Travel : A Pleasure Trip
Three consecutive holidays on a weekend seemed a perfect timing for a long awaited break. A whirlwind tour to Ghana Bird Sanctuary, Fatehpur Sikri and Taj Mahal was planned. With my hubby behind the steering wheel, me and my two naughty kids [Yasho 9yrs and Udayan 3yrs] started the journey-get set go…. It was a cool morning with rainy clouds all over the sky. The greenery of Jaipur was singing in the tune of F.M. radio of the car. The cool breeze was playing symphony with the beautiful scenery. The black clouds were playing hide and seek with the mountains. Many unfamiliar names of the places came and went by on the yellow stones. I could have sung serenades for the nature’s beauty along the road but the three hours journey flew away too quickly and we reached Ghana eating, drinking and singing. When we were getting out of the car Udayan asked for his umbrella. The watchman of the parking lot told him that there is no need of any umbrella as so many clouds are there but I turned a blind eye on his advice and unlocked the car and gave the umbrella to Udayan. All of us were very happy on reaching our first destination so quickly and without any panic. When hubby dear went at the ticked counter, I got an idea to click some pictures of the kids playing at the beautiful entrance gate of Ghana Bird Sanctuary . It was then I realized that the battery of the camera is low. But I was determined not to spoil my mood for a wonderful holiday. Hubby and kid’s allegations soon vanished when we took a tonga along with a guide. The guide had a pair of binoculars and both my materialistic kids were more interested in the binoculars than the birds. Each time the guide spotted any bird and offered the binoculars there was a sound of me..me..me.. When my turn came I could not see anything except long grass. But soon we learnt to take the binoculars by turn and see the birds without much fuss and noise. After an hour we had enhanced our knowledge about the 300 species of grass found there, Siberian Cranes, Jungle Kotwal who alerts the other birds of the attacks by the hawks, about a bird who weeds out pieces of meat struck in a tiger’s teeth, birds that can hover like a helicopter and birds who live on eggs and chicks of other birds. The most fascinating site was of the butterflies--- yellow and white sitting on the road and flying abruptly at the noise of the tonga. Kids clapped with excitement at the site of a turtle in the nearby pond. Suddenly, I realized that Udayan’s umbrella is missing. O God! where it had gone. From then onwards my focus shifted from the birds to the little blue umbrella. On our way back I concentrated on the sides of the road but there was no umbrella. Inspite of the constant assurance by the guide and the tonga-wala we could not find the umbrella. We continued our journey towards Fatehpur Sikri without umbrella. At Fatehpur Sikri, there was a huge crowd of guides with price tag ranging from Rs.20 to Rs.350. It was only my husband’s skilled navigation that led us across. We parked our car and boarded a CNG bus to reach the palace and the Dargah. Then we hired a guide. He also had an umbrella hung at the back in his collar. My naughty mind suggested that it’s a good idea to avoid losing your umbrella. Our guide was an eloquent speaker he told us that first we would visit the palace and then the Dargah. The palace was beautifully built building with red sand stone. The spell of the guide’s words took us in Akbar’s reign. He had three queens with three different religions. Their hide and seek palace was a beautiful example of Jain architecture. His Aam Darbar with seats of his Navratanas, the stage for Tansen, the beautiful gardens and the game of Chopad – Pasa embedded on the tiles of floor. All were magnificent. Then we went towards the Dargah. There was Buland Darwaza. It was really huge. The sweet fragrance of roses was giving Dargah a spiritual aura. All of us tied the Mannat Ka Dhaga.
Then we continued our journey towards Agra. All of us were a bit tired due to heat and humidity and the AC of the car was really a respite. Beside Taj Mahal the specialty of Agra is also the unique style of the people to tell the way to a particular place. When we asked the way for our hotel, a man replied to go straight turning his hand towards left. So we went straight, confused weather to take left and then went straight or whatever and landed into a traffic jam for 15 minutes. Udayan took a quick nap till we reached the hotel. Yasho was worried if we could find any hotel with swimming pool. The lobby of the hotel was reflecting its ethnic taste. The hotel was good. It was in the heart of the city. After a rest of two hours and a nice tea-milk- cookies break, we were ready to visit Taj Mahal. The hotel-manager advised us to hire an auto instead of driving the car. I was surprised when the auto driver asked for Rs.80 and then agreed for just Rs.40. When asked about the reason, he told me this is because of lot of tourists that came here. It reminded me of Agra shown in movie Bunty aur Bubbly. Anyhow, we reached the Taj Mahal after a typical hustle bustle at the ticket counter. We all were enchanted by the picturesque beauty of Taj Mahal. It was like a dream come true. Hubby dear, me, Yasho and Udayan together –smile please-click. Yes, we got the moment clicked.
There was a huge queue at the monument but it was moving quickly. I got a chewing gum stuck on my bare foot, in the process of reaching inside. Yuck… it was awful for me and humorous for others. Instead of numerous efforts by the visitors to ruin its beauty, Taj was still elegantly standing but I didn’t know how long it can survive the insensitivity of the people. We had a great view. We bought a Taj Mahal [show piece].Then we went to a restaurant near our hotel.
We were all very tired waiting for our meal to come. Suddenly, Udayan fell down from his chair. When I lifted him up and saw a deep cut on his left eyebrow. It was just like a nightmare. I shouted for ice. There was chaos all around. Someone took my hubby and Udayan to the doctor with ice on his wound. I and Yasho came back to the hotel worried. After a restless half an hour Udayan and his father came with a huge bandage on his eyebrow. The energy level of kids is so high that Udayan was agile as ever but we were over cautious. We had a delicious dinner at the hotel’s restaurant and called it off for the day. But much more excitement was waiting for us the other day.
A bright morning welcomed us next day. But my husband was not in a mood to visit other tourist attractions like Agra Fort, Dayal Bagh etc. He gave the car keys to the hotel staff to clean it from inside. We decided to check out of the hotel after breakfast , which was a delicious blend of Indian and continental cuisine. Then we got the news that our car had been locked with keys inside. Hubby dear became furious because he wanted to reach Jaipur by noon. But the hotel staff assured to fix the matter with in an hour. He refused all my proposals of site seeing and shopping. So I went to the pool with kids. Yasho took the shower and went to the pool but when I asked Udayan to take shower, he said, “Mamma,potie…” and shit his potie was at the floor of that beautiful open shower area. I was so embarrassed. I looked at Yasho but he offered no help and ignored me. Then I saw a service boy coming towards me with towels and a smile. I asked him to clean the mess Udayan had created. His expressions changed remarkably. He came back with one more person, a broom, a cleaning mop, a bucked and a wiper. It took them a while to clean the area. It was pretty hard for me to stay cool but I did. By the time I reached the room with kids, the car had been opened and we were ready to leave. Kids were enthusiastic and I was satisfied. It was really an unforgettable trip. It started raining heavily. The black road bordered by lush green trees started conspiring to encourage us for another pleasure trip.
