Waah Taj!!

                        

          Love Wrought in Living Stones

                              Journey to the Taj

 

It all started way back in 2013. Sujit and I planned a road trip from Delhi to Panipat. As we both are bike lovers so it is needless to say that how much we enjoyed the trip. Since then, we were itching to drive through the famous Yamuna Expressway and visit the wonderful Taj Mahal. But, due to the overloaded office work and scorching July sun, our plan never got executed.

Come 2015, we decided that it is high time now. We were quite determined this time. Little bit servicing of my bike was required. I got it done and we were all set to go. Agra here we come!!

9^th May 2015 04:00 hours:

Exquisite Yamuna Expressway 

We left for Agra. We were not bothered about traffic, but we have to beat the mighty sun. I drove around 70-80kmph swiftly on Noida-Greater Noida Expressway. After 20 minutes I saw the sign board announcing “keep left for Yamuna Expressway”. Hell yeah!! This is what I was waiting for. I took the turn and we were on the mesmerizing Yamuna Expressway. If you are a fan of road trips then you have to visit Yamuna Expressway. 6 broad lanes and 1 lane left on either side for stop by. By seeing this pitch perfect road I was itching to speed it up to max but I held that thought and kept the speed around 80-85kmph. When I was around 5 years of age I saw one sign board on a valley nearby my hometown that “Speed Thrills but it kills”. I kept that in mind since then. So, no over speeding.

40Kms later we arrived at the first toll booth “Jewar”. The toll booth attendant asked us “Kaha tak jana hai”, we replied “Agra” in unison. He asked for Rs 150, I was like “dude!! Are you serious?” 150 bucks for 2 wheelers? This is insane. But, never the less we paid him what he asked for. We kept going on the expressway.

After some time we saw few locals jogging around on the expressway. I was confused that can’t they find any other place. But, you can’t help it, this is Uttar Pradesh for you. You will find all sort of crazy stuff. Right from carrying motorbike on their shoulders and trying to jump it off the barricade, you name it.

Few locals were waving to us as if we were doing something phenomenal. To be very honest we loved thatJ. After sometime we stop by for a loo break. Sujit then decided that he will ride now. I was a bit unsure about his driving. But he looked confidant and the condition of the road gave me confidence too. Now, I was on the pillion seat. We drove swiftly for few kilometers then came another toll booth. As we had already bought the token till Agra so I just gave that token to the toll booth assistant and we were through. We saw a food joint after toll booth. We stop by there for snacks.

We had tea and sandwich there. Damn costly I must say. I was not able to figure it out that why everything is so costly in this expressway. Tool booth charge, food aah. This is a big disappointment.

We kept moving forward. We had a couple of loo breaks in between. After sometime we reached the third and the final toll booth. I performed the same drill. Showing token and all. After crossing it we stop by for the last time. We continued from there on.

“Welcome to Agra” that’s what the welcome board was saying. We were quite happy to see that. 07:03 hours and we have reached Agra. Not bad at all. Now, it was the time to switch the riding seat. I got the wheels back and we were headed towards the “Taj Mahal”.

After some confusion and couple of wrong turns, we were there at Taj Mahal. We parked the bike at the so called authorized parking. After a walk of around a kilometer we were there at the ticket counter. Security check done and we were at the front of the mesmerizing “Taj Mahal”.

A big WOW!! What a masterpiece. You will surely fall in love with it at first sight. People around there were taking the photographs. So why shall we stand back? We too started taking photographs. People were taking those “famous” click of holding the Taj. I haven’t seen foreigners so excited in my life.

The Signature Picture

We kept roaming around and taking pics and selfies. Then we decided to take some rest, we sat on the floor of the Taj. 11:00 hours and we were done with the Taj. We started discussing that what next?

The Entrance

Then, the golden moment came. We sat on a bench while discussing. We were discussing that we finally did it without any hiccup, then BAM!!! A honey bee came and gave me a love bite. The pain was excruciating. He then moved his target back to Sujit, but was not successful. All the stories and scenario of the guy who were bitten before by a bee was flashing in front of my eyes. The biggest problem that was going through my mind was how I am going to wear helmet with sore eyes. We were down to a single driver. But, thanks to all mighty nothing happened.

Me! just to scale the Grandness

Now we were not in the mood, especially me. We took few pics and left. After getting out of the campus, Sujit decided to buy some souvenir. Photo frame of marble, how cool is that?

Sun was at its peak best. Our past experience of brijghat gave us the confidence to hit the road even at a temperature of 40-45 degree. We were more than comfortable. 12:00 hours and we were back in route to Noida. We stop by for some parathas at one dhaba.

After driving for an hour we realized that it was a bad idea to move on in this heat. Adding to my misery the fuel meter was showing only 1 stick and there was no sign of any petrol pump. My mind was looking was every possible way to escape in case of empty tank. Suddenly I saw that the fuel meter is becoming blank. I was ready to get scolded by Sujit, then out of nowhere I saw a board indicating “petrol pump 5Kms”. I was thanking my bike for bearing with me till the last drop of fuel. We stopped by to take the petrol. The petrol pump resembles a lot like “the walking dead”. No sign of any living being. Perfect zombie land. The worst part was neither of us was having any weapon to fight in case of zombie attackJ. Thankfully we left that place without any trouble. The number of stops got increased and slowly but steadily we were at the “Jewar” toll booth which was the last toll booth (we paid Rs150 again at the first toll booth).

At 16:10 hours we were at my room in Noida. Exhausted? Yes. Sleepy? Yes. Disappointed? No. We had a drive of 419.6Km in 12 hours. Beat That!!!

                                                   The journey of a lifetime I must say.

Mighty Yamuna, little more mightier than him, he says  :P