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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks at b O.

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Speaker 2: Travel correspondent is Mike Yardley, but he doesn't just love travel,

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Speaker 2: he loves Christmas. And Mike, my goodness, I've just seen

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Speaker 2: a photograph of your lound room and the tree is

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Speaker 2: well and truly up twin cale. It looks amazing. Livy

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Speaker 2: and I are very impressed, like really impressed. And what

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Speaker 2: a lound room you've got. You've got the presidential seal

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Speaker 2: in the so your lound room almost looks like a

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Speaker 2: New Zealand version of the of the Oval Office, but

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Speaker 2: with a giant Chstmas tree in it.

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Speaker 3: I am a bit of an Americana tragic along with

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Speaker 3: being a Christmas tragic Jack. So yes, I spotted these

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Speaker 3: presidential floor ring so that I need one of those,

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Speaker 3: and it's actually quite cool.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it looks amazing. So so in terms of Christmas,

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Speaker 2: do you have an exact date every year when you

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Speaker 2: put up your decorations.

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Speaker 3: Well, so I did what I did last year, and

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Speaker 3: being election day last Saturday, I thought, oh, I feel

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Speaker 3: nervous for the candidates and I had to do an erection.

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Speaker 3: So I started with the tree yeah, and now I've

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Speaker 3: got about ten days more of titillation to do.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, goodness, I'm glad you love it so much. I

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Speaker 2: mean this time next week will be two months on Christmas.

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Speaker 2: So there you go, crazy, We're going to race up

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Speaker 2: on all of us. Anyway, this morning we are focusing

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Speaker 2: on Agra and the taj Mahal, part of the Golden

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Speaker 2: Triangle in India. And would you consider Agar a pretty city?

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Speaker 3: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Jack, but

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Speaker 3: still strikes me as rough ready an absolute ramshackler of

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Speaker 3: a city. The thing, though, is it makes time at

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Speaker 3: the Tarj all the more spell binding because you think,

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Speaker 3: how can such an ugly city have such a masterpiece.

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Speaker 3: But as you drive out of New Delhi you do

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Speaker 3: notice a real slippitch in the standard of living on

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Speaker 3: the approach to Agra, and also a collapse in driving behavior.

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Speaker 3: My driver said to me, whenever I come close to Agra,

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Speaker 3: there are three golden rules when it comes to driving

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Speaker 3: in India. You need a good set of brakes, you

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Speaker 3: need a very good horn, and you need a lot

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Speaker 3: of good luck. And I think that's very true about Agra.

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Speaker 3: The other thing is they've got so many crumbling buildings.

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Speaker 3: We passed this derelict building downtown Agra that has been

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Speaker 3: abandoned and the locals call it the monkey house because

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Speaker 3: the building has been taken over by a vast tribe

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Speaker 3: of two hundred reesius muckacks. So when they venture out

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Speaker 3: to find a bit of food, they cause total traffic

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Speaker 3: mayhem on the adjoining road. Agra is a zoo.

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Speaker 2: Yeah amazing, it's a yeah yeah and every seeds I suppose.

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Speaker 2: And apart from being home to a world icon, why

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Speaker 2: would you recommend anyone jaunt to Agra fort?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, This mighty red sandstone fortress is a marvel. So

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Speaker 3: it overlooks the Yamuna River and it was established by

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Speaker 3: the Mogul emperor Akba, who was Genghis Khan's great grandson,

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Speaker 3: which I think is so amazing. But the complex is

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Speaker 3: such a delight to explore because it just gives you

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Speaker 3: a really good sense of the architectural grandeur of the

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Speaker 3: Mogul Rain. It's that fusion of Persian and Indian design,

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Speaker 3: just the most amazing blend. And there are some really

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Speaker 3: cool highlights, like stepping inside the prison, which is this

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Speaker 3: gilded cage which is where Shah Jahan of taj fame,

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Speaker 3: spent the last eight years of his life because he

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Speaker 3: was booted off the throne by his Ruh, the treacherous son.

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Speaker 3: But amazingly, that prison window offers one of the best

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Speaker 3: views of the taj Mahal, So at least Shah Jahan,

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Speaker 3: you know, spent the last eight years of his life

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Speaker 3: marveling over his masterpiece.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, when's the best time to admire the Tajh.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, good question, because a lot of the site selling

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Speaker 3: tours and agra finish off at the taj for sunset.

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Speaker 3: But you know, in a place like Ogre, you spend

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Speaker 3: all day out there feeling hot, sticky, and by the

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Speaker 3: time you get to the taj for sunset, your dog tired.

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Speaker 3: That's my experience from fourteen years ago, this time a

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Speaker 3: couple of weeks ago with Wendy Woo tours. We did

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Speaker 3: it at sunrise, and man, I don't think I've ever

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Speaker 3: felt so rewarded for setting the alarm clock so early.

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Speaker 3: There were only about fifty people on site Jack when

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Speaker 3: I arrived at the taj Mahal. So to have that

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Speaker 3: lack of crowd, lack of heat, no queueing to take

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Speaker 3: a seat on Diane's famous marble bench that is just priceless.

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Speaker 3: So I cannot recommend Sunrise enough.

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Speaker 2: That's exactly what I did when I went to the

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Speaker 2: taj I got it.

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Speaker 3: Really.

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Speaker 2: They got up at Alpust four or five am and

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Speaker 2: was one of the very first people through the gate,

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Speaker 2: and I just remember it was such a good decision.

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Speaker 2: It was one of those places I always thought that,

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Speaker 2: you know, you travel sometimes and places don't quite live

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Speaker 2: up to the hype. But my experience, at least going

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Speaker 2: there in the morning, was that it very much did.

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Speaker 2: And how many people you built it?

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Speaker 3: Twenty thousand laborers, but more impressibly a thousand elephants.

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Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that's slugging.

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Speaker 3: Away for eight years. I know they did bring in

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Speaker 3: some specialists from Europe to produce the marble screens and

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Speaker 3: a lot of the inlay work. But like you sort

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Speaker 3: of discover in the wake of the British around the place,

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Speaker 3: the British soldiers actually looted a lot of the gold

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Speaker 3: and the precious stones from the taj Mahal during the

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Speaker 3: British rash. So many ingenious touches to its design, though,

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Speaker 3: Jack Is, I'm sure you appreciate it. I love how

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Speaker 3: those four ornamentalmen arets around the main building. They're all

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Speaker 3: subtly tilted away so that in the been to a

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Speaker 3: major quake, they won't fall on the main building. And

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Speaker 3: I love how the taj was purposefully positioned to point

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Speaker 3: north so that it's bathed in maximum sunlight from dawn

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Speaker 3: to dusk, which just heightens that creamy luster of the

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Speaker 3: marble and nothing detracts in the background. That's so etherial,

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Speaker 3: isn't it, Because that backdrop is only sky because it

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Speaker 3: was built on that raised platform. That really was a

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Speaker 3: master stroke and design.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it is gorgeous. It's just an incredible building. Like

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Speaker 2: you said that, that kind of mogul architecture is something else.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 2: One thing I remember from my time at the Tarjan.

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Speaker 2: It was a long time ago, fifteen years ago, but

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Speaker 2: I remember going up to the building itself and seeing

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Speaker 2: that someone had tagged it someone, Yeah, someone had with

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Speaker 2: a vivid. I've got photos of it. Someone had like

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Speaker 2: like tagged them. I was like, don't bring a vivid

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Speaker 2: to the like, are you serious. Yes, I'm sure they've

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Speaker 2: cleaned up, but yeah, I just remember. It's one of

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Speaker 2: those things that's always stuck with me, you know, is

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Speaker 2: that you can go anywhere in the world and there's

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Speaker 2: still going to be someone being a total you know what.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that is worse than that is worse than urinating

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Speaker 3: on the aldar of Saint Peter's Basilica. Yes, which occurd

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Speaker 3: a few days ages.

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Speaker 1: I saw that.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I mean both of them are up there, aren't

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Speaker 2: they dispas to do? But anyway, is the air pollution

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Speaker 2: still a big problem and a threat to the Tarj?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it seems to be this constant worry they have.

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Speaker 3: And I noticed that they have increased the perimeter area

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Speaker 3: around the taj from cars, and also they have forced

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Speaker 3: the closure of a lot of factories in proximity to

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Speaker 3: the monument. So yeah, it's a constant threat. I was

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Speaker 3: intrigued by that ancient face pack recipe they used to

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Speaker 3: spruce it up from time to time. I think they

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Speaker 3: call it moultani meti. So it's this blend of soil

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Speaker 3: and cereal and milk and lime, supposedly at beauty the skin.

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Speaker 3: It seems to work on the tar so I might

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Speaker 3: have to give it a go myself. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Nice, What about local eats and agra? It's pretty meaty,

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Speaker 2: isn't it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, they're very proud of all things Mogul and Agra.

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Speaker 3: So a rich, meaty, aromatic cuisine awaits. If you're partial

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Speaker 3: to a really good corner or rogan josh, you will

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Speaker 3: be right at home. Think creamy, rich graviies and lots

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Speaker 3: of spices and almonds and cashews and yogurt. I actually

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Speaker 3: became quite partial to this ancient Mogul Empire dessert called

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Speaker 3: Shahi tukta, and I reckon you could make this at home.

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Speaker 3: Shahi tukta means royal bread, so it's sort of like

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Speaker 3: a bread pudding, and it's crisp fried bread slices soaked

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Speaker 3: and sugar syrup, and then they top it with this

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Speaker 3: creamy blend of milk and cornflower, spices and nuts. It's

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Speaker 3: really delicious, and actually I noticed a lot of people

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Speaker 3: were eating it for breakfast.

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Speaker 2: Mah, does this sounds good? I'm into this.

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Speaker 3: What's it called again, Shahi tukta?

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Speaker 2: Shah he tukta? Yeah, okay, it sounds great, sounds really good.

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Speaker 2: Thank you. So you you've got one more little segment

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Speaker 2: right where we're going to discuss India.

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Speaker 3: We'll do a bit of Rajasthan and a bit of

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Speaker 3: New Deli.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you so much, Mike. It does sound amazing.

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Speaker 2: It makes me un for India, so I really appreciate

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Speaker 2: that all of Mike's tips for visiting Aga and the

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Speaker 2: taj Mahal will be up on the News Talks.

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Speaker 1: He'd be website for more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame.

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Speaker 1: Listen live to News Talks he'd be from nine am Saturday,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio