My impressions of Tajmahal

 

Yamuna from the backyards of Tajmahal

For years my mother kept on telling me “Visit the Tajmahal next time you are in Delhi”. She had herself never seen the Taj. But insisted that I should see the wonder at least once in my lifetime. I have been visiting Delhi almost every year but could never make it  to Agra. I was never too excited about the Taj .I always thought Taj was more a stark reminder of how vulnerable, subjugated  a woman’s life can be.

However this time when I got an opportunity to see the Taj I did not miss it. I am going to tell you about my first impressions of the Taj .

It is not easy to enter the monument. After getting down at the car park you will  be accosted by hordes of rickshaw pullers, camel drivers,cart puller , guides . At the gate you will be greeted by serpentine queues in front of the ticket counters and entry gates which are heavily manned by security guards. Once you are at the entry gate you will be frisked by heavyweight policewomen .There are separate entry gates for foreigners .

As I looked at the queues my first reaction was to walk away .Anyway by the time I crossed the security checking I was pretty irritated. I walked past the garden and the Taj was in front of  me. I stood looking at her for sometime. It was bright and sunny and the place was teeming with millions of tourists from all over the world. I had seen too many cheats and philanderes in my life to nurture any romantic notions about love or utopian  ideas about husband -wife relationships .I was never convinced with the theory of  a lovesick ShahJahan building a monument for his beloved. Well being a single woman I am not the best person to comment on such issues. Anyway the Taj appeared to me more as an example of a work of technical precision over and above everything else. Against the blue backdrop the monument stood snootily staring at us. The view of the Yamuna from the backyards of the Taj can revive memories of childhood lessons in history

I have not come across such global congregation of races , nationalities in any other tourist spot in India. In  Haridwar I always feel I am seeing a  microcosm of India. Here in front of the Taj I felt I was seeing a mini-world. I do not know if my impressions would have been different if I had seen Taj in my youth .At least now I can say  I  have seen one of the wonders of the world in this life.