superb!!

18:10 hours - Visited Birla Temple. Very good one. There in the background, Jagjeet

Singh's divine chats of "Hare Rama, Hare Krishna, Krishna - Krishna, 

Hare - Hare" was on and I actually felt very satisfied and happy within

What a divine feeling!!! I shall definitely buy that Cd as I love listening to

such divine chats in the early morning (before sunrise) while cooking 

or practicing Yoga. Amazingly beautiful start to a wonderful power

packed day ahead!!!!

19:15 hours - My office colleagues (counter parts in Delhi office) had invited us for

Dinner at Karims, Noida Sector 18. My Dad loved the non-veg food

here while my Mom and I munched happily on our vegetarian delicacies.

12th Mar, Wednesday

08:30 hours - We were invited by our friends for a lovely breakfast "Idli Sambhar, mixed

sprouts crunchy snack and a delicious refreshing cup of coffee.

15:30 hours - Left in Meru (011 4422 4422) dial a cab and left for Hazrat Nizammudin

Station.

 16:55 hours - Departed Delhi - 2954 - August Kranti Rajdhani

13th Mar, Wednesday - 09:20 hours reached Amchi Mumbai. Had a series of "To

dos now". For example, calculating the total cost, tallying the balance with the cash in hand, depositing the surplus in bank account, clearing office mails,gearing up for the class tonite, checking my study plan and start studying as per today's plan......

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