My Travel Adventures

On my penultimate day in Northern India, I went on another guided tour. My cab picked me up at six o’clock in the morning, and we met the guide in Agra after nine. Our first stop was Taj Mahal. While it may seem counterintuitive to begin an excursion with the most spectacular sight, it makes sense when one considers the sheer number of tourists who start pouring in throughout the day. Even at this hour, the place was bustling, and my guide hurried forward at breakneck speed in a futile attempt to beat the crowds.

Today was another sunny and busy day, with my explorations broken up by three meetings early in the afternoon. I started the morning by catching an autorickshaw to Shri Laxmi Narayan Temple. It was built on the initiative of Mohandas Gandhi with the goal of serving all castes – a very progressive idea for the time. Although quite glamorous and expansive on the outside, the interior of the temple is not overly ornate, with little to attract the eye beside the statue of each shrine’s main deity.

On Tuesday, I had an appointment at Ashoka University, a relatively new institution whose vision has attracted major investors and academic heavyweights. Modelled along the lines of American liberal arts colleges, it dubs itself the Harvard of Haryana, the Yale on the Yamuna, and several other slogans I cannot remember. I was surprised to find the campus quite small and cozy, housing only around 3,000 students. Nevertheless, it has already grown significantly since the time my friend Sparsh studied there, and is now expanding by another whole campus.  

I booked my Friday trip to Jaipur online after discovering that the Taj Mahal – a portion of which serves as a mosque – closes to visitors on that day of the week. Since I did not want to visit Jaipur or Agra over the weekend for fear of encountering a horde of tourists, my window for scheduling both day trips shrank considerably, and I realised the need to slot Jaipur very early.

As soon as my traineeship in Geneva was over, I flew to India. I do not have a job yet, and so I figured that a week spent sightseeing and networking might be just the right thing for me. Even if it doesn’t work out this time, perhaps making a few contacts will lay a good foundation for the future; it would be nice to live in India for a few years getting to know the country properly.