Interpreter of Maladies
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
The TAJ- as we saw it
The temperature was close to 40 and we were walking on hot marble. Torture, it might seem to be-but then, we were walking on the marble platform on which one of the seven wonders of the world rests-TAJ.
I have been to the TAJ when I was a kid; around 12 years back and this trip was accidentally planned because someone from the US office was visiting India and wanted me to accompany her to what most foreigners come to India to see-TAJ. I am not very much into sighseeing but TAJ has its own temptations that you cannot ignore. Maybe it comes from the fact that TAJ is the ultimate in grandness and makes one appear so diminutive that you begin to understand what humbleness is. Or the fact, that even if you have a heart of stone, it requires real guts to be able to ignore TAJ's power of love. The simple fact that TAJ is erected on the foundations of love, makes it so noble and complete. One could laugh away the story that a king built TAJ for the love of his wife but the truth is-TAJ reflects that love, even if you dont trust the story.
AGRA is still the same. Polluted, mismanaged, living on the leftovers that tourists coming to see TAJ leave behind, but pass AGRA, and you would see ruins scattered around the city; people basking in the aroma of the Mughal empire that is no more; a city that lives enveloped in the cocoon of time. TAJ arches over the city as the common theme that justifies the overwhelming nostalgia. The YAMUNA is no more; it dies ages back I guess. The Mathura refinery is threatening to break the borders and enter Agra; its smokes have already petrfied the TAJ; it has paled in complexion. But, still, AGRA, a li'l like LUCKNOW, has its own identity. Something, one might see missing in places like Bombay and Kanpur which are thronged with new structures and the city has come out of its past to accept the present. AGRA in contrast, lives and flourishes in its ancient past.
TAJ-I dont know how many visitors visit it every day but there are people, people and even more people in and around the TAJ courtyard. Some reason why Mayawati wanted the TAJ corridor to happen !!! The foreigners are numerous; clicking pictures, marvelling at the beautiful carvings of the masterpiece and wishing that their forefathers would have erected something similar back in their homelands. There is a big beehive of vendors, and the hive breaks open the time they see white skin around. They would charge 3 times the actual price for a set of pedestrian TAJ postcards and for trinkets that otherwise sell for pennies on the road. The police is inefficient and is more than happy to let TAJ manage its security by itself. There are signs not to click snaps inside the tomb or near the lake but nobody listens and nobody objects.
I wish TAJ improves, at least if there are so many people voting for it to get included in the seven wonders; I hope they also come forward to do something about the way it is managed. As I sign off, here's a snap of the massoleum. Adieu, TAJ !!
