Documentary Scholarship Trip

Up before the sun, into the bus, drive through the already busy streets of Agra, off the bus, “no I don’t want to buy bangles, postcards, miniature chess sets…’ onto small electric bus, past monkeys and cows, stand in line, wait for tickets, jostle with big group of Germans, through the metal detectors, into he compound, parrots and chipmunks, through an arch covered in elegant Urdu script, the Taj Mahal. It really is beautiful. Wander around for a bit, listen to the history take photos and put on cotton shoe covers, go inside where it smells like bats and pigeon shit, dodge Agra’s enthusiastic souvenir wallahs, then on the bus and on our way to Jaipur. The Pink City.