Monumental confusion

It is Incredible India8217;s proudest possession: a monument to love and immortality, an icon of instant recall, a tribute to the mortal search for immortal perfection. Yet the shabby manner in which the Taj Mahal8217;s 350th anniversary is being commemorated is enough to make Emperor Shah Jehan weep in his grave. Perhaps he should have decreed that no politician or bureaucrat should get within kissing distance of his beloved mausoleum on pain of instant elimination. Alas, there8217;s a limit to the foresight of even emperors.

Take this birthday hullabaloo. For starters, nobody was quite sure of the actual date when Ustad Ahmad Lahori8217;s grand project was finally signed, sealed and delivered. Was it 1643, the year claimed by Shah Jehan8217;s official chroniclers or 1647-48, as recorded on the Taj8217;s main gate? To make matters even more complicated there was French traveller, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, claiming that the Taj was built in 22 years, which could put the completion date somewhere around 1653. But what8217;s a year or two or even three or four in an era when history is like instant coffee 8212; you can stir up a cup any time. So let8217;s forget this silly obsession with dates and move on. The next big hurdle is who should anchor the show: New Delhi or Lucknow? So unedifying was the tug-of-war over the inaugural celebrations between the Government of India and the Uttar Pradesh sarkar, that poor President Kalam decided to stay away from the curtain-raiser organised by the Mulayam Singh Yadav government. And the Supreme Court was not cooperating either. It wanted to know 8212; not entirely unreasonably 8212; whether the organisers who wished to have the Taj as a magnificent backdrop to their cultural programmes had taken the trouble to get the necessary environmental and security clearances.

It is tragic that a monument that has come to symbolise the nation is now the focus of unending squabbles and displays of oneupmanship. The other day, New York city showed the world how united it was in commemorating the tragedy of September 11 in a simple ceremony that also had the night skies being lit up by two pillars of light. When will we ever learn?