A VILLAGE VISIT WITH A SURPRISE
After a 4-hour car ride from New Delhi, we arrived in Agra and went to our afternoon activity, a “Heritage Walk.” This name was quite deceiving! The description that was given to us was, “A narrow bridle path through agriculture fields takes you to an ancient village. It ends with high tea where you will have the opportunity to see the Taj Mahal at sunset.” I imagined a small village, where we were walking directly through fields. I didn’t imagine that there would be so many people and that they would be super friendly!
After walking for one kilometer, we turned onto a paved pathway that had fields on either side of it, and entered into the village of Kachhpura. This path is used by pedestrians and motorbikes, and by cows, water buffalo, and goats. We noticed immediately that this pathway had poop on it, a lot of poop! Our guide explained that they collect and save the poop to use as fertilizer and fuel for fires.
Our guide said that he has lived in this village his whole life and he has now raised his own kids here. We saw his son and mother working in the fields! He said that the village population is about 3,000 people, belonging to 400 families. Every family has a little building which houses their bedrooms, kitchen, and even their workspace. There are about 5 or 6 little grocery stores which are small stalls that sell the necessities – food, drink, hygiene products. Our guide said that most of the people in the village work as shoemakers. Everywhere we walked, there were people! They greeted us with smiles, said hello, and asked where we are from. We saw kids flying kites, people flooding the streets after praying at the village mosque, and girls hand pumping water from a well.
The best part of this day was a complete surprise. Two young women offered to give us henna, and we all said yes! Henna is an Indian art, traditionally used during special occasions, like weddings and ceremonies. Today it is also worn by women just for fun! All around India, you can find women who have henna on their hands, feet, and even head! We first learned about henna a few summers ago during Mommy Camp when we learned about Malala Yousifazi and how she used henna to do math on her hand. I knew that henna leaves a dark orange color on your hand, but I didn’t know that when it is first applied, it is a thick substance. The paste is made out of henna leaves that are ground and then mixed with sandalwood oil and finally put into a tube to pipe it out. These ladies were fast! They did all of our henna in under 10 minutes! After we got back to our hotel, we washed off the dried paste and we were left with beautiful designs!
I loved walking through the village and getting henna, and because henna lasts up to two weeks, I consider it a souvenir from that wonderful day!