Ah, Taj!

October Six Word Photo Story Challenge: “Site or Sight”

Pages of history, lost in time

When most people think of India, they think of the Taj Mahal. It’s not unusual to have grown up in India, like I did, and have never visited it all your life, especially if you live in South India.

I did see the Taj Mahal once in later life. I was in my 30s then and had just been fired from my job. I decided to channel the loss of confidence I was feeling into something new. Until this time, I had never had a long stretch of time when I was not working or studying. I planned to use the break to see India for the first time. I believed a job would follow later, which it did.

One of the things I did see in India during that break was the Taj Mahal. It was a cold winter’s day in November, and we arrived at the Taj early to beat the crowds. I will never forget the image of the Taj, rising from the mist, a symbol lost in time.

Sight or site?

In the quietness of the morning, I contemplated the story behind the Taj for a moment. Emperor Shah Jahan’s deep feeling of loss after the death of his wife Mumtaz inspired this tomb as a symbol of his love for her. Like me, he had been rechanneling his feeling of loss, too. The misty morning lent itself easily to reflections on a great forgotten old love story.