Agra has always been a city in transition. Long before planners, courts and district authorities began redrawing its maps, the Yamuna itself kept shifting its course umpteen times before settling into the channel that now brushes the Taj Mahal at its rear. Perhaps that was the first sign that Agra was destined to live with a peculiar restlessness; a “shifting syndrome” that continues to shape its politics, economy and psyche.

Agra’s buildings are not merely bricks, stones, and domes. They are centuries-old narratives of power and beauty, faith and coexistence, and an instinctive harmony with nature. Over five hundred years, Agra absorbed diverse civilisations and refined them into a distinctive urban and cultural identity. This city once believed that architecture could converse with rivers, gardens, and people. Today, that conversation is fading beneath noise, neglect, and pollution.

On Mirza Ghalib’s birthday, his couplets travel effortlessly across continents, languages, and generations. They are quoted in classrooms, shared on social media, sung in ghazals, and debated by scholars. Yet in Agra, the city where Ghalib was born in 1797, remembrance remains faint, formal, and painfully inadequate.

In the neighbourhood of two world heritage monuments, the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort, Agra’s famous Vaidya Gali has been a favourite of kings, politicians and the common man for over a century and more, but these days the number of patrons has dwindled, as allopathy has come to dominate the health sector.

A 17th-century masterpiece, the Taj Mahal stands as an eternal symbol of love, built by Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his beloved Mumtaz Mahal. Its unparalleled beauty and historical significance have made it a UNESCO World Heritage Site, attracting millions of tourists from around the globe.

Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal, has long been a key contributor to India’s potato production, accounting for 27 per cent of Uttar Pradesh’s total output. Yet, despite its agricultural significance, local farmers have struggled with low profits, seed shortages, and post-harvest losses. Now, a breakthrough promises to transform the region’s potato industry—the approval of the International Potato Centre’s South Asia Regional Centre in Singna village.