The less photographed Northern side of the Taj Mahal is a world away from all of the glossy travel brochures. The Northern banks of the Yamuna River house the village of Kachchpura, which is one of Agra’s poorest slums despite being meters away from one of the world’s most visited tourist attractions. I visited back in June 2009 on a sticky pre-monsoon evening. We hired a tuk-tuk to take us on the long crawl through Agra and across the river to the Mehtab Bagh gardens, where we were promised an incredible view of the Taj Mahal. Built by Emperor Babur, the grandeur of the once lavish Mehtab Bagh gardens has now faded, but the view is no less spectacular.
As the early evening light fades a woman carries a heavy load of cattle dung on her head while tourists pose for photos against the backdrop of the Taj Mahal.