Mughals today are vastly known for their culture. The history of Mughals has been explained vastly in Indian textbooks. Many architectures which we see around Delhi and Agra were made by them. The world famous Taj Mahal is one of them. Recently when I was staying in Delhi I made a plan with my friends to finally go to Agra and see Taj Mahal.

From Delhi, it took about two and a half hours to reach Agra. I traveled by train filled with full of people. Traveling in Indian trains is itself a very different experience. The train was “Taj Express” which specifically started for people to come to Agra and see Taj Mahal. The best part is if you are coming from Delhi specifically to see Taj Mahal then you can complete the whole trip in a day with very little expenses.

After reaching Agra Cantt the final station I took an autorickshaw to Taj Mahal. There are various gates through which you can enter Taj Mahal. My first view of Taj Mahal from an auto rickshaw. It looked as beautiful as anything could be. I then realized that whatever I had heard of Taj Mahal was absolutely correct. After entering from west gate and walking for about half a kilometer I took a ticket from the counter for forty rupees per person. But if you are a foreigner the ticket will cost around thousand. The most irritating part was the long queue in which you have to wait in line for security checkup. It was for the first time I had seen so many people waiting in line for something. So if you are planning to make a trip on weekend be prepared for long queues. The January period is very busy so expect a lot of crowd to accompany you. Taj Mahal looks very beautiful when you see it from some distance but when you come closer it is just a piece of marble and if there is a lot of crowd the waiting period to finally go inside Taj Mahal is high. Just with the boundary of Taj Mahal, there is Yamuna river.

The pollution in the river is visible and it appears black when looked from Taj Mahal.  After watching everything from the line with other people I again took an auto rickshaw to Agra Cantt and returned to Delhi by the same train. It was overall a very thrilling experience.