Places to Visit In India... Agra

Fast Fact

Area : 62 Sq. Km.
Altitude : 169 Metres
Temperature:  Summer: 45.0- 21.9 C
Winter: 31.7- 04.2 C
Rainfall : 66 cm. (June to Sept)
Best Season : Oct to March
STD Code: 0562

Agra is an ancient city, mentioned in the Mahabharata and came into the limelight during the reign of the Mughals. It is famous as being home to one of the Seven Wonders of the World-the Taj Mahal. The Taj is a monument of such incredible elegance that it is considered synonymous with beauty itself.

How would you like to travel?
AIR
Agra is connected by air with Delhi, Varanasi and Khajuraho. Kheria airport is 6 Kms from the city centre. The convenient airport is Delhi.

RAIL
Agra is well connected by rail with major cities in India.

ROAD
Motorable roads connect Agra with:
Bharatpur 56 Km,
Delhi 204 Km.,
Gwalior 119 Km.,
Jaipur 232 Km.,
Khajuraho 395 Km.,
Kolkata 1287 Km.,
Lucknow 363 Km.,
Mathura 54 Km.,
Mumbai 1204 Km.,
Nainital 376 Km.,
Varanasi 606 Km.

Sights to See

Agra Fort:

(World Heritage Site) An imposing fort on the banks of the river Yamuna, commissioned by Akbar, in 1565 AD. It encloses numerous palaces and houses like the Moti Masjid, Diwan-i-Am, Diwan-i-Khas, Musamman Burj, Jehangiri Mahal, Khaas Mahal, Sheesh Mahal etc. Timings: Sunrise to Sunset. Sound & Light Show. Timings:  01 April-30 Sep: English 1915-2015 hrs, Hindi 2030-2130 hrs, 01 Oct-31 Mar: English 1900-2000 hrs, Hindi 2015-2115 hrs.

Chini-Ka-Roza: 

Memorial to Allama Afzel Khal Shukrullah of Shiraz, a well known poet scholar, of Emperor Jehangir’s reign. Open: Sunrise to Sunset.

Radhasoami Samadhi: 

Headquarters of the Radhasoami sect, the holy ashes of the founder of the faith have been preserved here. Timings: 0800 hrs. to 1700 hrs.

Sikandra: 

The last resting place of the Mughal Emperor Akbar, it lies on the outskirts of the Agra city. The Emperor had completed the tomb and laid out a beautiful garden, in his lifetime itself. However the topmost portion of the mausoleum was completed by his son Jehangir. Open from Sunrise to Sunset.

Itimad-Ud-Daulah’s Tomb: 

An impressive tomb in white marble, built by Nur Jahan, in memory of her father Ghias-ud-Din Beg, who was conferred the title ‘Itimad-ud-Daulah’ meaning ‘Pillar of the Government’. Timings: Sunrise to Sunset.

Jama Masjid: 

Constructed in 1648 AD by Shahjahan’s daughter, Jehanara Begum in memory of the famous Sheikh Salim Chisti and his grandson Islam Khan.

Mariyam’s Tomb: 

It is located on the left side of Agra-mathura Road, to the west of Akbar’s Tomb, Sikandra and houses the mortal remains of Mariam Zamani, a Rajput princess of Amber (Jaipur), wife of Emperor Akbar and the mother of Jehangir. Timings: Sunrise to Sunset.

Mehtab Bagh: 

The garden complex, situated on the opposite bank of the Taj Mahal, is known as Mehtab Bagh or the moonlight garden. Open from Sunrise to Sunset.

Mohabbat-the-Taj:

A series of plays depicting the saga of love presented by Sanskriti Natyashala. The true and immortal love of Shajahan for Mumtaj Mahal- his beautiful wife; the lavish lifestyle of mughal era; emaculate hardship of the artisans for 22 years that created the most precious specimen of craftsmanship.

Motilal Nehru Park: 

It is located on the approach road to the Taj Mahal.

Taj Mahal:

(World Heritage Site) India’s most fascinating and beautiful monument, the Taj Mahal was completed in 1653 AD by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as the final resting place for his favourite Queen Mumtaz. This perfectly symmetrical monument took 22 years (1630-1652) of hard labour and 20,000 workers, masons and jewellers to build and is set amidst landscaped gardens. It was built by the Persian architect, Ustad Ahmad Lahauri. Timings: 0600 to 1900 hrs. (Closed on Fridays) open for offering prayer in the mosque between 1200-1400 hrs on Fridays. Night viewing on Full moon day and two days before and after it, excluding Fridays and in the month of Ramzan.

Taj Musuem:

Established in 1982 in the ground floor in western Naubat Khana also known as Jal Mahal, within the Taj Mahal Complex. The museum comprises of 3 galleries in addition to the main hall. It has on display various exhibits relating mostly to the construction of the Taj Mahal and to the period of its builders. Timings: 1000-1700 hrs. Closed on Fridays.

Ram Bagh:

One of the earliest Mughal gardens, built by Emperor Babar for his daughter Zahra, from where Aram Bagh gets its original name Zahra/Dahra Bagh. Originally called the Aram Bagh, the name was later corrupted to Ram Bagh under the Marathas when they occupied Agra from 1775-1803 AD. Open from Sunrise to Sunset.

Attitude towards problem makes the difference!

InfoSphere Business Glossary and its Assets and Terms

Designated users can create business glossary assets with InfoSphere Business Glossary. Business glossary assets are of the following types –

• Terms 
• Categories 
• Information governance policies 
• Information governance rules 

What are Assets?

An asset is a piece of information that is of value to the organization and can have relationships, dependencies, or both with other information assets.

It can associate assets with terms by assigning the asset to the term to identify the – 

• Implemented data resources 
• Logical data model assets 
• Physical data model assets 
• Business intelligence (BI) assets that are related to the term 

Broadly there are two types of Assets –

• Assets in the metadata repository 
• Assets that reside outside the metadata repository, called external assets 

Assets in the Metadata Repository

It contains different types of assets: physical and logical model assets, implemented data resources, and business intelligence (BI) assets. It an view the following information about repository assets –

• Lists of assets that are assigned to terms 
• Lists of all assets of a particular type in the repository 
• Details about a particular asset, displayed on its own asset information page 

These can provides business analysts with the correct data sources that are associated with the term.

Typically, the data architect or data analyst works with the business analyst to decide which metadata repository assets are assigned to a term.

All Tools to Assign Asset to Term

We can use the following tools to import assets into the business glossary –

• IBM InfoSphere Business Glossary 
• IBM InfoSphere Metadata Workbench 
• IBM InfoSphere FastTrack 
• IBM InfoSphere Information Analyzer 

Best practice is – To use InfoSphere Business Glossary to assign large numbers of assets to terms.

How to Assign Asset to Term using Business Glossary

To assign assets to terms must be a Business Glossary Administrator or a Business Glossary Author with the correct permissions to the category/subcategories.

• If workflow is enabled, click the Development Glossary tab. If workflow is not enabled, click the Glossary tab. 
• Navigate to the details page of the term or category to be edit, click Edit. 
• While in edit mode, one can change any property of the term or category. 
• Change the properties and save the changes. 

If workflow is enabled, the edited term or category is in draft mode, or else the term is in the glossary, and can be viewed by all users who have the appropriate category permissions.

External Assets

It can create references from business terms to entities that are outside of the metadata repository. Some examples –

• A business process model or UML model stored in an asset management system 
• A web service or a quarterly report on a shared network drive 

Ability to assign business terms to external assets extends the value of Business Glossary in the following ways –

• Enables the glossary to give meaning to any technical assets of interest to the business, regardless of where they exist. 
• Helps business users understand the meaning of all technical assets that are used in organizational processes. 

With external assets, we can do the following actions –

• Assign an external asset to a term describing the asset in detail for business users to identify it, locate it, and decide whether the asset is relevant and merits further investigation 
• While viewing a term, can see the external assets that the term is assigned to 

External Assets vs. Metadata Repository

External assets differ from assets that are in the metadata repository in the following ways –

• Cannot search or browse external assets using Business Glossary because external assets are outside of the metadata repository 
• Cannot assign stewards to external assets. 
• External assets exist only in relationship to a term. If term deleted, all information about the external asset is deleted from the metadata repository. 
• External assets cannot be included in displays of business lineage or data lineage using Business Glossary. 

Understanding Infosphere Metadata Workbench

What is Metadata Workbench?

Metadata Workbench is part of the Information Server suite of products, which all share a common repository and set of services. By default the Information Server Repository is DB2, but Oracle, and other database systems are also supported.

In order to work effectively with Metadata Workbench, we need to have an understanding of Information Server and the suite of products it hosts.

It is a tool for managing metadata; it manages all three types of metadata –

• Business – Business rules, Definitions, Terminology, Glossaries, Algorithms and Lineage using business language. Audience: Business users.
• Technical – Defines Source and Target systems, their Table and Fields structures and attributes, Derivations and Dependencies. Audience: Specific Tool Users –BI, ETL, Profiling, Modeling.
• Operational – Information about application runs: their frequency, record counts, component by component analysis and other statistics. Audience: Operations, Management and Business Users.

It is a product within the Information Server suite of products. Which manages metadata assets produced by the products within Information Server, including –

• Mapping specifications created by FastTrack
• ETL jobs built in and executed by DataStage
• Data quality jobs built in and executed by DataStage
• Business terms defined in Business Glossary
• Data reports generated by Information Analyzer

It manages metadata assets linked to Information Server metadata assets, including –

• Data resources (relational tables, data files, applications) accessed by DataStage ETL jobs and used for Information Analyzer reports
• Data modeling tool documents
• BI reports

It also enables us to understand the relationships between the different metadata assets through graphs and reports.

Metadata Workbench functionality –

Metadata Workbench supports three different categories of functionality. We can use it to gain information about the metadata within the Repository (Explore).

We can also use it to examine associations and dependencies between the metadata assets (Analyze).

In addition, there are capabilities for capturing additional metadata and then integrating it with other existing metadata (Capture).

The Capture functionality is available within the InfoSphere Metadata Asset Manager (IMAM) tool, which is an Information Server tool that works in conjunction with Metadata Workbench.

This tool is used to capture metadata that is consumed by Information Server applications such as DataStage.

Explore –

1. Explore metadata assets, including jobs, reports, databases, models, terms, stewards, systems, specifications, data quality rules
2. Easy navigation of assets
3. Simple and advanced search capabilities
4. Robust query builder
5. Integrated cross-view of Information Server and external linked assets
6. Graphical view of asset relationships

Analyze –

1. Analyze dependencies and relationships between metadata assets, including jobs, BI reports, and data models
2. Trace data lineage through DataStage jobs and to and from databases, jobs, and reports
3. Assess the impact of change across information assets
4. Graphical display of data lineage and impact analysis

Capture –

1. Capture information, relationships, and operational data to enhance information reports and analyses
2. Use Metadata Asset Manager to integrate external metadata assets with Information Server metadata assets
3. Extend data linkages to data resources and applications outside of Information Server
4. Enhance data lineage and impact analysis reports through user-defined linkages

Most of the metadata explored, analyzed, and managed within Metadata Workbench is metadata produced or consumed by Information Server products.

Exploring in Metadata Workbench –

We can use Metadata Workbench to explore all the metadata stored within the Information Server Repository. This includes metadata produced by Information Server applications such as DataStage, as well as metadata capture into the Repository to be consumed by Information Server applications.

All metadata assets are accessible to simple and advanced search capabilities and robust query capabilities. The asset information can be presented in several ways: reports, standard asset window, and a graphic window of information.

Asset information can be enhanced in a number of ways: assets can be linked to business terms, stewards, and labels. Notes can be added to explain and document the assets.

• Explore metadata assets including jobs, reports, databases, files, tables, columns, terms, stewards, servers
• Simple and advanced search capabilities
• Robust query capabilities
• Multiple ways to search by asset class, name, property
• Save results in various supported formats of reports
• View graphs of asset relationships
• Create and edit descriptions of assets

Understanding InfoSphere Business Glossary

What is Business Glossary?

The business glossary is a formal contract between the producers and consumers of information across the enterprise.

It is intended to be the artifact or reference that allows anyone to determine the meaning, type and context of any term and, in particular, any business data element used in an initiative.

Business Glossary is a tool for Authoring, Managing, and Sharing Business Metadata. Business Glossary is a tool for business users that enables –

• The creation & management of a controlled vocabulary
• Collaborative authoring of business metadata

A reference for learning about the information assets of the enterprise –

• Meaning
• Dependencies
• Usage
• Quality
• Ownership/Responsibility

Benefits of InfoSphere Business Glossary –

Business Glossary provides users with a web-based tool for creating and managing standard definitions of business and organization concepts by using a controlled vocabulary.

The tool divides metadata into categories, each of which contains terms. One can use terms to classify other objects in the metadata repository that are based on the needs of the organization.

One can also designate users or groups as stewards for metadata objects. The result is a system that builds a common language between business and information technology.

Enables data governance

• Common language supports compliance regulations such as Basel II
• Represent and expose business relationships and lineage
• Track history of changes

 Accountability and responsibility

• Assign stewards as single point of contact

 Improved productivity

• Administrators can tailor the tool to the needs of their business users
• Access enterprise information you need when you need it
• Use and re-use information assets based on common semantic hub

Increased collaboration

• Capture and share annotations between team members
• Greater understanding of the context of information
• More prevalent use and reuse of trusted information

Why InfoSphere Business Glossary?

The business glossary organizes metadata into categories that contain terms. Terms can relate to the assets that are stored in the metadata repository or to external assets according to the standards and practices of the enterprise.

One can also designate specific users or user groups as stewards who are responsible for particular assets. Assets in this instance refer to instances of metadata within the metadata repository.

Business Glossary is designed to also provide –

• Linkage between business Terms and IT assets for understanding the contexts of IT and business
• Designed to answer: Where are the connection points?
• Assignment of Data Stewards to Terms and IT Assets
• A customizable, publishable set of business Terms

 Business Glossary is not designed to be –

• A data modeling tool (Rational Architect)
• An enterprise architecture hub for reuse of technical metadata by development applications (Information Server)
• An enterprise metadata repository (XMETA and Metadata Workbench)

A common vocabulary gives diverse users a common understanding of business concepts, improving communication and efficiency.

For example: one department in an organization might use the word “customer,” a second department might use the word “user,” and a third department might use the word “client,” all to describe the same type of individual.

Business Glossary enables the enterprise to capture these terms, define their meaning, create relationships between them (in the example above, where all three terms have the same meaning, they would be synonyms) and consolidate terminology to achieve increased precision in communications.

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Places to Visit In India...Khajuraho

Fast Fact -

Area : 16.93 sq. km.
Altitude: 257 m above Sea Level
Temperature:
Summer - 47c - 21c
Winter - 32c - 4c
Languages: Hindi and English
Season: October to march
STD Code: 07686

The temples of Khajuraho are India's unique gift to the world, representing, as they do, a paean to life, to love, to joy, perfect in execution and sublime in expression. Life, in every form and mood, has been captured in stone, testifying not only to the craftsman's artistry but also to the extraordinary breadth of vision of the Chandela Rajputs under whose rule the temples were conceived and constructed. The Khajuraho temples were built in the short span of a hundred years, from 950-1050 AD in truly inspired burst of creativity of the 85 original temples, 22 have survived till today to constitute one of the world's great artistic wonders.

How would you like to travel?

AIR

Khajuraho is connected to Delhi & Agra with regular flights.

RAIL

Khajuraho has its own rail head. Apart from that, the other nearest railheads are:

Mahoba (64 km) and

Harpalpur (94 km)

Jhansi (175 km) and

Satna (117 km) are convenient railheads for visitors from Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai, Agra & Varanasi

ROAD

Khajuraho is connected by regular bus services with:

Gwalior (276 Km)

Bhopal 340 Km

Bandhavgarh (270 Km)

Varanasi (via Rewa 340 Km), and

Mahoba, Harpalpur, Satna, Jhansi, Gwalior, Agra, Jabalpur & Bhopal.

Sights to See

The Temples: 

The architectural style of the Khajuraho temples is very different from the temple prototype of that period. Each stands, instead of within the customary enclosure, on a high masonry platform. Combined with the upward direction of the structure, which is further accentuated by vertical projections, the total effect is one of grace and lightness, reminiscent of the Himalayan peaks. Each of the chief compartments has its own roof, grouped in such a way that the highest is in the centre, the lowest over the portico, a triumph of skill and imagination in recreating the rising peaks of a range. The temples of Khajuraho are divided into three geographical groups: Western, Eastern and Southern.

The Western group: 

This is certainly the best known, because it is to this group that the largest and most typical Khajuraho temple belongs: The Kandariya Mahadev. Perfectly symmetrical, it soars 31 km high. Though the four temples that stand at the corners of the main shrine are now in ruins, the main shrine has an exquisitely carved entrance arch with a multitude of themes. Celestial beings, lovers serenading musicians... movements captured in stone, frozen in time, yet retaining a quality of warm, pulsating life. The very stone seems to have taken on the living, breathing quality of the carved figures.

Beyond the archway of the Kandariya Mahadev, lie the six interior compartments; the portico, main hall, transept, vestibule, sanctum and ambulatory. The ceilings are particularly noteworthy and the pillars supporting them have intricately carved capitals. The transept's outer walls have three horizontal panels showing deities of the Hindu pantheon, and groups of lovers, a pageant of sensuousness, vibrantly alive. Also in the western group is the Chaunsat Yogini, the only granite temple in the Khajuraho group. Dedicated to Kali, it is also unique in being quadrangular in plan. Only 35 of the original 65 cells remain and no image of Kali has survived: Not surprisingly, since this is the earliest surviving shrine of the group dated to 900 AD. Another Kali Temple (originally dedicated to Vishnu) is the Devi Jagadambe Temple. North of it facing eastward to the rising sun, is the Chitragupta temple, dedicated

to the sun-god, Surya. The image of this powerful deity in the inner sanctum is particularly imposing: 5ft high, and driving a seven-horsed chariot. The group scenes depicted are equally spectacular: royal processions, elephant- fights, hunting scenes, group dances. The lavish lifestyle of the Chandela kings and their court is here in all its pomp and glory. Similar in plan to the Kandariya Mahadev is the Vishwanath Temple. Lions flank the northern steps and elephants the southern, leading up to the temple. Within, there is an impressive three headed image of Brahma. The exteriors are profusely carved.

Facing the shrine is a Nandi Temple with a massive, 6 ft high Nandi bull.

Since the first few Chandela rulers were devotees of Vishnu, there are some important Vaishnavite temples in the Khajuraho group, the finest of which is the Lakshmana Temple. The lintel over the entrance shows the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, with Lakshmi, Vishnu's consort. The sanctum is richly carved and has a three-headed idol of Vishnu's incarnations, Narsimha and Varaha. The boar incarnation also appears in another Vaishnavite shrine, the Varaha Temple. The statue here is a mammoth 9 ft high one, its surface covered with figures from the Hindu Pantheon.

The Khajuraho temples are no longer living places of worship, with a few exceptions. The Matangeswara Temple for example is still a place of worship. Dedicated to Shiva it has an 8 ft high lingam. South of this temple is the open air Archaeological Museum, which has a beautiful displayed collection of statues and friezes collected from the area: the remains of long vanished temples.

The Eastern Group: 

Hindu and Jain temples make up the Eastern Group, which lies close to the Khajuraho village. The largest Jain temple, Parswanath, is in this group. Exquisite in detail, the sculptures on the northern outer wall make this temple perhaps the finest in the group. The themes of these carvings are the timeless ones of every day, mortal activity. A woman sits bent pensively on a letter; a lovely young girl removes a thorn from her foot, the master craftsmen of Khajuraho display here their deep understanding

of the trifles that make up a human life. Within, the sanctum has a throne, which faces a bull : emblem of the first tirthankara, Adinath. The actual image of Parswanath from which the temple derives its name was installed as recently as 1860. The other Jain temple in this group is the Ghantai Temple. Though almost in ruins now, it still bears evidence of its original splendour. Particularly, arresting is the frieze which depicts, in graphic detail, the 16 dreams of Mahavira's mother and a multi-armed Jain goddess riding on a winged Garuda. North of Parswanatha is the more modestly sized Adinatha Temple. The three Hindu temples in the Eastern Group are the Brahma, Vamana and Javari Temples. A double row of apsaras, celestial nymphs, adorn the outer walls of the Vamana temple. A variety of sensuous attitudes: languid, provocative, mischievously inviting, give credibility to the theory that Khajuraho's erotica were meant to test the devotees who came to worship their gods at the temples.   

The Southern Group:

5 km from the Khajuraho village, lies the Southern Group of temples. The fine Chaturbhuj Temple in this group has a massive intricately carved image of Vishnu in the sanctum. Duladeo Temple, another of the southern group, is a little away from the road to the Jain group of temples. Though remains of temples belonging to the Khajuraho group have been discovered at Jatkari, 3 km away and even at Maribag in Rewa, it is at the 3 main groups that the imperishable glory of Khajuraho, the sensuous celebration of life, the aspiration towards the infinite, remains.   

The Lights and Sounds Show: 

This fascinating Son-et-Lumiere spectacle evokes the life and times of the great Chandela Kings and traces the story of the unique temples from the 10th Century to the present day.Mounted in the complex of the Western Group of temples, the 50-minute show runs in Hindi and in English every evening. Amitabh Bachchan, the Indian super star, narrates the story of Khajuraho in his mesmerizing voice.