On the last sightseeing day we went to the Red Fort. Now you can click on the link and read about it, but from what I remembered it was a place of sadness. A massive structure that ended up being a prison for an old man, the last of the line of Mughals. The structure had it's own share of problems as well. The quality of workmanship was there, but it seems that it was never able to capture it's glory it had been during the hey-days.
But enough of depressing history. The fact of the matter is that MT and PD were taken to see this last bastion of the Mughals on the last day in India. What followed was interesting. You see, MT and PD have been photographed a lot. And when I mean photographed, I do not mean by me, or by some tout trying to con us into a paid photoshoot. Random strangers have taken shots of MT and PD when all of us were standing still. The best ones were always when I would be lining a shot, which would leave MT and PD waiting patiently behind me. People would saunter up casually, pose beside MT or PD`s backs, and get their friend/family to take a picture whilst MT or PD were unaware and subtly walk away. MT started to notice this phenomenon only in the last day at the Red Fort.
Finally, right near the end of our walking around, a very cute teenager runs up to me, and literally jams an old camera into my hand, yelling "Excuse me, please, picture" and without asking for permission, gets between MT and PD for me to take a shot of them with the camera.
Frankly, I am hurt... Why was I not allowed to be in the picture? I blame racism. But for the confidences of my fellow travelers, this did a huge world of good. After travelling for 8 days where every day it was "Sir shopping that way." To have someone (and someone who was sort of cute) come up to get a picture taken and not try to sell us anything helped... a lot.
This to me seemed like a fitting farewell from India to MT and PD rather than the one that was given at the airport.
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