The majestic Taj Mahal
There were few Westerners at the Taj. It was crowded with people from India. Many people asked to take our photo or to have a photo taken with us: families, young guys, teenage girls.
We had fun doing that, and our 75 minutes at the Taj did not seem like enough time.
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| Our Taj threesome: with Glenn and Nisaa. An old gardener/guard became our photographer, taking us all over the grounds for the best photos and shooing others away. |
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The story of the Taj Mahal is that it was built for the third wife of a Mughal prince, married at 21 and stayed loyally by his side in the luxurious royal palaces of Agra as well as the transient tents of war camps. In 1628, Prince Khurram became king after a bloody battle of succession and took the name Shahjahan or “King of the World” and showered his beloved begum with the highest titles. But she was not destined to be queen for long: in 1631, on an expedition to the south with her husband, she died giving birth to her 14th child at 39 years old. The king and royal court went into mourning for two years with no music, no feasting, and no celebration of any kind until the King decided to erect a memorial to his queen in pristine marble that the world would never forget.