Rampaging through cold stillness, the swift tracks of this animal left no marks behind. As the morning mist broke against its face, it charged ahead to its determined destination, with no looking back. Not yet at least.  

It were as if the NH2 was a bulund darwaza to Delhi’s rural antiquity. The tollbooth darbaans out of uniform, goats flaunting their 4-packs, with their guarding dog off-duty. Sugarcane stalks on their way to meet the footpath ice. And all around, roofs of houses polka-dotted of dung cakes. 

The most familiar of all though was this; a man ever-so-often with a plastic PET on his way to check clear his morning business. And here was my face, scrunched up like used aluminium foil. Thank goodness, I wasn’t keeping count. Or was I?

Sitting inside our more than comfortable car, here I was. Chomping on chips and switching radio channels before every un-peppered song could salt me down. The FM at this A.M had no ads. The sound of music sounded even more musical. 

The entire trip, my mother had smiling  eyes as she played her own travel games. She was identifying each tree down to its cellular level; the fruits, leaves, roots, the stage of photosynthesis. Horticulture. Agriculture. Bacteria culture. She even had a story to what chores may be happening inside that distant shed behind that babool tree. How she knew that was babool from a google maps worth of distance, I didn’t have enough caffeine to comprehend.

Arrey home loans ki kitni chinta hai. Kya hum hamare sapno ka ghar kabhi nahi le payenge?

This wasn’t what my dad said. This was what the FM dad said. The radio ads had started.

And so did my impatience to get to Taj. Okay, Shah Jahan built it. Okay, he cut off the hands of all those workers. Okay, it is one of the world's wonders. Horn Okay Please. Why did trucks continue to slap that on their bums? Anyway, the highway had ended and now it was one mid-construction flyover followed by another followed by another followed by 10, 11, 12 more. Maybe I should have been keeping count of this one.

Each time the tires swiveled up dust, I coughed inside. Each time we stopped for gas, I took out my sanitizer and poured half the bottle on my hands. And each time someone leered inside the window, I became Kangana Ranaut in Once Upon a Time in Mumbai.

What? I was on holiday. I could act however I wanted.

Taj was lost in transit. It was blistering hot outside. Or so I am guessing. I was leaning against my push pillow with my AC/DC and drinking diet coke.

Agra’s Best Panchi Petha. The Best Panchi Petha Of Agra. Panchi Petha, The Best of Agra. Shop board after shop board, the same message to the same audience with the same words. The only difference was that by now I wanted to try some.

If only Taj stopped playing so hard to get.

It’s a place where humans tread softly and quietly, as to not create any sensations on the coffee-colored grounds, nor any mistaken ripples by the placid lake where nature’s brush paints a silver haze of streamers under the golden summer sky.

Barefoot on the crisp chocolate leaves, where the auburn sun rises to span out the tan, I stroll against the gossiping winds. The petals of wild lilies blow by my legs and the fluffs of dandelions by my face. Monarchs, Swallowtails, Papilionidae all showcase their beautiful robes.

The bronzed dust blows from the tree stumps all the way over the boulders by the dew pond. Squirrels labor away with their stealing business and raccoons exchange their gullible gaze with my awed appearance.

Pinecones and apricots swathe the auburn earth where nearby red cherries and blueberries squash out their dazzling dyes under the green, blossoming bushes. This is a panorama which no lens can capture and no oil paint can create. And I keep treading.

Treading past the russet ribbons of the willows and amongst the leafy greens of the ever greens and between the brown branches of the barrens, I tread to find. And then I do…

The exact place where the blonde-haired rays of the sun delicately drop down in the exact location between the netted spaces under the trees, where if you stand just in the correct location you can see……where the heavens touch the earth.