5:00 AM
The journey from New Delhi to the Mumtaz Mahal in Agra is at least five hours. With one pit-stop between those five hours, and early on in the trip, it was hard to sit in one place for that long, but the view made up for it. I’m not talking about views of great mountains and plains, I’m talking about the views of the settlements and villages that we weaved through, the great views of the real India, the living situation and lives of everyone outside the city.
Homes were made from the rubble of previous homes and homes out of straw and wood. There were plenty of them, lined up along both sides of the makeshift highway and construction as the central development project to connect Delhi to Agra took place. Homes were mixed in with markets and little stops for food, goods, and produce. Although their lives differed in the countryside, they lived just like anyone else. They found their own way of living and surviving. At first glance, one might be shocked and in awe of how such settlements thrive and survive, but looking on as the car drove by, one could sense the strength in the communities.
Everything and anything was used. Arches under bridges became shelter, homes, and businesses for food, barbers, and everything in between. The old collided with the new, there was no separation, bikes and carriages shared the road with cars and autos, animals roamed the street as freely as humans, even herds of cattle and goats stopped both sides of traffic and the honking seemed to have ceased for a moment. There was so much culture out here, in the countryside, in the rural parts of India, even more so than in the city. The city just seemed to be a concentrated version of what I saw.
What I saw on the way to the Mumtaz Mahal outweighed the beauty of the palace itself. I think that too often we forget how beautiful and simple life is that we focus too much on the artificial beauty of monuments and landmarks. You can’t compare the two as they exist in different realms of beauty, but the entire time I was at the Mumtaz Mahal, my mind was fixated on what I would see on the way back.
I’m reminded that there is so much beauty in life and simply in living.