The Taj and the simple life
The Taj Mahal is probably one of the most romantic places I have ever visited. The first impression once you climb the two or three steps before you get a full view of the Taj was: ‘seems smaller than I expected’. Only after you spend 1 or 2 hours visiting and breathing the atmosphere of the place one can feel the grandiosity and deepness of this place. The Taj is love transformed into a building. The white reflection of the marble, the little pink, green and blue flowers singing spring, the greenness surrounding the mausoleum…it is love in the form of architecture.
I visited in company of Marko, a Croatian God who illuminated the day from the beginning (6am) till my return to Delhi (7pm). Marko was queuing to get train tickets, there was a long, long line and I decided to approach him: ‘Are you going to the Taj?’, ‘Yes’, ‘Can you get my ticket please?’, ‘Yes’. I had found a day traveler companion. Marko has only one goal in life ‘to be happy’. He is not shy in confessing that. His work as a lawyer for the Croatian state takes a little part of his brain, he told me, most of his head wants to be doing what he likes doing: traveling, studying philosophy, meeting people and practicing sports. Can life be as easier as Marko wants it to be? Can you fully live each moment? Do we make simple things complicated?
The Taj and the Agra Fort were fascinating. Agra per se was not. I would have thought that one of the most popular places in India would have developed a limited ‘service culture’. I am afraid though ‘service culture’ in touristy places many times means a McDonalds, a KFC and fee-paying automatic dirty bathrooms.
I had an ‘aha’ moment in the Taj with the manual mowing. It was beautiful to stare at the gardens surrounding the area…however once I noticed the amount of labor workers, read women, cutting the grass manually, without any other tool than their hands…I wished the surroundings were jungle.
I visited in company of Marko, a Croatian God who illuminated the day from the beginning (6am) till my return to Delhi (7pm). Marko was queuing to get train tickets, there was a long, long line and I decided to approach him: ‘Are you going to the Taj?’, ‘Yes’, ‘Can you get my ticket please?’, ‘Yes’. I had found a day traveler companion. Marko has only one goal in life ‘to be happy’. He is not shy in confessing that. His work as a lawyer for the Croatian state takes a little part of his brain, he told me, most of his head wants to be doing what he likes doing: traveling, studying philosophy, meeting people and practicing sports. Can life be as easier as Marko wants it to be? Can you fully live each moment? Do we make simple things complicated?
The Taj and the Agra Fort were fascinating. Agra per se was not. I would have thought that one of the most popular places in India would have developed a limited ‘service culture’. I am afraid though ‘service culture’ in touristy places many times means a McDonalds, a KFC and fee-paying automatic dirty bathrooms.
I had an ‘aha’ moment in the Taj with the manual mowing. It was beautiful to stare at the gardens surrounding the area…however once I noticed the amount of labor workers, read women, cutting the grass manually, without any other tool than their hands…I wished the surroundings were jungle.
Comments