The Taj Mahal, Agra, revisited

The Taj Mahal, Agra, revisited

This is my third visit but it is not until now that I realized that the name Taj Mahal came from her name Mumtaj Mahal. In other words it is her house …and what a house it is.


This is the story of Emperor Shah Jahan building this as a memorial for his third wife and great love Mumtaj, who died giving birth to his 14th child and it is at this point that my feminine side kicked in and said:


“OH PELEEASE did he not realize that anyone would expire after 14 kids and why did he not give her a break and visit the other wives once in a while? Surely even in those days 14 was quite a number. Poor girl she deserved every brick and inlay on that mausoleum but I know what I would prefer- contraception.”


My cheekiness does not detract from its beauty but this time I felt I wanted to capture something different from this sumptuous place. The evening light was fading and the air was cool and the pilgrims and admirers were snaking around the marble barefoot. Their shadows domino dark, their faces alight with expectation. The school parties were plentiful and playful. A party of school girls walked in from the main gate and in an instant of instamatic wonder, sadly no longer, they digitally imprinted the Taj. This building is still so wondrous.

We followed the flow, snaking round till finally we entered the mausoleum. This wonder of the world had not one electric bulb to its name and the intricacy of the marble and the translucence of the precious stones was flickered on and off with lights off mobiles and an occasional torch. It seemed astonishing but perhaps appropriate that this monument is not brought into the 21st century and that it remains as it is, in the light of everyone’s mind.