Oh Taj!

I don8217;t complain that they tripped on the exact age of the monument. Historians, including some paid pipers of the badshah, gave different dates of its construction. It is the lacklustre celebrations that cause pain.

The Taj is not just a king8217;s fancy. It8217;s a nation8217;s pride, love8217;s ultimate tribute. It8217;s poetry in stone. Poet Shakeel Badayuni8217;s line has entered our psyche: 8220;Ek shehenshah ne banakar haseen Taj Mahal/Duniya ko mohabbat ki nishaani di hai By building the beautiful Taj Mahal/A king has left a symbol of love for the world. Mark Shakeel8217;s description: he uses the word duniya, not India, emphasising the Taj8217;s global appeal.

I still remember an afternoon I spent in the late 1980s, soaking in the sight of the monument on the banks of the Yamuna. Accompanying my father, I entered the Taj complex just after its gates opened in the morning. For hours I wandered around it, forgetting hunger and thirst.

A guide wanted to show me around. Brushing him aside, like a romantic who doesn8217;t want to be shaken off his reverie, I gazed at the glazed domes, the minarets. As I neared the two graves, embalmed in embroidered precious stones, I felt I heard the whispers of the two royal lovers. I wanted to shout and thank Shah Jehan. But decency and decorum demanded I stay calm.

I disagreed then, and do so now, with Sahir Ludhianvi who memorably lamented: 8220;Ek shehenshah ne daulat ka sahara lekar/Udaya hai hum garibon ki mohabbat ka mazaaq8217;8217; A king by dint of his wealth/Has pooh-poohed the poor man8217;s love. A quintessential communist, Sahir found exploitation of the poor in the Taj. For him, it was a symbol of wealth and waste. But Sahir forgot that even the poor need dreams. The Taj fires a hundred dreams.

My father took me to the Taj. Now I want to take my daughter there. Will she also feel the way I felt when I first saw it?