This Post is about events dated from 23-8-2007 to 26-8-2007
Well..
What a week this has turned out to be!!! First i got a call that my grandfather is sick.. that leads me to Agra along with my mother on thursday last week, then on reaching the place (let me tell you Agra is not a very pretty place to live in, People shitting on the streets in the morning, overcrowded streets, no proper sanitation for almost the whole city apart from the Taj Ganj and this is just the beginning… NO ONE obeys the traffic rules.. you can drive on any side of the road, the road is virtually built on pot holes… the city is a disgrace to the Taj Mahal. But it has CNG run Autos)… As i was saying, on reaching the place we went directly to my grandpa’s house… navigating through all those i had just mentioned in the brackets… there at his house i found him to be nicely walking around… a hoax call… it seems that my mom wanted to meet my grandpa and so was the case equally reciprocated… well in any case i got to meet my grand parents after a long gap. The day was spent in my grandparents house… in the evening we went to a family friend’s home… we spent some time there and then decided to go to my uncle’s home which is in an area called Nau-Lakha… literal english translation means 9 Lakhs. As we moved out towards my uncle’s home we decided to take an auto… the first one we stopped told us it would cost 30 bucks( normally 4 bucks per person)… the second one said 15… we decided to take it.. on reaching the place we had no idea whether we were at the right place.. my mom who had been there earlier did not recognize the place… well i was concerned cause this was only the 2nd time i was going there… here are extracts from the conversation between my mom and the auto driver…
Driver: Lo aa gaya NauLakha..
Mom: Yeh to NauLakhe jaisa nahi dikh rha..
D: Yehi hi to hai NauLakhe ka Bazar…
M: NauLakhe Ke Bazar jaisa nhi dikh rha..
D: Achcha yeh Batao ke tumhe jana kahan hai..
Me: Jo yahan par military ki colony hai wahan jana hai…
D: Kiske ghar jana hai…
Mom: (Little Worried) Rustam Singh ke ghar jana hai..
D: Naam kya hai tumhara..
M:(More worried)..
D:Zara apna naam to batao…
M: (worried) O P Singh.. (indicating my dad’s name)
D: Arre Apna naam to batao!!
D: Tum Rebecca to nahi ho??
M: Aapko kaise malum??
D: Ab yeh batao ki main kaun houn??
M:( After giving some thought).. Aap Avdhesh to nahi ho..
D: Sahi Pehchana…
.. Well, that’s that… the driver turned out to be one of my Mom’s long forgotten cousin..
So began the week that was…
That evening my bro.. Ashu called up from Bhopal.. He was getting a little bored there cause they were having holidays for raksha bandhan.. So he asked if he could come over to agra from Bhopal.. but the time was 2200hrs.. no idea if he’d be able to get a train from Habeebganj station to Bhopal.. anyways i told him to start right over.. and if he gets a train to come directly to agra and give me a call once he gets here.. that done… Ashu reached arga at 600hrs.. Me and my uncle went to the station to pick him up..
That’s Saturday morning…
After having breakfast we decided to go to see the Taj.. this is 14years since i saw it.. but i faintly remember the sight still.. i was 6 or 7 and my grandpa was working in agra as the pastor there..
We were with my whole family then.. now it was just my mom, bro and my cousin Sunny..
that’s how the day went on.. the attraction for me at the Taj was not the monument itself but the Star of David, which was very prominently displayed on the monument at so many places that i could hardly believe my eyes.. i knew that there were symbols of various religions hidden in the design of the building but finding this (as if some one wanted to show it off) was surprising…
The rest of the day was spent at Rajeev’s home.. with Polly aunty making some very delicious biryani.. and excellent Shami kababs… Food is something that the North Indians are extremely good at.. Especially in the use of various masalas..
Anyways..
In the evening we were back in the bus towards home… There were so many things new to me this time…
i met my cousins who till 3 years ago i didn’t believe existed.. and get to know about relatives about whom, if i hadn’t been to agra, i’d have never known…
This week was the beginning of the exodus that is my life…
