india part 7

agra, home to the most famous sight in india...though i am not sure i would have known the name of the city before arriving in india...the taj mahal...the most expensive sight as well...it was built by shah jahan, one of the mughal rulers...he built it for his 2nd wife mumtaz, after she died in childbirth...with her 14th child!!!!!!!!!!!!! 14 kids!!!!!!!!!!!! i can't begin to imagine that...layna did the math, and she spent just under half her life pregnant...WHOA...anywho, he obviously kinda liked her...his life ended up not being much fun though...for the last 8 years of his life, he was imprisoned in agra fort, and could only look out and see the taj mahal from 2km away...on a clear day...on a hazy day, he wasn't able to see the taj at all...the person who imprisoned him was his own son, aurangzeb...aurangzeb seized power by beseiging the fort and cutting off the water supply, then fought with his brothers for power...poor dad had 8 yrs in a mostly white marble palace inside the fort...the taj mahal is a HUGE white marble mausoleum...after shah jahan died, he was buried there as well, with a larger grave, of course...though mumtaz's grave is centered, so it's obvious it was built for her...there is a mosque on one side, made of red sandstone, that's still used a bit...it opens at sunrise, and closes at sundown...there are three gates, each with separate ticket lines for indians and foreigners...indians pay 10 rupees, foreigners pay 750...the line of foreigners is LONG...
i enjoyed wandering around the fort more than i did the taj...i was at the fort on the day the taj is closed (friday)...if you see both sights on the same day, you get a 50 rupee discount, but i decided not to do that, since i knew layna wouldn't be visiting the fort with me and i wanted to do it early in the morning...since the taj is closed on fridays, the fort isn't as busy then either, which ended up being awesome...the ticket guy at the fort gave me the discount anywho, AND i got to wander around in almost total quiet...there were very few other people in there while i was there...
i also took a day trip out to the old city of fatephur sikri...it was built as a capital city by akbar, but abandoned shortly after his death because there wasn't enough water...the ruins are still there, though it's a ghost city now...on one end is a mosque, still very much in use...another one called jama masjid...(i found out that jama means friday, which is the biggest day of the week for worshipping muslims...now i know why the biggest mosque in each city has the same name!)...the main gate into this mosque is 54m high...inside the courtyard is also a shrine to a sufi mystic...back in the day when akbar was still alive, he had 3 wives, and none of them had had kids...this mystic predicted that a son/heir would soon arrive, and when it happened, akbar built a city where this mystic lived...because of the pregnancy/family aspect of the mystic, women who want to become pregnant still come and pray at his shrine...they make wishes by tying little pieces of red string into the latticework of the shrine...the mystic is buried there, as are all of his descendents...to get to the area with the palace and gardens and such, i had to walk through a road where all the wannabe guides were hanging out...i didn't see a whole l0t of tourists, so they're all pretty desperate to find someone to hire them...they all tried to convince me that i couldn't properly appreciate the sight w/out their knowledge...i still decided against hiring one of them...all the signs inside were pretty descriptive, so i wonder what else they would've told me...
while in agra we also celebrated layna's birthday...this year she turned 33 on friday, the 13th of february...we didn't do much that day, in fact we spent most of the day waiting...waiting for the customs guy at the post office, waiting for the doctor (the bites on layna's feet were badly infected,) getting our hair cut, buying postcards, etc...that night we were on a train, so we couldn't even go out properly...i'm obviously not a good birthday celebrater...
after agra we went to varanasi...believed to be a holy city, along a holy river, the ganges...the city is mostly built on one side of the river, and there are ghats all the way up and down that side...a ghat is a set of steps leading to open water...(lake, river, etc)...a dhobi ghat is where laundry is done, and we saw several of those in varanasi...it's possible to walk for several kilometers along the ghats in varanasi, and by doing so, you get to see an amazing number of people doing an amazing number of things...bathing, laundry, and more...one of the ghats is the main burning ghat, where cremations are carried out...we were taken into a building that allowed us a higher view of this ghat, so we could see what was happening...first the body is carried through the streets by outcasts...then taken to the river and dunked in holy water...then the shrouded body is placed upon the pyre, and more wood piled on top of that...the guys who do this know exactly how much wood is needed to reduce the body to nothing but ash in 3 hours...the cost of the cremation is the cost of the wood...this is based on the weight and type of wood...sandalwood is the most expensive...we saw the start of 3 or 4 cremations, but didn't see what the end looks like...someone told us that the ashes are put in the river...before seeing the area, i imagined it would be rather smelly, but it wasn't at all...and the bodies are wrapped in shrouds, so you don't ever see a dead body...women (family members and friends of the deceased) aren't allowed to witness the cremations, because historically they would throw themselves on the funeral pyre...what an awful way to die...
as i've said before, layna and i like to walk, and we often walk out of the typical tourist zone in each town...this time we walked farther along the ghats than most people...at one point we heard some drumming, and saw some women dancing, so we stopped to watch...before we knew it, they had pulled us in and we were dancing with them...it was a wedding celebration!! i felt guilty, as we were getting far more attention than the bridal couple...they weren't dancing though...the sari of the bride was absolutely gorgeous...(traditional indian brides wear a red and gold sari)...anywho, the dancing was great fun, and it was one of our only interactions with indian women...we'd love to have more, but indian women don't go out and about like indian men...
walking in town we saw a couple other marriage processions during our days in varanasi...florescent lights (all connected to each other, and the generator being pushed along as well) being carried by people, guys in marching band costumes playing happy music, and women in nice clothes walking along...impressive, and fun...we saw other processions as well, but weren't able to figure out what they were...people dressed all in black, and hitting themselves (HARD) in time to the beat of a drum...a funeral procession? we saw circles formed around men and boys dancing/performing with knives and sticks on the streets too...varanasi is a city where you'll see a lot of traditions that have been a part of life for a very long time, but arent so much on display in other cities...at least, not that we've seen...
we did hire a boat a couple times, which is a typical thing to do...it's quite an experience to be rowed along the river, watching each ghat go by...they are all different, and it's a great people watching experience...our first ride was during sunset, which was great...until we were attacked by moths...not so much attacked as surrounded...yuck...they landed on us constantly, and we were very glad to get out of the boat at the end...the next morning we saw the sun rise, which was beautiful...it's the time of day when many people do their puja (ritual, giving an offering of some sort) along the ghats...and no moths to annoy us:)