It's beautiful...it's white...it could have easily modelled for Ujala or surf excel...err sorry for ruining it for the romantics;and like they say, the Taj is poetry on marble. Shah Jahan or his architect, perhaps understood this truth I guess; If you want to make a statement; make it in white! :D
I had always heard about the Taj as a kid and thinking that it is one of the few things that put us Indians on the global map added to the excitement. So when we first moved to Delhi when I was in th fourth std., one of the first things I asked my father was that if he'd take me to the Taj. Being the doting dad that he is, he took me not just once but twice. But then.....!
The first time that I went there, it was a real cold winter day, I was yet to adjust to that kind of cold and my mother had promptly wrapped me up in layers of warm clothes leaving just enough space to breathe and watch where I stepped! So much for seeing the Taj. I thought it was too much of a disturbance. God knows I could have easily passed for a sheep if only that fluffy sweater wasn't pink! I didn't feel very special about the much anticipated visit to the Taj; my mind was pre-occupied. I chose to blame it on the cold winter. So my father decided to take me during the summer hols...uh-oh!
Now cut to a hot summer day in Agra...scorching heat and add to it the fact we had driven all the way from Delhi stopping on the way at Mathura...er temple is not the best place to hang out for a kid. I was not one of those kids who'd take well to driving any day either, let alone on a hot summer day. So finally I landed in Agra. When I stepped out of the vehicle I could hardly feel my feet beneath me and had this funny feeling in my stomach. I mistook it for excitement! Yikes!
And began the long tumultuous walk towards the monument. The uneasy feeling grew with every step that I took. We had my aunt's family that was visiting us for the summer. My cousins and sister were all happy and well, but I somehow couldn't join them. We finally reached the Taj. And after visiting the enclosure on the top, we started to move towards the steps that lead downstairs to the graves. Now I started really fretting! The crowd was nothing like I had ever seen in my entire lifetime, and the way it disappeared down the stairs somehow convinced me that it was either a whirlpool down there or some kind of a monster sitting in the dark gobbling up people! Very hesitantly I began to climb down the stairs (in fact, I did not want to go, but I was swept away by the crowd). In minutes I could no longer see my mother and father, they were probably down there already, but I couldn't have thought of that in the state of mind that I was in. Add to it all that congestion that would make Chennai's Renganathan street look like heaven! And the horrible smell of travel wiery souls who did not care for a bath on a hot day...one more step down and I could breathe no more...I knew it; the monster'd got me good!...Run!!!!...I turned and with almost superhuman strength ran against the crowd on to the top of the stairs, the sudden burst of air and that relief trigerred a reaction so unexpected that it even left me gaping at what I had done...I retched! eeeeessssshhhh!...You read it...I retched...puked...threw up...call it whatever you want!
And not just anywhere....in the Taj!
Great balls of fire...Couldn't I pick a better place (the yamuna behind the monument could have been an ideal place!) The crowd didn't seem to bother, they just continued to move on...the man who stood on top with the lathi glowered down on me...'Kiske saath aayi ho'
You don't talk to scared little girls like that man!...But all I could mumble out was a feeble whimpering 'Mummy!'
He said in a voice that could have had me wailing right there had I not been too scared to do it, 'Go get her'.
I nodded and fled from the scene and got outside under the sun to one corner of the corridor; where my uncle caught hold of me 'Where have you been' and noticing my face 'Have you been crying?'
eeek! Wrong statement! And all that pent up emotions exploded right there...'Maaaaaaaammmmyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!....Maaaaa-aaa-aa-aaamyyyyy!!!!!'
My helpless uncle walked the wailing nuisance that I had become straight to my mom and once she managed to calm me down back in the car, she asked me how I got lost. I very innocently narrated the whole account and said 'That lathiwala asked me to get you...come we'll go back'...but that sentence was drowned in the loud roars of laughter from everyone else in the vehicle...'You did WHAT in the Taj?????' I couldn't believe I had become the butt of ridicule...I turned, buried my face in my mother's lap and continued with my wailing...'Maaaaaaa-aaaaa-aaaaaa-mmmmyyyyyyy!!!!!!'
Anyway, thinking of it later in my life only made me laugh uncontrollably!...And half the people I told this incident to didn't believe me!...So much for the monument all Lovers worship! (I am not someone who is very much at ease with the matters of the heart...too tricky, guess that's why I simply didn't fit in that kind of a shrine!)

Posted by Sat at 12:02 AM
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