Cafe Coffee Day: A close Encounter

Most Indian couples start their relationship with a cup of coffee. Initially to ease off an emergency situation; they prefer a coffee shop nearest to the girl’s house; and these couples find CCD as the most suitable outlet wrt their requirements (I think no of girls in a vicinity determines the no of CCD outlets. Mathematically it can be expressed as number of CCD outlets is equally proportional to number of gals living nearby.). That is why Cafe Coffee Day chain, the most popular coffee chain in India, can boast about maximum couples turning up to its outlets to enjoy their constructive / destructive (Depends on individual’s outlook) and peaceful time. 

The above stated reason understates the number of visitors at CCD. Apart from couples there are lot many people (Atheists only, rest go to temples and sing some Bollywood songs to persuade the deity) who come to CCD with their desires. As CCD chain has a bit catchy slogan "Anything can happen over a cup of coffee"; so it provides hopes for people searching for their counterparts. Lot of couples can be seen sipping their coffees in their own dreamy world, lot of couples can be seen entering or leaving the coffee parlour. So it is not hard to expect a miracle.

I always hoped, Someday CCD with live up to its slogan and image. Whenever I visit the parlour, I wished to bump into any girl from my past or future but luck never favoured me. One such day things took a U turn. I entered the CCD and inspected the people sitting around. Though things were not different from any other day@CCD but all of a sudden my scanning stopped at one table and my mind started finding the reason for her isolation. My mind started questioning "Why is she sitting alone? Is there someone who has gone to place the order?" But as I did not want to lose the empty table just next to her, so instead of risking the important time in analyzing the situation in broader manner, I reserved the table next to her.

I was checking her out and suddenly she peeked at me. As soon as she looked at me, one of my eye-lid blinked, due to one mosquito who sacrificed his life to make my life easier, in other words I winked. She stared at me, as if she was looking for an explanation. Wow, it was my chance, but I did not have enough courage to ask her if she wanted to join me. Dude, just in few seconds she joined me. I did not know why? I thought she was either desperate or bold to sit next to me. (Anyway Dil ki ichcha poori ho gayi)

During our conversation, I came to know her name was Kamini, what a lovely name, is not it? Her skin was pink and she was wearing yellow t-shirt with few silver lines which caused her skin glow more and a decent short (short enough to cover half of her thigh) skirt. She had put light red lipstick (I think it was light) on her lips and her face colour was fairer than skin colour due to a thin layer of powder on her face. Her eyes were dark black due to excess of Kajal and she had put a nice and huge nose ring. To describe her acutely, her looks were better than real Rakhi Sawant and worse than Karina Kapoor in Chameli.

Aroma@CCD was little different now, all boys were staring me and her interchangeably. Shit, men cannot change. These Guys, All of them were sitting with chicks but they had to check out my gal. But in contrast all the gals were also staring at me. Guess what, whenever I hang out with a girl then lot of chicks check me out. Why cannot they find me muscular when I walk alone?

Btw, I was not much cautious about Aam Aadmi and I was enjoying my first real encounter @ CCD . She was not notably good in speaking English, so to save her from embarrassment, I started talking in Hindi (Baaap re, bach gaye nahi to apni to ijjat hi chali jati). We covered lot of white areas e.g. movies, cricket, sport, and education, lot of black areas e.g. population, traffic, pollution, global warming and poor people and grey areas e.g. Indian politics, corruption, medicine, sex and prostitution. Usually discussion was healthy except in two instances. One, when we started the topic of sex, she became too touchy (Do not take it wrong, I just mean emotional) and another when I started protesting legalization of prostitution.

After finishing her coffee she announced the arrival of her boy friend. I was sad but I knew she must be waiting for someone. I asked her number and she denied. Anyway I waived a good bye and asked the waiter to bring the bill.

Waiter brought me the bill and I gave him the money. He returned with change and asked "How was the madam sir?” I told him to mind his business. He said "Arre sir kya sharma rahe ho bol bhi do? She will charge 2000 INR for one night." I was stunned and in the state of dilemma I whispered "Was she a whorrrre?" Waiter got angry and said “Sir Ijjat se bolo, call girl bolo”. I looked at all the people sitting around me, they were still staring at me and I was sweating in air conditioned mall. I asked the waiter, "Will she consider my CCD bill in her charges?" and instead of waiting for his answer I moved out of CCD briskly.

Disclaimer: All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

A comparison between Changing Job and Finding Biwi

Interview is a process to judge the capabilities of an individual/group. An interview, an Interaction among two or more individuals, provides an opportunity for the interviewers to assess the caliber of the interviewee. Though this assessment might base up on different criterion but final judgment communicates the perception of interviewer regarding interviewee's capabilities with respect to the new responsibilities. During the same interview process the interviewee also creates his perception about future prospects. So F2F interview provides a fair chance to both the sides to decide their future path.


Oops, where am I heading and do not know why did I leave this philosophy/gyan shit stinking the post? Dude I am not going to dictate "10 AGELESS PRINCIPLES TO SUCCEED IN AN INTERVIEW". We all have faced it and we all work to overcome the shortcomings of previous interviews while preparing for the next. I am here to talk about the two unavoidable and important categories of interview e.g., Job and Marriage interviews.


These two types have a lot of similarities and lot of differences with each other. Both of these interviews have affects prior and later to the interview. For better results every interview needs a specific preparation beforehand, whereas a successful interview leads to the surges of unwanted events and scary consequences.


As I was saying, for both the interviews we need to prepare in a different manner. For Job interview mug up fundamentals of one language which may be either Java, C, C++ or others, Learn something more to show other areas where you might have worked for an hour throughout your career e.g., Ant, Maven, You must learn to lie because interviewer asks "Why do you want to join us?" and believe me they will kick your ass out if you tell them the truth and last but not least mug up some stupid company information e.g., Who was the last CEO of the company and what was his most recent achievement (When I heard this question, I thought did he something similar to Mark Hudd, HP CEO, caught red handed with his secretary)? Preparations for the marriage interviews are different.  Call your dad/mom and ask him/her answer of all the already compiled questions. Visit to nearest and costliest parlour and try to put lot of cream to make your face fairer which might in turn increase your cost in marriage market. Go to cheapest saloon to get new hair style so that no one can recognize you if they have seen you whistle before. You need to learn the fake smile, gals have to learn to wear high heal sandals and sometime sarees as well, learn to speak truth (;) Optional, as people say "Har rishta Sachchai ki Neev par khada ho to jyada acha hai") and nod for all the answers like do you know cooking, sewing and stupider stuff. After such extraordinary preparations you cannot fail in any of the interview.


After giving so many job interviews and marriage I could list down few of the similarities and differences between both. First effect of successful job Interview is the starting of career, on the same line first successful marriage interview starts another life. Job interview makes you a slave for an organization whereas after marriage you wag the tail in-front of your spouse. Slavery to an organization makes you richer every last day of month whereas slavery to spouse makes you poorer every day. :(


Even if you choose wrong organization, you can try again to find another job but after marriage there are no chances of changing the decision or finding the new guy/gal again. Among of the few of the seen scenario one scenario is this. If you are divorcee and you are searching for a gal then all the aunties in city will gather in a temple to gossip about you.
Aunt 1 - Haaaaaaaaaa, Kaisa Jamana aa gaya hai? (See the world!!!!!!!!)
Aunt 2 - Haaaannnn, Dekho na, Arkit ne pehli biwi ko 3 saal pahle hi talaak diya hai n fir se ladki dhundh raha hai? (Arkit divorced his wife just 36 months before and he is again searching for a gal?)
Aunt 3 - Biwi to sundar thi Arkit ki (His wife was beautiful.)
Aunt 4 - Maarta bahut tha Arkit use. (Arkit used to hit her.)
Though Arkit and his wife were split as their love was more for their colleague than each other’s but these aunties proved Arkit a devil and made sure he would die without marrying again. Top of that they could comment ludicrously on his Dhalti Jawani.


Beside If you divorce at your own will, then you have to pay half of your money; hard earned money.


Next common thing between both is Role of mediator. Most of Job Interviews are arranged by Consultants whereas relatives assist in marriage interview. At the time of Job Interview, you wish consultant (If she is hot) should sit next to you whereas at marriage interviews you wish to sit alone with the girl. Consultants cannot change the course of Job Interviews but relatives can change the complete equations. They can affect your decision, dowry, and many other related things. Basic and most important fact comes later. After six months of job consultants call you back to ask if I mind changing my job again where as Relatives do not even mind calling you ever in life.


Both the interviews start with the same question. Tell me something about yourself. You can choose either to answer it or to shoot a question back. What should I tell (Sometimes I think to ask back; well do not you have CV with you?)? In Job interviews this would mean to elaborate your professional experience whereas in marriage interviews it would mean to tell your height, your size, your weight and exact birth date including seconds and mili-seconds along with location of birth with labor room report in details.


In both interviews selection criterion is salary. Salary decides final payment at both places. If you are fetching good salary then you will attract less number of employers willing to employ you whereas you will attract more number of parents willing to choose. Job interview will be more drilling to validate your worthiness whereas guardians instantaneously will acknowledge the worth of money. Along with that Private employers do not want to employ government employee so easily whereas parents looking for security worth government employee over private IT software engineers.


Both the places you will fail if you start arguing. "Interviewer is always right so do not argue with him" is the dumbest but most effective rule of interview. I try finding reason behind this saying. My research suggests In Job interview it is followed to make sure new employee should not change existing rules and regulations and in some time he will forget his own rules where as in marriages, couple should be taught to refrain from discussion to induce longevity in so called happy married life.


Both interviews provide the chance of choosing. You can have 4-5 jobs at a time and later deny all but one. But in case of spouse, you do not have the option of engaging with 4-5 gals/guys and choose one later. If it would have been possible than Life would have been much easier. I would have been searching for spouse for last seven years ;).


As I am novice to marriage interview business, so i might have missed few of the important points but I will try adding more as my experience nurtures with time. As I was saying there are lots other after effects of interviews. Do not you think those are obvious to envision? After marriage, guys just listen and girls speak whereas after joining the company, employer sucks your blood and you crib about employer's blood sucking techniques.


That is all I could find about interview e.g., Job and marriage. I know there are folks who are more experienced than I. Let's share and make the world more livable ;) ;)

Aurangabad Trip - Manjiri's Shadi - Day 1

Ashish called to inform Manjiri's, his younger sister, marriage date has been fixed. Wow it was a great news. I knew Manjiri in pictures and on chat but we had not met face to face. I was happy not only for her but also for two other reasons. Her marriage not only gave me opportunity of a vacation from boring office work but also gave me chance to meet lot of known people with unknown faces. So even before Ashish's formal invitations my plans were set from June 16th to June 19th.

First I planned to book flight tickets (Did not book for first 23 days and later it was too much to afford), later I decided to go with three tier AC(Indian Railways, carries millions of people across India but leaves millions behind as well) and finally I managed to get a sleeper class ticket. I was happy as I was going out of city after a long time. I boarded the train and settled myself. Within few minutes, malodorous smell started overpowering my thoughts but that smell was just a matter of few hours because one needy couple exchanged their seat with mine. So the rest 20 hours were away from smell and less painful due to my stock of magazines and books.


I got down on Chalisgaon and from there I took a state transport to reach Aurangabad ( What a tiny city, does not even have a junction. Shhhh). Reached Ashish's house at one o'clock in the night. I hoped for a nice and warm welcome from my new and old friends but hopes make man lazy... Instead of asking me to rest, I was asked to help in creating a pictorial for Manjiri. Shhh, kaise kaise dost hai mere. All of us put lot of efforts and these efforts resulted in a pictorial which was liked by everyone.

Pictorials which has all memories related to Manjiri

Next day started with Haldi Rashm (Turmeric program). According to Ayurveda, turmeric augments the skin's glow and in ancient time beauty parlour options were not available with brides so this tradition stuck to our marriages ;) (Haldi Rashm is one of main traditions in north as well). So Bride and bride's parents faces were colored with turmeric by aunts and other relatives whereas we all painted our faces without much assistance.

All of us with the color of turmeric

After coloring all, it was time to showcase the enhanced beauty. Bride and uncle/aunt were the honorable guest, so they were given wooden stool to sit and all senior ladies cooperated to rub their turmeric but we were left stranded ;).

Royal Bath

Above mentioned behaviour was not taken so lightly(Hee hee hee, I bet it was not :P) and unexpected idea clicked to one beast. That small idea turned out to be a devil act for 2 complete hours. We all wanted to give a royal bath to everyone so all of us took responsibility and opened the water tank which had at least 8000L clean water. First we took bath then all male member of the family were given water treat and at last all ladies met with the same fate. There was water all over the house except the kitchen and water tank with 8k L capacity, was now empty. Our satanic act was synchronized with awesome sangeet given by Shahnai Vadaks in the picture.

Musicians

After an unprecedented and extended session of Haldi, it was time for Chudi (Bangles). Manjiri had to chose bangles of a fix color and wear them as a marriage token but Madam was more interested in talk than concentrate on picking up the right set for her :).

Phone nahi mila baad mein tooo Manjiti ka kya hoga

Next was chalk (In north it is called as Chalk), where ladies taught her, how to grind wheat using grinding stone. I do not think this tradition signifies anything anymore.

Manjiri Learning tricks of the Trade.

Then she finished a few other customs and was asked to rest from all the tiring activities of the day. But her Aai and Baba were still involved in Pooja, which took more than 2 hours to complete.

Pooja's Material

There was plenty of time before actual ceremony so few of us went for shopping and eating. There I met one Marwadi bhai while buying a Pooja lamp. During the bargaining session he disclosed his native location. Even though we related so closely, Rajasthani Rajasthani Bhai Bhai, he did not give any more discount (700 Rs discount on 2200). On this shopping spree I got little more essence of Aurangabad and marathi cachories ;).

In Maharastra marriage is a two days affair. Both sides stay in the ceremony hall overnight and ceremonies go till first late night and complete in the next afternoon. People at bride side have to welcome the people from other side So we all packed our bags and marched to marriage hall. All the arrangements were checked and completed. Barat reached at the venue at 7PM. All the ladies, standing at gate for hours, were eager to welcome Dulhe Raja but Dulhe Raja was most comfortable in the bus. But finally the wait was over and he got off the bus :(

Show-Man

As soon as Mr. Vinay stepped out, ladies attacked him with their Pooja Thalis. After the warm welcome, light snacks were arranged which was followed by dinner. Dinner was a nice photo sessions for us.

Manjiri n Vinay waiting for their dinner and posing for photographers i.e. me

Whole Nautakni party with 2 elements missing Ashish n ..

Ashish got some time from his busy schedule

After the dinner it was long session for different sorts Poojas, Rashams and activities. Manjiri decided to wear South Indian attire for this night. She was getting ready where as Dulhe Miyan was waiting for Manjiri to join him in Mantap. Manjiri was looking pretty in south Indian sari and make up.

Manjiri: Mausiiii Something is missing

After her make up she came to mantap and took her place next to Vinay. Now you wonder why was Vinay so impatience to see her?

Here is our pretty gal.

After this I lost track of events because my camera's battery was over and everything was quite a family affair. Manjiri and Vinay were surrounded by all important relatives near the Agni. After hours of Pooja sessions, the day one came to an end at 1 o'clock in the night. It was quite a tiring and long day for each individual. But it was nice fun to be part of such a nice family and marriage.

I am sure I can not finish the entire shadi in one page so I will pause here and start the second day in next page.

IT people v/s Suicidal Farmers

Couple of weeks back THE Hindu, Only Newspaper I love reading, published an article written by an IT engineer. This article was written to inflate the reputation of IT engineers and break the myths regarding IT engineers among other segments of society.

This article was written to avenge another article which was demonstrating situation of farmers in India. Previous article's author had compared the salary of IT individual with the meager loan amount which compelled a farmer to end his life. IT engineer was sad with this comparison and he/she did not want people to make such in-significant and imperialistic comparisons in future. According to him/her

There was a sarcastic comment too: ‘This is equivalent to an IT couple's one month salary.' As a professional working in the IT industry for the past seven years, I was deeply saddened by that comment.

In rest of the article I will choose few points mentioned and try to put across my thoughts.

At the start writer has reasoned out the AC's requirement in IT offices. I think, Truth about Air Conditioned has been cut short to half by the writer. Our work places are equipped with Air Conditioned to protect computers and processors from overheating, Is this truth? All organizations have server rooms to keep fire spitting machines which are kept far away from humans. These servers rooms possess highly sophisticated cooling machines to tame dragon's fire. All of us use laptops and desktops at home and none of the machines, at home, explode without AC. It means, the whole premises does not need air conditioner. But it is really impossible to accept the truth so easily. Whether it is cafeteria, recreation room, gym, reception and meeting room all are equipped with the AC. If AC is not working due to any unprecedented condition our anger shoots up to seventh sky and we find someone to punish for the unknown crime. A farmer, who plows the farm in June, can not even expect a nice cold breeze. For him there are no options provided but to dare the sun otherwise entire year starvation will dare him. Why can not we people accept the impossibility of surviving without AC, instead giving excuses?

Next Working Hours for IT people have been called painful. I understand the definition of pain changes along with individual but there is a general consensus for pain which applies to each of us. Does sitting in front of computer, chatting with friends, cribbing about one chick or other, playing games and more unimportant tasks amalgamated with fewer important work related tasks amount to huge pain? Ask a labour what do 8 working hours mean for him. Ask a guy what does it mean to throw coal in furnace for 8 hours. Ask a farmer what pain means at the time of plowing the field or cutting crop. Ask a shopkeeper who open his shop at 8 AM and closes at 9PM. When people work for 14 hours everyday without even having rightful breaks on weekends than how can we be in more pain than others.

IT people were sacked during recession. Why? People working in IT and finance were the clear targets as their bank balance had increased exponentially in last couple of years. But recession not only impacted IT, every segment of society was facing recession's catastrophic results. During recession farmers could not sell the crop on its actual amount, which drowned them under debts. On top of cyclic recession, a farmer faces yearly monstrous natural calamities. Excessive rain, no rain, storms, worms, excessive heat, animals, cattle, drought and many other things can ruin the standing crop. Decision of providing the subsidy depends upon the need of person. Government can not provide subsidy to own 5 cars and 5 flats in a posh area.

Job Security is biggest concern for us and our perks are decided based on our performance. But you know what, a farmer's perks are decided based on land and its fertile power and God's wish. Even after all his efforts he might not earn enough to feed his kids throughout the year. If anything goes wrong during the 365 days of the year, his kids will not go to school and sleep without a meal. Here nobody will evaluate the hard work, labour and performance of the farmer, only thing which will amount in deciding farmers bank account is calamities.

IT people have purchasing power, does not it mean we are increasing inflation by reducing the value of money? Autowalah expect higher fare from a needy and poor guy, because he will get an IT engineer who will fulfill his unjustified money demands.

There were numerous more points, which were written but I can not keep going about each and every point there. But we need to understand Committing suicide is not so simple. Nobody wants to commit a suicide, but when there is no door leading to sunshine, then darkness consumes you. It is true we should not compare 2 different fields which are not correlated but if someone has made a mistake then we should not blast someone's emotions without understanding the situation of concerned individuals and on top of all still we IT folks are  in good white collar job and if we could just look at the other sectors we have no right to crib about our work.

Me and World Cup 2011

April 2nd 2011, India won its second world cup in World Cup History. Both times Indian Team has fought against mighty opponents and has become champions. In finals Kapil's Squad beat the mighty West-Indians and Dhoni's players dusted the Srilankan.

When the Indian Team started world cup campaign I was not sure about it's capabilities. The team was my favourite team but there were doubts about it's consistency. This inconsistency was evident on ground soon. In the first few league matches bowling did not click, fielding was pathetic and batting was below par. Batsmen were the tigers for minnows whereas they were nailed by better bowling attacks. At this time we could pray for some miracle to happen.

Soon the wind changed its direction and it started blowing in the favour of Indian camp. Indians were facing West Indies in their last league encounter. Suddenly Indians players were ruthless, unstoppable and completely energized. Bowlers were on target, fielders diving as if someone gave them wings to fly and batsmen were miles ahead of West-Indian bowlers.

But beating west Indies was not always enough for us to eradicate our doubts. Due to some bad performances in league matches Indians had to face mighty or rather say spirited Australian team in quarterfinals. Australians were the fierce opponent irrespective of their dented bowling line up. But this time Australians were not untouchable and they lost to India. Indian roared on the ground to announce the history in making.

Though I was enjoying the games but there was always an ounce of uncertainty in my mind. Here came the Semi-Finals. India had to face Pakistan, led by Shahid Afridi. Indians batsmen failed to deliver at big stage and doubts were proved true. But future had some other plans, when Indians came out to defend chutki Bhar score, they came out like tigers, eagles who do not just catch prey, they mutilate it. They did not put a foot wrong even for once and we were in the finals

This time I felt this is it. The Indian juggernaut is unstoppable now, I thought. After beating Pakistan I was calm and composed. My heart was not sinking, I was not nervous. Kunal said, either I have lost hope in India or else I do not care about it anymore. I told him, I know India will win, SL cant beat this team. Finally we won, I won, all of us won.

I was insane through out the match. I was dancing for each boundary scored and shouting for every single run taken. People were cheering, shouting and dancing with me. I did not have clue about right and wrong. I was just acting like a mad guy who enjoy without caring about world and instead regretting I was loving it. We all were in same conditions. Is not it?

Though I did not win the world cup and neither I have the right to dedicate it to someone but under any circumstances I want to dedicate this cup to myself. I have been waiting for this moment for my life time. I am not sure if I wanted this only in cricket but this cup has give me a comfort. I followed tennis where Indians cheer for someone who was 28th in world, don't we need more. I do. I wanted to tell my colleagues e.g. foreigners that we have the world class tennis player. But we don't. I followed soccer/football, but we are 27 from bottom among world football playing nations. I followed hockey, our national game, and again I never see myself cheering for world cup finals. I followed F1, none rests. I followed Olympics, where with one gold medal we keep boasting ourselves about our achievements. Asiads and CWG, everywhere I found the same disappointment. This time India won the world cup. Why should I dedicate it to someone else? I want to cherish it, I want to feel proud about it, I want to boast about it and I want to preserve it. By dedicating it to someone else, I will loose my share. I may be selfish but I do not care about you and your rights. Let me enjoy these moments, I might give a thought about you later.

A Trip To Remember Continued

Visiting Agra always means a trip to witness the remembrance of love, Tajmahal. What if Tajmahal was in Bharatpur, my home town, Will Agra be featured in Indian tourist places? I asked one DU guy and he answered "Bhai kya foren wale pagla gaye hain jo bina tajmahal ke agra Ghumenge? (Why would foreigner visit Agra if there was no Tajmahal)". Agra has another noteworthy monument called Agra Fort. It has seen start and end of Mughal dynasty and now exhibits vastness, cruelty, luxury, architecture and many others things related to Mughals.

Agra Fort was in our list of sites to visit. But thanks to delay in starting the trip, time lost due to traffic, time spent at classy Tajmahal and extended lunch break, we were left with time, which was enough to admire walls around the Agra Fort. We reached 15 minutes before closing the ticket window and as there were not lot many people so in no time we got tickets .

According to Wikipedia.com, Agra fort was captured by Mughals and later Agra was converted to capital of Akbar's Empire's so this castle became center of Mughal activities. Shanjahan renovated the fort and experimented with white marble. After succeeding in the experiment, he started constructing Tajmahal.

After buying entry passes(Indian Tickets was costing Rs 10, but Videshi's were paying Rs 150 for the same entry), we entered the palace. To make the castle secure, it was surrounded by a moat and walls near to entry gate were too high to climb and too thick enough to break.

Taken from Wiki. Main entry@palace. Look at walls there.

We followed the ramp, especially made for horse and elephant riders, that ended at one point which was leading to two different routes. Using our basic instinct, correction using pretty woman's instinct, we started from rear of the castle i.e. Jahangir Palace. (PS: Do not follow a woman, notably pretty one, as they always choose the wrong paths.) According to the historian this was built by Akbar for his son Jahangir. As we neither had guide nor chosen right track to start, so we ended solving a Maze. In Jahangir Palace there was a dance Court where dancers used to demonstrate their talent to Alampanah. What a life? Can I live this life anytime soon? Wah Wah... Throwing green notes of Dancers.. Wah Wah.

Thats where Ramp start. Left side of this ramp there were some prison cells. Could not understand why those were there?

Family Pic@Agra Fort Ramp

Jahangir Mahal, Maze starts from it. Enter@own risk. Exit@without risk

Dance Room - As nobody is dancing so none of you will feel the heat of Dance Court.

Spectacular Taj View

To solve the maze we followed different guides time to time. Next to Jahangir Mahal, it was time to peek into Akbar's private mosque, Mina Masjid. Only Sultans (Urdu for Emperor) used to offer their prayers from this mosque. After mosque next was Musamman Burj, place where Shahjahan spent last seven years of his life as a prisoner. Next to it was Diwan-E-Khas, which used to host kings and dignitary. Jahangir had put up a black thrown in its premise. There were another mosque called Moti Masjid where king's female counterpart and her assists used to offer their prayers.

Nice and Bright taken by Stephen, Sunlight made it look gorgeous

Musamman Burj

Takht-i-Jahangir, placed at Diwan-E-Khas

Picture Perfect

Moti Masjid.

Mughal used to hold Zenana-Mina-Bazaar(Female Market) Diwan-E-Khas's premise. Females were the vendors and customers in the market. No males were allowed in this market and lot of folks from other Arab countries to sell their products.

Zanana Meena Market - Vendor used to display here to Empress and other females

There were a garden which had herb plants imported from Arab countries.

Anguri Bagh

Just Me

Kunal enjoying the fort

We exit the Diwane-E-Khas and reached to starting point, called Diwan-E-Aam. At this place Janta used to visit king with their problems and requests.

Taken from Wiki: Diwan-E-Aam

Due to time restrictions and forts size, we were not able to capture every minute details. But fort doubled our satisfaction. Just in single day we witnessed two great monument of India. It was nice trip and would love more trips in future.

A Trip To Remember

One sleepy, cold and boring day Kunal offered a trip on his company expenses. As, such deal are difficult to find even on web-sites like snapdeal, so before Kunal could swallow back or alter MOU, I snapped the deal in a blink. I would not say free trip was only inspiration to visit but there were few more. One among them was rejuvenate myself by changing environment around me. Check out Gori Choriyan(White Chicks) instead facing another damp and shievering day in Noida.

After the discussion, cab was arranged and schedule was finalized. With little difficulties, we started just two hours late then schedule. As traffic gets dense with day light, so our delay was multiplied.

We could start at 8 AM. Our destination was a monument which is sought as a symbol of love and it generates maximum revenue to GOI. I had visited it earlier and I found it a over-hyped monument among citizens other than India. Yups Tajmahal, built by Shahjahan to keep her wife Mumtaj alive in memories, it was.

Me, Kunal and Stefan, swiss guy who does not follow Federer, were members of trip. As none of us had time to cook and stuff ourselves so we all were hungry. It was little difficult to find a place which will pass on our guest's parameters.(Bhai, Stefan ko khila dena Ganga naha lene jaisa tha). We got one good looking restaurant en-route and we stuffed Idli/Bada. Long story short, we reached to Agra after spending four hours in cab.

Delay brought down Kunal's Enthusiasm, Monster is sleeping :)

As soon as we stepped out of car, couple of guides rushed to persuade a prospective customer. Kunal was patient and tactful while dealing with them. After some discussion one lost hope and left us in piece. But second guy was still trying and succeeded finally.

There were not much queue at ticket window, so got tickets quickly. In the meantime I got stuck into a heated discussion with a vendor who was trying to sell some tour books on hefty prices. At such elite tourist place, People's attitude toward foreigner is disappointing. People force Videshis to buy each and every thing they sell. Vendor told me "HAM HINDUSTANI LOG APNE GHAR WALON KO KAMANE NAHI DE RAHE (We Indians are barring fellow Indian's income)".

Ticket Counter Taj Mahal- Pashchim Darwaja Agra.

A little crowd at the Ticket Counter, whereas crowd queued up for entry was huge.

Taj has couple of entry gates, one well known gate is at west side of Taj called PASHCHIMI DARWAJA. 1000+ people were queued up to clear security checks and visit monument. Anyway we entered from South Gate after breaching the lines etiquettes. After clearing security checks, we entered to a new world of vastness, magnitude and luxury.

Ticket counter was here earlier but now it has become a security check@west gate

After Security Check, we reached here. South Gate

Guide started narrating us history and features of architecture. Though we knew most of it but still there were lot of things unknown to us. He told about Tajmahal's symmetry, height, height of different constituents, marble used, multiple stones used, architect, architect's commitments, expenditure, number of labours worked, time spent in construction, nearby other wife's tomb and lot other things. Stefan was not interested in stories but two of us were sucking each and everything threw to us. Our guide did awesome job of adding lot more information in our database.

Guide, who kept flowing the facts about Tajmahal.

After guide finished the stories and declared the peace time to move forward, we crossed South Gate and entered territory of greatness, elephantine and most fabulous and artistic architecture. We were atleast 200 Meters away from actual building but its brightness and charm could be sensed from the gate as well. A structure completely built by white marble, 55 Meter high mosuleam standing in the center of ten M high Dias along with four minarets each on every corner of Dias, was charming and splendid.

First Tajmahal picture clicked by Stefan.

First Taken by Kunal

Then we clicked few more pictures to hold Tajmahal better. Distance between Taj's center piece and gate is covered with British Style loan, water foundations and dais for resting.

Tajmahal and its shadow togather

This was group of this trip.

You must be wondering why British garden. Actually Britisher wanted to demolish the monument and in the process first they removed Mughal style Garden. But due to intervention of one sensible officer it was not harmed further and British garden was developed to make up the mistake.

British Style Garden in Mughal Style Monument. India hai bhai kuch bhi ho sakta hai.

Dias in the middle is popular because most of celebrities, visited tajmahal, clicked a picture on the benches put up there. So we did, atleast one thing similar to BIll Clinton (Everyone do not have monika in office :) )

Bill Clinton posed here once. We did as well.

After Dias next thing was center. It was guarded by Army soldiers and bare shoes was not allowed there. Apprx 360 year old mausoleum, built with white marble over the span of 22 years in remembrances of her beloved wife Mumtaj, is indescribable in words. (Fact: Mumtaj mothered 14 kids in 11 years and no two was born on same date). 55M high mausoleum, is situated on ten M high Dias and contains 6M element brass stick on top of it. Dias has the four minarets, architect to make Taj earth quack proof, on four corners

Indian Army at Work

Dais which is stabilizing the master.

Cloth to Cover Shoes or visit it barefoot.

Quaran verses were written on marbles and stones of different colors. Color of stones were red, blue, black, while and many more. Inside the building the dummy caskets were placed(Actual caskets of Mumtaj and Shahanjahan, were kept away from display).

Dummy Caskets/Graves of Mughal-e-Ajam and Malika-e-Hindustan

There is one guest house and one mosque on each side of Tajmahal. For symmetry reasons both the compounds looks similar to each other.

Guest house view from Tajmahal's window.

Tajmahal from Guest House.

Backside of white Tajmahal, Yamuna river is flowing. Other side of the river Black Tajmahal's foundation exists. People believe King wanted to meet with Mumtaj everyday in river's flowing water. But he was imprisoned by his own blood before executing his plan.

Yamuna River in the backyard of Tajmahal. Adding elements of its glamour

After spending some more time and clicking another set of pictures we moved out of most stunning, indescriable, and awestruck monument.

Tajmahal giving Side pose.

I also wanted one memorable snap with Mr Beautiful. So it dint deny to pose for me.

Taj Behind Trees - Taken by Stephans

Thoda hai to bhi acha hai.

Once we reach to the streets Stephan bought souvenir for his kids and later we proceeded for lunch. After taj, next destination was Agra fort. Another huge and gigantic place to cover.

It was great trip and I guess if you did not like Taj for first time then give it a second chance you will love this monument of love and sacrifice.

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