Helen Stephenson's India Trip - June-July, 2006 - Jai Guru Dev Temple

Sunday July 2^nd

This was the day I was going to Agra. I was being accompanied by my colleague Ashima and her husband Nitin. My back was definitely the worse for wear, and so was Ashima’s, due to a long-standing problem she’s having, so we were glad to have Nitin along to carry things for us.

The car didn’t arrive at the appointed time and I hadn’t programmed Ashima’s number into my phone and had to get on the Internet to access my emails to find it. It turned out that the car was running late, but did eventually arrive, having already picked up Ashima and Nitin before coming to the hotel.

I had assumed that as Agra is 180km from Delhi that the journey would take about two hours, but the Indian speed limit is only about 60km and it’s less in towns and the journey actually took a bit over four hours. There were a lot of interesting sights along the way, and it’s a shame that even at 60kph, the car was travelling a little too fast for photography. I saw women carrying two pots on their heads. They looked so tall and slim! I also saw people pumping water from a hand pump in one village we passed through. I saw camels towing huge loads. The wagons I saw being pulled by a camel were loaded with something in a huge bale. It could have been cotton. I also saw ox carts and horses and ponies pulling carts. When we reached Agra, I even saw a young donkey running around loose, and hee-haw-ing, probably for its mother.

I was also fascinated to see heavy vehicle chassies being driven up the road. We assumed that the plant which built the chassis and fitted the engine was in a different place from the plant that built the coachwork. These drivers were literally sitting on top of a chassis with four wheels and with an engine in front of them!

We stopped and bought some bananas in a market. It took us a couple of tries, as Ashima tried to buy some bananas from a handcart being wheeled across the road, but the vendor wouldn’t sell! That must be a first in India! He apparently had to deliver them somewhere and wasn’t authorised to sell any along the way.

This may have been the actual cart from which Nitin purchased the bananas that we munched on during our car journey. I am fascinated to notice a pair of sandals on the ground behind the cart and a man apparently sitting cross-legged within the cart. I have to say I didn't notice him when I took the picture!

I managed to get a picture of this building with cattle in front of it despite the car being in motion at the time. There's an animal under the arched verandah as well as the ones in front of the building! It was a very quick photo and I had to trim a lot off the edges once I'd straightened out the horizon, which wasn't just wonky - it was positively slanting!

If you don't believe me, look how much I had to rotate the original picture to get the horizon straight!

We stopped at a large Jai Guru Dev temple along the way. Ashima stayed in the car, and Nitin escorted me across the road, where we shed our shoes and then entered the temple property. It was a beautiful white marble building with quite a plain interior, although no doubt more decoration will be added later. (It's quite a new Temple.)

I can't say which dome this is a close-up of, but I think it's one on the main Temple building.

There were other towers and arches within the Temple complex, and one of the towers had a garden growing in front of it. There were people tending the garden, even though the morning was quite well advanced and it was getting pretty hot.

I've presented the interior as two rows, with the second row containing closer views of the images in the first row. From left to right: the main body of the Temple; part of the panel on the wall to the right of the main shrine; the main shrine.

As I mentioned earlier, this Temple is quite new, and the interior, apart from the shrine and the panels to each side, is still very plain and uncluttered.

These views are looking back from the Temple towards the arch at its entrance from the road. It was so hot and bright that the marble paving has whited right out. The domes on the entrance arch had coloured decoration over the marble.