Visit to Fatehpur Sikri, a gorgeous world-heritage monument, became a nightmare thanks to non-stop harassment by “guides” and others.
I recently visited Fatehpur-Sikri near Agra with my friend, Dr. K, and faced the worst harassment I ever have in my life (to give you the context, she is a tall-blonde-white-American girl). The process starts at least 2 KMs before one could reach the 16th century monument. Our taxi driver warned us to lock the doors of our car well before we could enter the area, and we realized why in just a few minutes. A gang of “guides” tried to divert our car into a narrow side road at first, but we managed to get past them. Within seconds another gang waved their hands indicating that we should stop. When we refused, one of them literally jumped in front of the car, barely avoiding an accident. While one of them blocked the car, two others bargained with us to hire a guide. Thankfully, our doors were locked and so they were not able to enter the car to bargain with us (which they do according to our driver).
After much bargaining we went to the parking area from where visitors are required to take an official bus to the monuments. The next ten minutes of waiting was spent in telling the next set of guides that we do not want one. Even when we decided to ignore them, it became impossible to have a good conversation among ourselves thanks to the persistent nagging that we faced. Interestingly, our solicitor argued that he should be hired, else other guides will harass us once we enter the beautiful monument built by Akbar. He was not wrong.
The official bus took us to Sikri and the third round started for us. This time, we were followed inside. Each time I tried to give my friend a background of the place, two guides who followed us argued that I am not supposed to explain anything without paying them money. One of them started abusing in Hindi starting with “Do you think we are insane” (when I did not respond to him after a point) to “I’ll take care of you when you come out”. After these two thugs disappeared, we were confronted with at least five more gangs of guides giving us barely two minute intervals to enjoy our visit to the beautiful monument.
We were finally harassed with the guides demanding us that we should give them our tickets, and very often impolitely. The trip was the most unpleasant one I ever undertook, and it was just impossible to have one peaceful moment. I am sure that the story is not unique to us, and many others have faced the same. As a small step, I am creating an e-mail tool with the contact ids of Incredible India (agency of Ministry of Tourism), District Collector of Agra (the chief administrator of the District), and the Director General of tourism of UP (the State in which Taj Mahal and Fatehpur-Sikri are).
If you have been harassed or if you know of someone, I’d appreciate it if you can send a quick mail to them about it. If you are planning a trip, it would be great if you can send them a mail asking if the place is safe. If there are sufficient e-mails on a regular basis, it may create an impetus for change. The government has managed to protect tourists within Taj Mahal, which is in the neighbourhood, and I trust that they will be able to do it with Fatehpur Sikri if we generate the will to do so. To use the complaint form, click here.
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