The petha was soft. White. Sweet. The news was hard. Loud. Bitter. I chose petha.
Agra is famous for two things. The Taj Mahal. And petha (a sweet made from ash gourd).
When I opened “agra news today” before my trip, I saw:
Traffic jams near the Taj
Pickpocketing at the market
A political rally somewhere
A water pipe leak in some colony
I thought Agra was a mess. Then I ate petha.
The petha seller who doesn't read news
His name was Ramesh. His shop had been in his family for 50 years.
I asked: “Do you read ‘agra news today’?”
He laughed. “I read my petha. If it's soft, customers come. If it's hard, they don't. That's my news.”
“But what about the traffic? The pickpocketing? The politics?”
He said: “Traffic? I walk to my shop. Pickpocketing? I keep my money in a belt. Politics? Politicians come and go. Petha stays.”
“The news wants you to think Agra is falling apart. But I have been selling petha here for 30 years. My father sold it before me. We are still here. Still selling.”
What I saw in Agra
No traffic jam that stopped me. I walked everywhere. No pickpocketing happened to me or anyone I saw. No political rally on the streets. No water leak near the Taj.
What I saw:
The Taj at sunrise. Empty. Peaceful. Spiritual.
A small lane near the Taj where old men played cards.
A family eating petha together. Laughing.
A craftsman making marble inlay work. His hands were magic.
A temple where a priest blessed me without asking for money.
This is Agra. Not the Agra in “agra news today”.
What the Taj taught me
I sat near the Taj on a bench. A old man sat next to me. He had been coming to the Taj every morning for 20 years.
I asked: “Does the news bother you?”
He said: “The news is like a mosquito. Buzzing. Annoying. But the Taj is like the sun. Always there. Always beautiful.”
“The news will tell you about a small fight at the ticket counter. It will never tell you about the 10,000 people who had a peaceful visit.”
“The news focuses on the 0.1% that goes wrong. It ignores the 99.9% that goes right.”