Health Adda

The Taj is iconic of Indian tourism and perhaps draws the largest number of International tourists. Those who dare to visit India and Agra are charmed and awed by the pristine and majestic beauty of this marble edifice.  It is a common site to see I nternational tourists arriving in air conditioned buses, huddling in groups with mineral water bottles in their hands, posing for that drawing-room-mantle photograph with Taj in the background, and then wrenching their noses and stealing glances at the squalor around the city of Agra darting off back to Delhi. We are lucky that the Taj and Agra are in India and in Uttar Pradesh, and that it is a monument admired and sought after by tourists from across the world, but can we market the Taj alone without improving the surroundings, the city of Agra and the fabled Yamuna that are so intricately entwined with each other? Tourists are warned before arriving at Agra to be careful of vendors, touts and self styled guides who might take them fo...