After a course spent in and around the Himalayas, we wrapped our time in the hills up with a full afternoon of student presentations. Each member of the class had researched an issue of their interest, ranging from utility provision in the mountains to shared eating customs to the sacredness of the river Ganges, and many others. Everyone combined some web-based research with their own observations, conversations, and photos from across the trip. A fascinating set of presentations! Our last night at Hanifl Centre was then celebrated with a delicious and festive meal shared with some visitors from the main Woodstock campus.
We left before dawn Tuesday to begin our journey back towards home, with one very important destination before that: Agra, city of grand Mughal architecture dating from the 1500 & 1600s. After about 12 hours of bus and train travel, we reached Agra in time to tour Agra Fort just before sunset. This proved a great time to tour this fascinating building that is often forgotten about next to its famous neighbor, the Taj Mahal.
The following morning, we got up early again to see the Taj itself. It really is a stupendously amazing building (a whole complex, really), and often forgotten that it is both Muslim in nature and a mausoleum. It’s an awe-inspiring sight, made possible through some really impressive use of imperial authority in the early 1600s (upwards of 20,000 craftsmen were working on the Taj in any given day over a 23-year period!). We all relished this chance to see such an amazing sight in the (relative) coolness and peace of the early morning.
From there, it was time to head back to Delhi and the airport. We dropped off a bunch of tired but very content students at the airport a few hours before their wee-hours flights departed back towards home. Thanks for following along on our journey this year!
