Monday, January 09, 2006

The Taj Mahal

I had been to the Taj Mahal when I was in Delhi during Christmas time. The plan then was to leave Gurgoan as early as possible to beat the traffic. However it depended on the fog and visibility. We were off by around 7. Sonali had packed some Christmas goodies made by our mom and Nikhil's mom. Nikhil's mom also makes some real good coffee liqueur which I had the previous day. The drive took us a little more than 3 hours and finally we reached Agra Fort. You are able to view the Taj in the distance from the fort. I took out a snap through the binoculars :-) After a bit of site seeing we decided to proceed to the real thing.

Mobile phones are not allowed inside the Taj Mahal so we had to deposit it at a counter nearby. However ppl had lost the concept of following a queue and then there was a lot of shoving and pushing. There was just one door to enter and exit. The people that were inside couldn't get out and more people were trying to get in. Somehow Nikhil managed to get in and get the job done.

We then moved towards the entrance. I thought it would be this real awesome aaahhhaaaa experience, but I guess I had set my expectations too high. I mean its beautiful and stuff but I guess with the precious gems and the moonlight it would look awesome. Or maybe its cause there were so many people around. I then went to one corner and sat alone and looked at it and it started to look more beautiful. I guess once I read more of the history on it, I would look at it in a different light. Something like when its past is superimposed on its current beauty it would give it this rare combination of awe. However I am still trying to figure out why its like the 7th wonder of the world... there must be something to it that I'm not able to see :-) Thats why the plausible explanations....

I guess you always have to look a bit deeper to experience the true beauty of things, be it one of the wonders of the world or normal things around you or even normal people for that matter. I think its the same with songs, poetry, art. Read this somewhere sometime, where this artist says that the painting is no longer his. It belongs to the person who sees it cause people can view it in different ways and the thoughts/feelings/interpretation etc are theirs. His work is just a catalyst. And then there are times when you usually don't like something at first ... but after some time it tends to grow on you. And its usually the things that grow on you that last longer. Sometimes forever.

1 comment:

arati kadav said...

Hey You know thhat was exactly my feeling when I saw taj mahal..its good but wonder's of the world hmmm? probably it was tough to build something like that in that era or I don't know..it was a bit disappointing from inside too..afterall tis a tomb...
but i liked the last paragraph of your blog..nice thoughts there....