she paints; she is a painter

A once in a lifetime experience is to witness the glory of the Taj Mahal !

As seen in this photo posted by Deepa Krishnan on her wonderful website: Mumbai Magic, to her Facebook page, this is the image I expected to see since grade 6 when I lovingly drew the Taj Mahal as part of my social studies project on India, thus establishing the deep seeded longing I’ve had to visit this site. If you would like to see my actual view of the Taj when I got to Agra, Please read on:

Yes, at 8:00 am on a dismal, dreary, overcast and chilling Thursday morning on January 30th, this is my view of the Taj Mahal. You can’t know how disappointed we were. The famous white marble beacon was not, as the guide-book promised, “drawing tourists like moths to a wondrous flame.”

We specifically arrived early so we could experience the buildings and grounds without masses of tourists.

From the outset, there was an unexplainable  feeling of disorientation. From the entry gate one could barely make out the shape of the buildings. And, when I turned back to see the entry gate I was aware of many, many small-ish, local men wearing toques and wrapped in shawls and blankets.  This was  a very strange sight. There were so many of them that they seemed to fill the grounds like a reverse funnel! They moved so quickly that they advanced to the main mausoleum before our group of 24. While they were moving forward, they turned frequently to stare at us and even took our pictures. I started to feel quite uneasy.

What we found out later was that these hundreds of men had been bused in from the country villages with the promise of a free meal and a visit to the Taj in exchange for their attending a support rally for a political candidate from Agra! They might not have ever been to close to North Americans in their lives. So we were as exotic to them as they were to us!  …  And, that was my experience at the Taj Mahal!