Second Taj Evening in Agra turns out to be a political assembly
By VIJAY UPADHYAY
AGRA, 2 Nov. It was the second “Taj evening” in Agra that failed to attract audience despite the presence of renowned Indian artists.
The colorful evening party of Fatehpur Sikri organized on Monday in a sequence of such events as a part of the 350th Anniversary celebrations of the Tajmahal miserably failed to lure the foreign tourists, for whom this event was conceptualized by the UP government. Instead, the evening turned out to be a “get-together” of bureaucrats and politicians in the historical surroundings of the 400 year old red sandstone fortress of Mughal Emperor Akbar.
Despite the large number of entry passes allotted to the tourism agencies for distribution among foreign tourists in Agra, most tourists preferred to avoid the event altogether both due to the distance and the late-night programme. In the absence of foreigners, the hoteliers and emporium owners sought to distribute the passes amongst their kins, who flocked to Fatehpur Sikri in the hope of an entertaining evening.
A few foreign tourists, who managed to reach Fatehpur Sikri from Agra traversing 40 kilometers of bad road, were irritated to find that instead of classical music from the maestros, they had to cope up with over an hour of political chatter in Hindi from half dozen politicians.
While the UP Development Council Chairman Amar Singh lamented the lack of cooperation on the part of Congress led central government on the events, the local MLA and UP Minister of State for Food Processing Babulal found the time appropriate to apprise Amar Singh of the problems being faced by the stone miners & farmers of Fatehpur Sikri, all at the cost of the precious time of the few foreign visitors who had been assured of a quality event.
The effect of this “Hindi” chatter was that the “pardesi” tourists found it better to leave the event in the midst and when the Urdu poetry of Javed Akhtar was translated in English by film actress Nandita Das, all that was left was a “desi” crowd, who could easily understand Urdu and Hindi.
(UNITED NEWS NETWORK)
The colorful evening party of Fatehpur Sikri organized on Monday in a sequence of such events as a part of the 350th Anniversary celebrations of the Tajmahal miserably failed to lure the foreign tourists, for whom this event was conceptualized by the UP government. Instead, the evening turned out to be a “get-together” of bureaucrats and politicians in the historical surroundings of the 400 year old red sandstone fortress of Mughal Emperor Akbar.
Despite the large number of entry passes allotted to the tourism agencies for distribution among foreign tourists in Agra, most tourists preferred to avoid the event altogether both due to the distance and the late-night programme. In the absence of foreigners, the hoteliers and emporium owners sought to distribute the passes amongst their kins, who flocked to Fatehpur Sikri in the hope of an entertaining evening.
A few foreign tourists, who managed to reach Fatehpur Sikri from Agra traversing 40 kilometers of bad road, were irritated to find that instead of classical music from the maestros, they had to cope up with over an hour of political chatter in Hindi from half dozen politicians.
While the UP Development Council Chairman Amar Singh lamented the lack of cooperation on the part of Congress led central government on the events, the local MLA and UP Minister of State for Food Processing Babulal found the time appropriate to apprise Amar Singh of the problems being faced by the stone miners & farmers of Fatehpur Sikri, all at the cost of the precious time of the few foreign visitors who had been assured of a quality event.
The effect of this “Hindi” chatter was that the “pardesi” tourists found it better to leave the event in the midst and when the Urdu poetry of Javed Akhtar was translated in English by film actress Nandita Das, all that was left was a “desi” crowd, who could easily understand Urdu and Hindi.
(UNITED NEWS NETWORK)
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