Himer Anchole( in the lap of snow)

The best part of the year arrives at the end when we embark upon the journey of the year. It's like cooking - we prepare for half of the year for the 9 most exciting days and as soon it starts it vanishes in thin air.

This year the tour was complicated. Choto and Mahua missed the tour this year as they became proud parents. Debleena's new job didn't allow her to take more than 4 days leave. So me and piki devided the tour between pre-Nachu and with-Nachu tour.

When the wait for a break from the mundane stressful regular life became unbearable we arrived in the new Kolkata airport terminal on a cold and hazy morning of 21st December. Mama( my GL in Alcoa) was also traveling in the same flight and more than the gloomy weather his photos of Taj during last winter made my heart sink as there was nothing to see in the except the haze. The Indigo flight to Delhi started an hour later than schedule and reached Delhi terminal 1 at 12.15pm. Piki and Shakuntala were already there and we met at the luggage belt. After some struggle we finally found our cab driver Monty  and started towards our first destination in the green indigo. Soon we realized the confusion of old Delhi and inefficiency of Monty about road direction when it took us around 2.30 hours to reach Chandni Chawk the world famous "Paranthawali gali". Probably world narrowest wonder. A side lane from the crawling Main Street, the "gali" served some lip-smacking varieties of Parantha along with delicious lassi. No glamour no cleanliness but pure culinary magic and gastrnomical extravaganza. We gorged on 4-5 varieties and then had 50 rs a piece Jalebi to finish up the lunch. With a disgusted driver we started our journey to my sister's place a noida. 

Noida did impress us with its beautiful roads and extravagant  shopping malls. Everyone were waiting for us and it was so good to see my little sis with her little one. All my attempts of striking up a mama relation with my niece failed. However my sister's made it up with the amazing dinner and Bubla provided the icing with his rockstar avatar in the small post dinner session. End of first day. 

Sunday morning started anxiously late but soon we were ready to start our journey. After an amazing lunch courtesy my aunt we had a small photo session where at last I could tempt my niece to my lap. We bid adieu the dear family and started our for Vrindavan. We were with Rajat and his comfortable innova. After around 20 Minutes if started we started rolling on the Delhi Agra Yamuna expressway and I must say I was awestruck. There was a road which could compete with US with the road quality. We took a small break after crossing Mathura toll and experienced UP atrocity with ridiculously priced items in a small complex. As soon we entered Vrindavan people started trying to stop the car and we came or know from Rajat that those were guides trying to catch their prey. After a bit of searching and iPhone GPS help we finally found our nest - Kridha Residency. It was in the outskirts of the main hoi polloi of the town and was near the prem Mandir. We opted for a little luxury of an executive room with twin bedrooms. The room was amazing though a few infrastructure issues. Biggest of them was the safe which we thought to use to keep our valuable belongings as the reputation of the town doesn't allow one to carry more than required cash. Anyway soon we were out to explore. We first headed to the "Ranganathan Temple" where we parked our car. It is a South Indian styled temple with multiple Gopurams. The area was big and old. I made a boo boo when i lost my ear guard and made Ananya search the temple before I found it tucked to my wrist. There are constant requests of guides who demands as less as ten bucks to show around. But honestly there isn't much to show. 

We rushed to "Kesi Ghat" in rickshaws. The walking path from the road to the ghat was infested by monkeys but we braved through and they didn't seem to mind. We had grand plans to hire a boat and see the lamps on the Yamuna river. But as soon we saw the health of the river we dropped the idea. The river here wasn't broader than a stream and as heard the water was pitch black. But the ghat was with old charm and a place to visit. There was a puja going on with music and chanting. Candles covered in glasses were lit and with the looming dusk the place had it's moments. We spend some time there and soon the place started desolating. We started back on foot through the narrow lanes with the life of the town coimg to a halt for the day. The various shops around were getting closed even though it was only evening. We snacked with some samosa and jalebi and some sweets. It was dark when we reached our car and we started for The Iskon temple. 

The Iskon temple is popularly know as the Krishna Balaram temple. Like the other Iskon temples I've visited this one also was epitome of cleanliness and opulence. After the outer temple of Prabhupada we went into the inner temples. The scene was memorable. In the beautifully decorated temple there were three rooms with various idols of Krishna, Balaram, Radha and gaur nitai. Hundreds of people were singing and dancing to the universal tunes of Hare Rama Hare Krishna.  The main singers were of western origin and people from all corners of life were participating. The loud music, the atmosphere, the dances were electrifying. I've not seen a more energetic aarti. We stayed during the entire firangi kirtan. To me this was the best experience of Vrindavan.

After the amazing experience we headed from the last Mandir of the evening The Prem Mandir. This was sheer extravaganza. A Mandir built with over 160 crore was true to its grandeur. The lighting scheme of the entire area both inside and outside was automated and changed colors after every 30 secs. The lifelike portrayal of different phases of Krishna were sculptured outside of the temple. 

After gathering enough Punya for the day we headed back for our hotel. But before that we managed to procure couple of 100 pipers from outside the town and got back. We took our dinner at Dashaprakash - the award winning restaurant of the hotel and had an amazing gastrnomical experience. Back to our room we attentively watched Sunny Leon in TV before dozing off. 

Next morning after sumptuous breakfast we checked out and started for Govindji Temple. This was ramshackle  of the original temple built by Man Singh. Aurangzeb only left three stories remaining of the original seven stories. The structure is mammoth and heavily infested of monkeys. I had a glass of famous lassi but honestly the taste didn't leave any mark on my taste diary. From there we stopped in a famous pedha shop to buy some and then started for a Fatehpur Sikri. 

We reached after couple of hours and in the car parking area we settled for a guide for 700 bucks. We rode a bus from them parking lot to thee main entrance. After leaving the shoes off we entered the famous area. The structure had the famous Buland Darwaja, the Jama Mashjid and the Dargah of Salim Chisti. Every structure was made of Akbar's favorite red stone apart form Dargah which is of white marble. As it says in history Akbar had this fort town built to stay near Salim Chisti. But nobody could stay here for long due to acute scarcity of drinking water turning it to a ghost town. We saw the graveyard, inside of the Dargah, entrance to a secret passage which opens in the residency.  We saw the Jama Mashjid. I was surprised to see urchins roaming around the foreigner tourists speaking various languages in immaculate pronunciation. They were offering guide service. Next to the Mashjid is the magnificent Buland Darwaja. The sheer magnitude of e structure is awe inspiring. The common courtyard in the middles of this structures will make you remember movie "Pardes". In the middle of the structure was the holi Dargah of Salim Chisti. The pristine structure made of white marble is a symbol of peace. People tie different colored "dhaga" as tokens of their prayers and wishes. 

Our guide was a little bit pissed off over our overenthusiasm of photography. Eventually we came out of the main sikri and we started off for the royal residency beside the fort. We were with a new guide and really liked that guy. The residency was used for the stay of Akbar and his three wives - Hindu Jodhabai , Muslim Ruqaiyya Begum and Chistian Mariam. Each of the begums had her own Palace. We started off  with Jodhabai palace. Specifying the marvel of yestreyears engineering, the mahal had tow distinct sections to be used in summer and winter. While the summer mahal overlooked a garden and a waterbody for cool breeze, the winter mahal was attached to the royal kitchen to keep the rooms warm. Even the bricks and red stones were carved in such a way to allow maximum passage of breeze. We entered the panch mahal area and saw the Dewan e Khas, Dewan e Aam, Seshmahal etc. There was large waterbody in center of which was a seat famous for the musical maestro Tansen. Right infront of it was Akbar's bedroom. As Akbar was short man the roof of the entrance of the bedroom was short to make even the tallest of them to bend infront of the nawab. The whole place is so immaculately maintained that if you stop and close your eyes, you can still feel Tansen singing from the middle of the lake and the emperor listening from the 5th floor of the panch mahal. The residency was a special treat and would have missed the major part if we opted out of it. 

When we returned the parking we were famished. We shopped some local souvenir and started for Agra. We stopped at a Dhaba named Gangour as per our guides recommendation. We were super hungry and also hadn't had non veg since Delhi. We ordered whatever they could promise to serve fast. Even in that condition the food disgusted us and we thought of some selected adjectives for our guide. With utter disgust of overpriced bad food we started for the final leg of that day to Agra. It was dark and we reached our handpicked hotel Dolphinn Homestay around 8pm. The hotel met all the expectation and was one of the loveliest cozy places I ever stayed. It had not more than ten rooms and we took two adjoining double bed rooms. The rooms were a bit cramped but the bed was super soft. The magic of the hotel exposed itself in the dinning table where I had the most amazing mutton stroganoff I ever had. All the items were so tasty that I would never stay anywhere else in this city. The soft bed felt even softer with a happy stomach.

24th December morning we started early after a quick breakfast from the hotel. Our guide for the day Mohinuddin was a decent guy with a nice way of telling the stories. Our first stop was Agra fort. There was originally a brick fort build by Rajputs before it was captured by Mughuls after the first battle of panipat. Since then almost all Mughul empreors stayed there. Shahzahan was the person responsible for the current structure. We wnt inside through the Amar Gate. The sloped road was created in such a way that during attack hot oil flowed through the road burning the invading soldiers and carriages. The most notable place in the fort was the place where shahjahan was kept locked during his son's reign. He could see his beloved Taj Mahal from this place but we were not that fortunate because of the heavy fog. The palki shaped palaces for Roshanara and Jahanara - the two daughters of Shahzahan. These structure bore the stamp for Shahjahan as this were the white marble structure within the red stone fort. There is a hole in the structure created by british shells and when we saw it two beautiful parrots were romancing from that hole. It was a wonderful sight to see vibrating life peeking from the ruins of war. The inside gardens were also very well maintained. From the fort we came back to hotel finding out that power was off since morning. We checked out from the hotel, took our lunch and kept our luggages in the hotel to collect later.

We then started for the highlight of the tour and the biggest attraction for me atleast - The Taj Mahal. After parking the car we took a tanga to the East Gate of the monument. To our amazement we didn't get much crowd in that gate and we were inside in a jiffy. I was so excited. Like many in the world I'll never forget the sight of Taj Mahal first seen from the gate. It is truly the epitome of beauty and peace. The garden the water and the monument itself with all it's glory is the most beautiful structure in the whole world. All the trouble of arranging the tour and all the money that went behind the tour became more than worth to me after looking at it. It was swarming with tourists but we found our way. We managed to get a bench in front to take down some memorable snaps. It's a bit difficult to take a good snap of Taj because of it's color and light the marble reflects. We also thanked the gorgeous day without a slightest hint of Fog and full sunlight. Luck was shinning for us and we took the full advantage. We drank the elixir of Taj's beauty to our heart's content.

We took our lunch at the hotel and headed back from the next part of our tour. We started our long journey back to New Delhi. Two of our friends Arijit and Debleena were supposed to meet us at New Delhi Cantonment Station and we were supposed to take our train from their to Pathankot. The quaint journey with music and fulfilling memories of the day suddenly hit a hump when our driver told us that it'll take another 4-5 hours to reach the station when we just had a couple of hours for the train to leave. Me and Piki frantically started thinking about our available options. The only viable option we could think was to catch the train from the Hazratbal station. However we took a leap of faith and decided to stick to our plan and headed towards Delhi Cantonment with tensed checks in Mobile gps and constant nudge to our driver "jaldi chalo bhaiya". We almost crossed entire to reach the remote station with 10 minutes remaining for the train. While settling the dues we met our waiting friend Arijit and came to know from him that the train is couple of hours late. It was a feeling of relief combined with a rare mix of frustration. However our group was complete with Nachu and Debleena. It was 24th december night in a dark and empty platform in chilled Delhi.  We gorged upon some roadside aloo tiki pav for the dinner and boarded the train. We were supposed to reach early morning so we dozed off after sharing a bottle of whisky mixed Pepsi.