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| My wife and the Taj - Romance in 2011 |
“The Taj Mahal rises
above the banks of the river like a solitary tear suspended on the cheek of
time,” wrote Rabindranath Tagore. The
amazing monument has stirred the imagination of many poets, novelists as well
as simple travellers like me. The very
image of the Taj conjures up a melange of feelings and fantasies in me. I have visited it twice and would love to
visit many more times if people like Sangeet
Som don’t bring it down before I go down.
I have no great regard for Shahjahan. He appears as a villain
in one
of my stories. His wife, Mumtaz
Mahal, for whom the white marble monument was constructed, was not monumentally
great either. But the Taj Mahal – that’s
a marvel, a poem, a romance, a dream, a fantasy. No, Sangeet Som, I can’t agree an iota with you. You are a rioter and hence cannot appreciate
poetry and romance. Your heart is filled
with black hatred. I feel sorry for you.
Around the time the Taj
was constructed on the bank of the Yamuna, Sir Christopher Wren created a
similar wonder on Ludgate Hill in London: St Paul’s Cathedral. I don’t think I will ever be rich enough to
visit that architectural marvel, much as I would love to. It is not any religious impulse that draws me
to St Paul’s. The Cathedral has other
charms for me like the Taj Mahal. It is
a symbol of sophistication, an affluence of an elevated sort that I would love
to feel and admire.
When Shahjahan and
Christopher Wren were presiding over the construction of their respective architectural
marvels, another genius was writing a monumental work which would revolutionise
science soon: Isaac Newton’s Principia
Mathematica. [This too became a
subject of one of my short stories: Halley’s
Fishes.] While Christopher Wren
found a match in India in the person of Shahjahan, Isaac Newton failed to do
so.
Years have passed. Shahjahan and Mumtaz merged into the dust of
the earth. But the Taj stands reminding
us about the immortality of romance. If
people like Sangeet Som succeed in razing it to dust, it will be because Sir
Isaac Newton failed to find his counterpart in India.
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| How long will the Yamuna continue to carry the shadow of the Taj? |
Tomichan ji...Perhaps Shajahan in you compelled you to write it.Politics temporary.Beauty endures.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Murthy ji, there is a romantic in me that has survived all the travails of life. :)
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Taj Mahal in Agra in such imposing and elegant structure full of complexities that one must borrow Gargantua’s mouth to describe About Taj Mahal salient features.About Taj MahalThis epitome of Mughal architecture is a world Heritage site and considered as one among the new 7 wonders of the World. Set amidst the sprawling lush green gardens it has been the fountain sprit for other architectural marvels.
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