6th October: Leg 2 Day 3, Agra-Jaipur

6th October: Leg 2 Day 3, Agra-Jaipur
I was very tired (as usual?), and my body was burning with the October sun’s blazing rays. Taking shelter, I was sitting on narrow stairs, somewhere inside the Fatehpur Sikri complex, visualizing what it was like living back in the 16th century with no air conditioners or coolers! The sun continued to be cruel but I had to continue photographing the awesome display of architecture. I had being seeing all this for the last 2 days and was still absorbing it all up with disbelief! 5 hours earlier, we were back in our hotel in Agra and had just started packing up! Day 3 of the Leg 2 saw the GIR team get up lazily as the distance to be covered today would be approximately 230kms. Ordering our breakfast in the room was a sensible thing we did as it was close to eleven when we left our hotel. As we left, we did tank up our four machines and this time the Blazes returned 33-34kmpl (part city riding, part highway). Next up we got jammed up in ridiculous traffic of Agra. For people here, red lights don’t exist and cops are just any other human beings. Our destination was Fatehpur Sikri, around 35kms from Agra on the Agra-Jaipur state highway. Once out of Agra, we let the machines open up but sadly the Comet started having problems. The bike was smoking up and there was what so ever no punch from the engine in any gear.
Fatehpur Sikri, at first glance, seemed inviting. Built during the second half of the 16th century by the Emperor Akbar, this was the capital of the Mughal Empire for only some 10 years and was also referred to as the city of Victory. The complex of monuments and temples, all in a uniform architectural style, includes one of the largest mosques in India, the Jama Masjid. We started with the Buland Darwaza, a massive gate which is approachable from the outside by a 13-metre flight of steps which adds to its grandeur. The gate erected in 1602 AD to commemorate Akbar’s victory over Deccan is the highest and grandest gateway in India and ranks among the biggest in the world. Once inside, we were amazed with the finest examples of Mughal architectural splendour at its height! One part of the place had many graves, men on the outside, and women in the enclosure. There was also a tunnel, closed for the public, which supposedly connects to Agra and then to Lahore! The sun however was too bright and we being bare-footed, it was difficult to soak up the beauty around completely. One thing which really makes me feel ashamed is that even in a place like this, we Indians don’t miss the slightest opportunity of earning a buck or two, even if it means using religion as a shield to do it. Many people, from all over the world come to the dargah, located in the middle of the complex to pay their respects and ask for ‘mannats’ by tying a religious thread around the wall openings. But many people, who sit in the complex, have made it a business and if you do the mistake of coming close to them to ask for a thread, they will start pestering you to buy the so called religious ‘chadar’ and flowers along with the thread. And charges start at 150, all the way upto 11,000. I believe that if it’s in our heart that we really want to ask for something from god, why shell money to ‘impress’ the god? Why not just take his name truthfully and ask for what you wish?
Spending around an hour there, we proceeded to the main complex (entry ticket applicable unlike Buland Darwaza) which has main attractions such as Diwan-I-Am, Diwan-khana-I-khass, Turkish Sultana’s house, the Treasury etc. Ofcourse I did learn a thing or two about the Hawa Mahal and Birbal’s Palace back in school in historical lessons but being there and seeing everything first hand gave me a lot more to understand and respect our country’s history. Now I get the point of school trips to such places, which till date was seen as just another chillax trip! This main complex of the Sikri had just a fraction of the tourist at the Buland Darwaza primarily due to the entry fees but then it was good too. The calm of the place added to its charisma and one could easily visualize what would be an everyday business here back in the 16th century.
It was close to three when we were done with the FatehPur Sikri and decided to leave for Jaipur. Vinayak jee in the meantime had, to an extent, rectified the problem in the Comet and we stopped at the first good restaurant for a heavy lunch. The place turned out to be quite expensive by our budget standards, nevertheless, gave us the required freshness to carry on. Roads from Bharatpur became a nightware, what with the Jupiter’s suspension bottoming out at regular intervals and somehow these bouncy roads made the Jupiter miss its beat very often. Half throttle applications made the engine bog down and only after the road improved did it start behaving normally! Weird!
I tanked up the Jupiter, which seemed to have a much larger tank of approximately ten litres. It returned a low 28kmpl, mainly because I ran it quite a lot in Agra and then this single lane highway to Jaipur, which we hit in dark, somewhere around seven and headed straight to Sunny’s mamaji’s place. Locating the place was quite difficult and we did come across a couple of xbhpians on the roads, who recognized us when we had stopped to ask for locations! Mamajee was a brilliant host and left no stone unturned in making sure we all felt at home. Today was a very tiring day but it had not ended yet, atleast for Sunny and me! The GIR team stays in Jaipur for three nights before heading to Chittorgarh.