'The whispers and the murmurs had reached even the king's private quarters.' 'Of a royal surgeon wielding a chain-saw like a carpenter; a chemist with a cannister of acid; the royal chief executioner instructing someone about the fine art of handling swords...' 'All this being supervised by Mohammed's closest confidant.'
The city administration is all geared up for the big day and preparations are in full swing to present the 'best face of Agra'.
This was the first dinner hosted for a foreign dignitary at the White House under the Trump administration.
Nitin Singh, tourist guide, spent 75 minutes with Donald and Melania Trump at the Taj Mahal. 'They were very down to earth and listening to me intently as I told them the story of the Taj and the Mughals.'
Tuesday's talks between Modi and Trump are likely to send across a clear message of growing congruence of interests between India and the US on major geopolitical developments in the region and beyond, particularly when China has been expanding its military and economic clout.
Trump quipped that it was a 'tough decision' to make his voting choice.
Queen Elizabeth II used her banquet speech to subtly remind the visiting US President that the international institutions set up after the World War II were designed to ensure the horrors of conflict were not repeated.
'I spoke to Maharani Padmini of Jaipur.' 'She said there was basically one problematic point in the trailer.'
Duterte had consistently led the Time 100 Reader Poll, an online survey in which the publication had asked its readers to vote for who should be included in this year's Time 100 list of the world's most influential people.
"It's a disgrace that he can do something like this," Trump told reporters at a press conference in the Camp David, a picturesque presidential retreat of Maryland, where he is holding meetings with his Republican leaders in the Congress.
Indian-American Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri is among 10 novelists shortlisted for the prestigious United States National Book Award 2013 in the fiction category for her new work The Lowland, which is a tale of two brothers set in Kolkata of the 1960s.
At the synagogue, the US President met with Rabbi Myers. While inside the synagogue, the first couple lit candles in honour of each of those killed.
Iran signed a $3 billion deal with Boeing, backed Qatar against the Saudis, scored a big victory in Syria and reached out to Hamas. Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar examines how the Qatar versus Saudi Arabia standoff is quickly changing alignments in the Middle East.
Get your weekly dose on the goings on in the fashion and entertainment industry.
Even before assuming the United States President's office, Donald Trump has boasted about his election victory, his re-election prospects, re-prided himself for picking a "great" Cabinet and showered confidence on the capabilities of his son-in-law to broker peace in the volatile Middle East.
Given all the turbulence created by Pakistan Foreign Minister Qureshi's unexpected tirade against Saudi Arabia, it is likely to be business as usual between the two countries, albeit with a bit of caution on the part of both, observes Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
Last year, Trump broke with decades of precedent by not hosting the annual Iftar dinne.
A cue for your own reading list, perhaps?
'Mr Trump is too capricious to be trusted,' says Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
The Middle East's power house is about to get a new ruler who is only 31 and he may lead Saudi Arabia for decades, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'It's the first-ever US presidential visit which is specially planned for India.' 'The standalone visit itself has achieved something already. Don't underestimate it.' Sheela Bhatt gives us an exclusive glimpse of what the Modi government hopes to achieve from Trump's visit.
The US president-elect met Silicon Valley's most powerful executives -- CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Elon Musk from Tesla, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt of Alphabet -- parent company of Google among others.
Trump is accompanied by First Lady Melania, daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner and the top brass of his administration.
5 other politically-charged fashion choices in recent times.
Joined by his wife and incoming First Lady Melania Trump, daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, his sons and their families, Trump enjoyed the nearly two-and-a-half hour concert.
Unveiling his second year agenda to a deeply divided Congress and nation, a bullish United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday used his first State of the Union address to appeal for bipartisanship on issues like immigration while pledging to tackle the Islamic State and a nuclear-armed North Korea.
"My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency," Trump said.
Under the policy, the US recognises and has formal ties with China rather than the island of Taiwan, which China sees as a breakaway province to be reunified with the mainland one day.
'The Trump administration is on the same page as India that Pakistan is not the solution, but the problem itself,' says Rajeev Sharma.
For all the controversy, the concept of prominent First Children is not novel in democracies. So why is Donald Trump's daughter different and discomfiting?
Rajeev Srinivasan on why there is the strong possibility that this whole thing is an elaborate charade and how the mainstream might have just played into Trump's showman hands.
'Embracing comes naturally to us; we embrace everything and everyone, but it takes a master to extend it to a firm hand-shaker like Trump, and to literally bend him to your method.'
Incoming US President Donald Trump has assembled a core team that is -- not surprisingly -- overwhelmingly white and male.
'China was the elephant in the Oval Office and Trump would have sensed that Modi's foreign policy architecture has become disoriented sans the US' pivot to Asia,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
US President Donald Trump triumphantly greeted supporters at the first of the three inaugural balls, joining his First Lady on stage to tell them: 'We did it."
Here's the latest from the inauguration day of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States.
'The surge of Saudi nationalism is the last thing Washington wants,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'We're going to see a defence relationship that really takes off -- now that India is a major defence partner of the US, the sky is the limit for arms sales.' 'The economic partnership will lag behind the security relationship, but the meeting and joint statement give cause to believe that it will progress more robustly than many of us would have expected.'
'In the past the US has been reluctant to name Pakistan directly in an US-India joint statement.'
