On Sunday, February 28, we left Dharwad and Arun drove us to Hubli, and adjacent town, as we were flying out of the Hubli Airport. There are only two flights daily that come in and out of the Hubli Airport – one to Bangalore and one to Mumbai, and we were on the flight to Mumbai. We successfully transferred in Mumbai and then flew to Delhi. A helpful piece of information – there are old and new areas of the city of Delhi, like there are in Philadelphia, so the names Delhi, New Delhi, and Old Delhi can all be used, but they are all referring to one city, which is Delhi. Also, Delhi is the capital of India. After arriving at the airport in Delhi we met up with Gabriel Massey (Gabriel is Arun’s father) and checked into the YMCA Hostel for the evening. We checked out of the YMCA Hostel at 5:15 AM on Monday morning and took a short cab ride to the train station in Delhi, where we boarded our train to Agra. We arrived in Agra at around 8:00 AM and made our way to the Taj Mahal. The Taj is a truly beautiful piece of architecture, and Gabriel had quite a few interesting facts to share with us about it. One of the most interesting facts is that the king that had the Taj Mahal constructed ordered that the arms of the workers that built it be chopped off after it was finished so that a grander building could not be built. That same king’s son eventually overthrew him and imprisoned him in the Agra Fort (which we visited next), where he then had a nice view of the Taj Mahal from his prison window. We were not able to take pictures of the inside of the Taj, which is the mausoleum area. The interior of the Taj Mahal is beautiful, but it is the exterior, and the hand-carved marble, that truly defines the building.
After touring the Taj Mahal, we toured the Agra Fort, which is a very impressive defensive structure, yet also has quite a bit of beauty in its design. We then went back to the Agra train station and took a train to Jhansi. From Jhansi, we took a taxi to Gabriel’s home in Chhatarpur, where we got to see Gabriel’s wife, Suzana, and meet his daughter, Arpana, and grandchildren – Abhishay, who is 12, and Abigail, who is 5.