As I have mentioned before, there is nothing like visiting the East to give you a taste of what monumental grandness and romantic flare can be. The magnificent structures of Udaipur and Agra would have fall into the category of "Wonders of the World."
The City Palace of Udaipur is really eleven palaces all hooked together. Each subsequent Raj had to have more and better and make his mark for posterity. One Raj needed to add enough "apartments" for his 103 concubines (yes, that was not a typographical error). The interior is a maze of rooms, secret stairways, balconies and passageways constructed entirely of marble and sandstone and assorted inlaid precious pieces. The "establishment" stretches out for close to a mile. It is almost the only thing one can see along one side of the lake. The floating palace on the lake that we visited was, in fact, built just for the use of the last Raj on his honeymoon.
Alas and alack, the last Raj could not create, through his one "official" wife, a male heir to the throne. But he had a daughter that he intended to marry off to a "suitable" man in order that she could generate a grandson that would have the right to the throne when he, himself, passed on. The daughter was already in love with another man. The night before the wedding, she threw herself from one of the palace balconies and ended her tormented life. And that ended the entire line of rulers for Udaipur. There has never been another Raj. The guide we had for this excursion could not hide his disdain for such "pluck" in a woman. The Indians can be mysogynists, but they also take pride in the magnificence and melodrama of these past rulers and their kingdoms. They all love a good story (talk to the Hindus about Siva and Shiva....could go on for days) and the story of this kingdom ended the "wrong way" by the look on the guide's face.
Love doesn't conquer all things, but it certainly inspires humans to great deeds. We are off to Agra to view the Taj Mahal today. One of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the complex was built as an homage to Shah Jahan's favorite wife, whom he loved deeply. She died giving childbirth and the Taj is her tomb. Its beauty has been referred to by thousands over the centuries. It took something like 30 years to complete. Unfortunately, upon completion, Shah's son locked him up in a tower and took over control of the Mughal empire. Until his death, Shad Jahan could only view the Taj from afar. He is entombed next to his wife now.
No person could be ambivalent about finally seeing the Taj Mahal in person. It is said the proportions are perfect and that the color of the stone changes hourly as the sun moves across the sky. Once again, we awake to pouring rain. It lasts most of the morning. We are told that we will be going anyway, but noone is in a happy mood. Rain is NOT supposed to happen in Rajasthan at this time of year. Dripping wet, we stand in line at the only site in India where there has been a security check. We are all patted down and every bag and camera is checked. (We were told on the bus that we could only take cameras and "wine coolers" into the gates. That confused us but we were compliant.)
None the less, our entire group was awestruck and anxious to get a closer look. The guide we had was yelling at us through the rain that we had to stay together and get our pictures taken first by a professional photographer (another way to squeeze a few more bucks out of the tourists). It's been a long week and all decorum leaves the group. Most people refuse and whine about being treated like children. It is the first sane thing we've done in hours!! We grab the booties we were given to cover our shoes before entering the tomb...which is only ceremonial because it is sloppy wet and muddy and we have to put them on outside, 150 yards from the entrance.
The sun shows itself for about a half an hour. We walk around and around the tomb marvelling at all the inlaid stone, the arabesque patterns in the walkways underfoot and the garden pools. The minarets on the four corners are actually constructed to lean a little outward so that it will compensate for the optical tricks that would occur in our eyes, as if they were tipping inward. This is a beauty under any conditions. We are lucky enough to get one of the very few photos of the Taj Mahal with black thunderclouds looming over the dome.
This followed by a.....grand luncheon(what a surprise!). All of us smell like wet dogs. The only thing I am interested in is where to find the "wine coolers" we could have taken into the Taj. I ask Muhammed, the train director, and he laughs a great big belly laugh and thanks me for sharing such a good joke. He explains that the guide was having trouble with pronouncing an English word and putting the stress on the correct syllable. He tried to say "binoculars" but it came out wine-a-COO-lars. Don't you just love that?
One more shopping trip. The ride through the dirt streets of Agra reveals one of the most filthy places I have ever visited, aside from the warehouses near the New Jersey docks. (another story for later) And yet this will be the place where my husband and I will fall in love again. And it happens in a little antique shop on a back street where we were supposed to being paying attention to something else entirely.
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