Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal. I immediately recognise it's shape and colour. Whenever there is a picture of any image related, my 9 year old son quickly points and calls out, "look mama, Taj Mahal in India!" Yes. I get excited about it too. Because why not! It is an amazing place in India that emanates light, love and glory. This big marble has a history that we all know because it is romantic and full of kingly weakness towards feelings that we all want and crave in our lives. Shah Jahan, this powerful Mughal emperor was so much in love with his second wife, the beautiful Mumtaz Mahal from Persia. She was 19 when they married. And the story goes that he loved and trusted her so much that he allowed her to be his adviser and his confidant in all decisions. So no wonder that when she died at childbirth with their 14th child, a daughter, Gauhara Begum, he crumbled with grief and promised to lay her in peace in one of the most majestic, the most beautiful resting place in the wold. Hence, today we can visit Taj Mahal (1653) in Agra. It has been protected under the status of UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Every year there are 8 million people coming to visit Mumtaz. There is a nice bench right by her grave where you can sit and contemplate your relationships and your love. How far would you go in the name of your feelings...But you have to be really good at blocking out crowds of people and their voices if you want to fall into a deep meditation. Outside in the garden there are hundreds of people, talking, posing or taking pictures. Then, there are monkeys that can chase you majestically at any moment, there are incredibly colourful parrots sitting in the trees.

So there is a lot to see and experience. But if you look outside of the box you see this. Just outside of  Taj Mahal India happens. A normal, everyday life happens all around it with no fuss, no cameras. A lot of tourists don't get to see this since their buses pull over just at the entrance to the Taj, so they don't even see the ticket booth!

I have to say we accidentally stumbled onto this place just across the Yamuna river. There are a lot of people there who come not to view the monument  or to take pictures, although there are some romantics there as well, but local people who go about their regular daily chores. In this painting there are two women who were part of a bigger group of people who came here to feed their goats. We even passed a girl maybe 9-10 years old who was holding a little baby goat. Her mom or grand-mom walked in front of her carrying big metal jar on her head. I am thinking, she just finished washing dishes in the river.

In my painting, there should be one more women with them but for the purposes of an arrangement I omitted her. She carried a big pile of sticks to make fire in the kitchen. I admit now that I look at the painting and I think it would be nice to have her there, too. Please notice, there is a gate to the river but not much of a fence left. I liked that paradox.  If you don't have eyes to see you will try to open the gate as opposed to just go around it freely!

I almost didn't get to see Taj Mahal. I seriously got sick. This was a beginning of something much bigger that we all suspected. I got e-coli and it wasn't detected until I came back to Canada three weeks after. But going back to Taj, thanks to some very sincere and kind people in Agra who brought me medication and some home made cure, i was able to experience and see this amazing city. I remember one man saw me sitting at a table in a restaurant. He came up to me because he was concerned I didn't look happy and healthy. So he brought some home remedies from the restaurant's kitchen for me to take. I got little breaks in between hotel stays so I was able to see the one and only, Taj Mahal. In conclusion it all ended well;) And here is my painting to prove it!