My Rendezvous with Shajahan’s Taj Mahal – Symbol of Love

What do you feel looking at it for the first time?

I remember I was in 6th standard when I saw the Taj Mahal for the first time, I accept it was a long years back in my life, but the memories of seeing such a beautiful architecture was fascinating and still vivid in my memory.

Before, I personally visiting this place the first memory of this place was seeing it in a beautiful crafted movie by the one of the finest directors of Tamil cinema, Mani Ratnam’s movie, ‘Mouna Ragam’.

The story of a girl who comes to New Delhi, married to a guy whom she did not want to share his life, but visits the Taj Mahal along with him and her interests in life starts changing...such is the Power Of Love.

Now on my real journey to this place was unexpected. My parents, my sister and a close friend of ours went on a tour to Delhi and Agra in the summer holidays. We were excited about the days of journey and those long stays and the different places and the culture along with them. It was an exciting trip, never to be forgotten.

We were in New Delhi viewing all the historical places and when we discussed about the Taj Mahal, it was decided that we had to miss the place due to the distance and lack of time. We had made up our mind and decided sometime later in life will certainly come to visit the Taj.

Maybe, when I get married with my husband on a full moon night, is when the Taj is exquisetively beautiful, reflecting the moon light….[This piece of information I got after I came of age and people talked about love and marriage synonymously and after I had also explained about what I did in my holidays in our School Composition.]

I am fascinated by the historical places and the hidden treasures of the kingly states and the wonderful life, those human beings had. I used to sometimes wonder myself as a Sultan’s daughter and dream myself in the lap of luxury and the exotic buildings and gardens.

Wow! What a life they had…Especially seeing the forts of Delhi, Agra, and the house of the kingdom of Akbar, the Fatehpur Shikari… I had really fallen in love with this countrymen and their life.

We started to our journey to Fathefur Shikari and finished watching the Buland Darwaza - the Watch Tower of Akbar and his kings’ men. What a fabulous palace…that is why it was his Winter Palace.

But, we had sometime left and the taxi driver said you have come so far, so not to miss the Taj Mahal and see it. You might not get another chance and he promised us to take us very quickly to that place and giving us ample time to look around.

That’s it, we said, “Shenshah, hum aa rahe hain, tumhare Taj ko dekhne [Shahjahan, we are coming to see your Taj]!” in a classic historical way, like a king would have declared his statement to his folk.

Then, we set on the journey to the Taj Mahal; I was not feeling well on that day some disturbance in the health happens when you travel, so it was the usual. We hired a taxi to go to Agra from there and during the journey, I wanted to get back to the hotel and take some infinite rest, but keeping company with the people on travel, I spelt most of the journey in the car to Agra sleeping and when I finally woke up I was just in front of the beautiful white building…The Taj.

I just got out of the car and was looking at the Taj with my mouth wide open and a whistle out of my breathlessness. What a huge structured building, what craftsmen…??!!!

We hired a guide to tell us or explain us the magnificent building, a little bit of history, a little bit of journey into that world that was gone-by, that exotic was it all.

We listened to him so excited and nodding at his explanations and acknowledging the guys description with the passing outside structure of the building. It was a great architectural feat from outside.

When we moved in, he said, we are going to see the tombs of Shajahan and Mumtaz Mahal, as it is still believed today that they were laid here after they passed away from this material world.

For a moment I stood froze, Can it be real? If it is, then he must be awake in night to talk to his wife and they might take a tour in the night and spend sometime together.

I could visualize them, walking hand-in-hand and he explaining the beauty of this place and how it matches with her beauty [Mumtaz Mahal is said to be the most beautiful one and Shajahan being head-over-heels in love, that made his long and build this place for her, before she took leave of him from this world and promised to stay with him in the memory of the building.]

It was a promise of a Man to his Lady Love, who was ailing and did whatever that, could please her into a peaceful death, at the least, when he could not strive to save her. It is a great feeling of being loved beyond your existence!!!

The tomb inside another masterpiece in itself…It was wonderfully done. It had a structure crisscrossed walls with holes in-between and it looked like a pattern to let light, and wind pass through and not let the beauty suffer from suffocation.

The passage of light through the small gaps in-between made wonderful patterns on the tomb and the floor and it looked like any moment, Mumtaz might get up and dance heartily in the light and express her love for her husband beside her.

The whole place wasn’t like two dead tombs, it was so much with live and that place looked like a peak into the private bedroom of the King and the Rani. The place was so lively and with so much of air, chillness, light and the warmth.

I looked around I saw people praying to them to give them the strength to carry on their love, some bowed heads, some discussing the building, some silently walking around the tomb, some just not understanding what it is, some just passing by, some busy in their love interests, some kids running around, who did not understand LOVE.

It was a mixed feeling for me…not sure if I will feel the same. But the memory of that place is too much in my mind that I can’t give up this place for many centuries to come, as well.

For some it is a representation of Love and for some it is a Monument, for some it is an Architectural Building for some it is History, today people have gone to describe this place as a Graveyard of the two most important people of History and the Dynasty that ruled India several years back.

Whatever it is, for me it stands as a memory of the King who built an Architectural feat for his loveable wife, as a token and then, he let her sleep there. Even if he could not make her live in it.

He lies beside her in a tomb and I sure he would have lived those days thinking about her and talking to her about the beauty of the architecture and the its structure that he did built to stand across time and tide and people visiting them from all over the world just to feel the power of love.

Shajahan, built it for whatever reason, better know to him, but history tells us something from the building. It was the love for architecture, fine buildings, finest craftsman, finest workmanship, and fine gentlemen lived in centuries ago, leaving us to wonder what we can achieve.

We feel so small in front of it in size and nature…I could not stop wondering the dedication and pain of the people who did see the building being erected and standing for centuries. We are trying to save it from hazards, coz we can’t build one such…

What more small can we feel…Let us not fall in love, let us rise and be with pride that Indian Heritage is not a matter of disintegration, but to live it across time and tide.

Have you noticed a pattern in life??!!

In my times of confusion and helplessness, I always wondered there must be something more to do. I always wondered am I missing an important sign that my mind along with my logical brain tries to comprehend the situations. This kind of situation puts me into a lot of introspection as to what, why and how?

I have lived in various places right from childhood and every time I settle at a place I will be or am asked to leave and start again. I used to always think, why me? This also reasons to make my quest to the answers, I sought in my interrogations.

On one such interrogations, I started noticing a pattern in the way people gets displaced from one place to another and the earth retains its balance of holding the right amount of weight at a certain place at a given point of time on its surface, maybe who knows???!!!

I sound idiotic, right!? Yes exactly, what I thought at the first instance it struck me. Let me unfold my theories or substances to the aspect in discussion.

Have you ever wondered, when you are quietly seated in the comforts of your room, office, house, lobby, coffee shop in any part of the city, be it in your homeland or be in your foreign location, there is activity in that city’s railways, airways, seaways, and roadways.

Yes, the transportation of the life is very much active. Be it every single day or 365 day, round the season, round the year and in fact year after year. People transport from one place to another and there is a constant rotation of people on earth. Why does this happen? Why should people travel? Why people move from one place to another? Why don’t they all sit at peace, like I am sitting? I say this because I don’t want to travel now; I have no inclination and neither the necessity.

Another interesting piece of news or weird information is flights or aircrafts are not supposed to dock in an airport for more than an hour or otherwise the airlines have to pay heavy fee for docking the aircraft in that particular airport. So, the planes keep flying between destinations hour after hour….non-stop. [Have you heard of a port for the civilian aircrafts?!]

But across the globe and across your own country there is some people who have the necessity and the reason to travel, just like you did on your holiday, your vacation, your meeting, your sorrowful journey or happy journey, anything. If there is a necessity it comes unannounced to you and you have to travel.

Have you ever noticed this? Whenever you want to book a ticket for your unplanned and immediate travel, you don’t get tickets? You get a waiting list ticket, you crib that why do people always travel at the same instant you want to travel….but the real truth is, an unplanned travel equates with a planned travel a vacation or a yatra or another unplanned travel, it can be anything. You are never sure…..

So, now I got your attention, let me tell you further…there is a constant journey of some soul in some part of the village, city, or country. Now, to find an answer to the most important question? Why does travel happen? Not sure right, but it does happen and it brings a cause with itself to substantiate the visit.

These questions in my mind set my thinking and I started watching closely this pattern of travel. I have been moving from cities as I have already confessed, I always found someone replacing me in the vacant place, I leave.

That is confusing, isn’t it? The explanation will be. Suppose a person from a city named A, leaves with his belongings to a city named B, there is somebody displaced from the city B either on the day you arrive there or there is vacant place you fill in. This vacant place sometimes is a vacuum that you fill in… (Hope, you understand!!!???)

The pattern of filling a vacuum is even stranger. Where should I start? OK. I will start with the pattern of death and birth. I noticed it in my family. There is an equal and opposite reaction to this pattern. Whenever there is a demise that happens, it is quickly filled in with a birth somewhere in the city. I have noticed this in families. Sometimes, it happens in the closer circle of relations.

This pattern is also evident in a city, street, locality and in the community we live. A village is a small representation of a big city, let me start there. A village has lanes and streets that follow certain address, similar to the office locations in a city. Being smaller in number, the people live there in communities and they are evident to every other person and their respective family members. They know, when a death happens, when a birth happens, the pattern goes on….Street 1, there was a death, and Street 2 there is a birth and vice versa…

The other kind of pattern happens whenever you leave a place and start living in a different city. I started closely watching this kind of pattern and I could always correlate some kind of shifting either in my family circle or in my friends circle.

Another, example that confirmed the pattern was when I closely saw this relativity happen. I am at present working in Hyderabad and did not intend to come to Hyderabad on all accounts and never had the slightest inclination to leave Madras (Chennai) ever.

I came here to work in an office on deputation and just came there to finish off the work and leave the city as soon as possible but as days rolled into weeks and weeks into months…I found it difficult to leave this place due to work and eventually after a few months, I decide to make it my city.

There were a few people who were transferred here to a certain project where I was working, with all their belonging they had moved in and I saw them returning and I who not intentions of being here, had to stay back with my belongings. [Was that a sign of pattern??!!]

Then, when I found out one of my friend moving in here to Hyderabad along with his belongings and his family, I wondered who is going to be displaced from Hyderabad. I heard a couple of my friends, like this are shifting out of Madras, this month-end and I again see the pattern unfolding. It is time for me to displace myself from here… [Looks like the pattern works!!!!]
Did I make sense? Do I look insane? No, I just wanted to say there is certainly a pattern and it is very alive, like you and me.

Till then with sanity, asking you to look out for such patterns in life.

Men folk Read and Women folk Think!!!!

I was in the auto waiting for the signal to change so that this huge bus behind the auto moves forward and I reach the destination in the appointed time.

The wait was killing me and I was feeling annoyed that I had to fruitlessly wait on this auto on this junction of road wondering and calculating every second of the time amongst the blaring horns and smokes from the carburetor depositing on my skin, face. The exhaust fumes irritating me and literally choking me out of breath.

I just started wandering around and started looking at the array of vehicles around my auto, the pilled cars, public buses; the motorcycles. Wow! I got lost in the crowd of colors and engines, what machines and what range of brands.

Leave alone the four wheelers, the motorcycles weren’t behind, just a glimpse will tell you that they were themselves in various shapes, sizes and colors. The motorcycles had the most wonderful and intricate companions on it. They motorcycles were colorful to compliment the colorful couples as well.

When you are awed by one aspect or by another aspect where do you concentrate, Yaar! Tooo… Hard I tried not to gape at them, and turned my head but my eyes did not seem to listen to me, every time I turned to look at them I was acting weird, either I was trying to hold my dupatta which did not fly in the wind or outside the auto, but being conscious as I am, turned towards the side to look whether it flew in the wind.

I was trying clutching my hair that wasn’t waving in the air or I was trying to get some air, waving my fingers against my face to flush in some air…. What not?! Every time I did this small gesture of mine, I got an array of events registered in my mind, such as a perfect picture in a camera.

I watched closely sitting dames, clutching the mid-rib of the guy who is driving, I saw a dame saying some sweet nothings into the ears of the guy, I saw some dame and guy playing with the dames fingers that held his thigh, I saw a dame almost over him, she was flat on his back as if from a distance it looked the two persons were merged into ‘One Soul and One Body’…How divine!!!

Hmm….What a romantic day and perfect location, I thought looking at these guys and girls. Hot sun, sticky weather, the dusty sand winds, the exhaust of the vehicles, the blaring sound of the horns, the spitting auto drivers, the loud talking motorcyclists, the loud stereos system of the auto’s…Oh! What else you require, perfect picturesque!!!

Suddenly in my mind a thought struck, I wondered whether these guys felt the discomfort of their girls sitting so close and in that sticky weather and the tension of the driving, the stupid horns blaring …did they feel the discomfort of all these?

Agreed, the pleasure of being in love is all divine and so heavenly that every moment of it is cherished. But, the constant nag of these things in life did it bother them too….??!!

Do they feel like saying, “Arey, hat na yaar, thoda hawa anethey” or do they think “Oh! God let the traffic clear; I will drop her off and then take a breath of aram.” Or “My back, is hurting, does she understand that? Why, doesn’t she understand things, I put my hands on her she says after sometime, It is heavy, please. But she is almost lying on my back for about thirty minutes and what am I, Huh!?”

Not sure what these guys think and I feel these girls should also not hinder them like this. Anyways, being loved and being in love is an elate feeling and it is certainly not for exhibition at the least and not for look at my love types…

It is great felling that runs deep into your nerves and keeps you excited always but it is certainly not at the cost of the loved ones.

All these actions are good in cinema, because the road is cleared for shooting and most of the times in cinema the bike just stands in one location and it looks as if the guy is riding the bike and the romantic scene goes on…..but in real life the traffic is so much and thanks to all the senseless driving that happens it is really a tough time for even an aced driver or motorcyclist to drive home safe, almost like an absolute art of navigation.

When conditions are thus I guess, having a girl behind - be it a girlfriend, hanging out partner, wife or whatever the relation is …the guy is more responsible at that time to take not only her safe home but also him, so that he continues the chauffer ride.

I pity these guys, they do so much for these girls and still the women folk consider the men, irresponsible, not sensitive, not romantic, not up to expectations, and what not.
Do the men folk enjoy all these or they just bear it or like some say it is a nice feeling to have a female close to you??

Somebody get into the other side of men and tell me what do they think??!!!

PS: This post is just an extension of my thinking mind.

Save Sita, Breach in Ashoka Vanam!!!

Yesterday, I was in my hostel and I was browsing on my laptop and my friend who shares my room was also awake and giving me company. She was hooked on to her laptop and I was on mine and the time was about 11.00 pm.

We were discussing various things along with the laptops up and running. We discussed things like, company, work, life, family, girls, boys, television…anything. You know, girls can talk on anything and everything, so we were discussing amongst us and with the windows of the world open in front of us.

Suddenly we felt a knock on our room door; we knew for certain that some girls were watching television which was placed in the hall of our hostel. But the hour and the conversation kept us so much concentrated in our duty that are talking and we almost missed the silence in the corridors and the television shut down.

So now, just the sound of knock and then the silence around us, frightened and we tried to act brave and go ahead and open the door.

One of my room mates was already in the 7th heaven fast asleep as a dead log and nothing could wake her up…we tried not to panic and bringing up courage I got from my bed and walked to the door and holding my breadth, opened the door….slowly.

I could see some silhouette through the corner of my eye, a figure standing right in the front…through the gap of the door, I had opened. Not sure, who it is….I felt somebody pushing from the other side, and then the pressure….Hmm.

It was one of my hostel mates standing on one leg and screaming in words know only to her….some...Ah!! Oh! Oomph’s… I wondered what happened to her. I found a hostel mate standing on the chair of the dining table…I was just looking at the sight trying to gauge the condition and wondered what happened.

Just then I found something black crawling at a quicker pace then the bat of an eyelid and then there was a shriek again… Someone screamed - there it is …! There it is…!!! It is getting into your room, Kavitha!!!!

That’s it, I found the next chair dutifully occupied by me….Instantly, I did not know how I reached the chair or the table, and I was dutifully standing on the chair.

And Lo! It had passed quickly into my room and went under the godrej cupboard which was very much next to my bed. I was calling for my awake friend and said, ‘Hey there is the rat in our [still standing on the chair] and that’s it…I had just uttered rat and haven’t completed my sentence, I heard my friend’s shriek and I found her standing on her bed.

The rat had tried to leave my cupboard and went in search of my friend who was on her bed…and hid below her cupboard and there were some suitcases stacked in one corner of the room…we could not do anything. She was standing there and I was standing here and we all almost stood like that for sometime wondering what to do!!!

Then, I decided enough is enough I am going to hunt down the rat and put on my invisible armors and went on to the battlefield I said, “It is me or the rat tonight!!!”

Seeing my valor, the friend who was on the bed suggested throwing our slippers under the gap between the cupboard and the floor of the room that the rat ran into, to drive it out. What a Brilliant, idea! We joined to drive it away. All the aids of ours became a weapon against our little enemy.

Our enemy was a small rat that had been feeding on our hostel food I guess and it almost double the size of a big ant. But we were frightened by its sight, that we were definite to hunt it down and make a fry out of it... [I wasn’t thinking of feeding it to some of my friends, who said I can eat any Non-Veg].

It was freighted by our shrieks and we were frightened by its hazy and quick simmering through the room [Nobody, knew which of us was more frightened! Phew!]

We were on with our hunt and we tried to wake it out of the room and in vain. It ran hitter and titter but not out of the room…all this was happening and there was a loud banging noise and rolling of things, things falling from the cupboard tops, the rattling of the suitcases, the heavy shrieks of ours whenever it ran in our sight, the banging of the doors, the shouts of the other inmates, It is here, It is there….all much of a chaos, but in spite of all this our sweet roommate who was in the heaven was busy singing some romantic numbers with the lords up there or her dream boy[ not sure!!!] did not turn once in her bed, or bother to wake up and offer us her help.

We thought, WOW!! What a flawless incarnation of the Ravana’s brother Mr. Kumbakarna???!!! Now we had a mighty and legendary Ravana’s brother but in vain, we the Sita’s in Ashoka Vanam, had to fight the battle till we got our Hanuman, to save us from the present crisis.
Of course, our room is an Ashoka Vanam for us, for me and one of my room mate, who were living in solace with our dutiful husbands at our hometowns and we were fighting against these four legged creatures to keep us peace!!! What a piece of mythological story!!![I did not think of this till, I started writing about this episode. Will try to elaborate on this sometime]

Coming back to our hunt, we were also running hitter and titter and then I finally gave up, I thought a man’s hand would come handy and thus went in search of the watchman, I found him having his dinner right then, what a timing!!! [Had to wait for him to finish and then join the hunt]

So, there was help offered to us, and we tried to be calm with the surrounding and returned to our talking that centered on this little creature. What and how to get rid of it or how do we refrain it from getting into our room again….so we were on again.

Then what looked as a long time, the watchman entered our dinning room, I looked at him and thought, ‘What is he doing, without any weapons? How is he going to hunt down the rat? Does this man have sense?’ [In my mind, I thought maybe this man will fight the enemy with bare hands! Wah! What a man!]

But, then he came in asked us me in telugu, “Where is it?” I don’t understand a word of telugu but, I knew it had to be related to the rat. So, I showed him the place where it had hid from us. He just looked around and banged on the cupboard…I thought, my god, he is going to break the cupboard, instead of driving or killing the rat.

He then said something in telugu to my room mate, who is localite and thank heavens, she knows the language. He went out and got a broom and by the way he was walking with that in his hand, he looked like the “Arjuna, with his Bow and arrow…!”

He came in and put it into the space between the cupboard and the floor and did something that the frightened rat ran across the entire stretch of the room and hid again below my cupboard, I kept telling him it is there …here…there…here!!!

And then he walked from there and bent below the cupboard and knelt down to put the armor into the gap to drive the rat….and Lo! The rat ran across the stretch of the wall that held the cupboard and passed away by the front door.

Aapa!! What a tryst with the enemy. A battle well fought and the enemy is driven out! Immediately we had the laughter of victory and the Arjuna went in search of his prey….
We immediately closed our room door, no the tyranny wasn’t over yet…we saw a gap below our door which could not let one rat but an army of rats into the room. The gap was such big. We were in a fix what to do.

What! Will happen if the rat went and complained to its chieftain and there was an army of rats waiting to hunt us down…Oh! No, we don’t need Arjuna’s or legendary men, we needed the enchanting Pied Piper to take them away with him.

Now, it was almost 12.30 am where do we get the Pied Piper…leave alone a soul! Again the savior of the night, that is me, came up with a brilliant idea, quickly ran to the front door of the hostel and grabbed the jute sack that was lying there, I know, it is to wipe your feet when you enter the building, but I did not mind. I wanted it to protect us and I knew it would through the night protect us form our little enemy….

I neatly folded the sack into four folds in the breadth wise and spread it across the door and slid it into to the gap and Lo! It fitted perfectly into the gap and our Ashoka Vanam was saved from enemies of any sort, leave alone the rat, even Ravana could not get into the place in search of Sita, without making a racket or disguise!!! Well, need to check if that rat was in fact someone in disguise!!?? Might be can’t say!!!

How many of you saw the spectacle in the sky, Yesterday!!!!

This is a very much a meagre representation of what nature displayed to us yesterday.

Did you watch the sky yesterday?

The planets Venus and Jupiter had been seen clinging to the cresent of the Moon, yesterday on the sky to represent a beautiful smiley!!!

I wished badly I had a camera to capture it!!! Alas!!!


An Unexpected Event happens when least Expected!!!!