For a Second, Time Stood Still

Agra, India

After paying the expensive entry-fee to view the famed Taj Mahal, anticipation suddenly set in. The temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the thousand islands of Ha Long Bay in Viet Nam and the understatedly beautiful Buddhist capital of Luang Prabang in Laos, all of which are also Unesco World Heritage sites, had all proven to be as breath-taking as promised both in magazines and in my imagination.

After rounding the corner of the entry booth I first laid eyes on the hoards of tourists with cameras and then suddenly, the Taj. And for a second, time literally stood still. The vantage point from where I was standing enabled me to view the marble jewel in one straight, dead-on shot. It was everything I imagined it would be. It is just like the pictures we've seen in countless magazines. What makes it so beautiful? Is it the love story behind it? That it is a mausoleum painstakingly, albeit, expensively built by the emperor of the Mughal Empire in India for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal? Or maybe because it is a magnificent combination of Islamic, Persian and Indian architecture? It's also interesting to add that it's exact location was intentionally chosen to ensure that, no matter what time of day it was, the Taj Mahal would have the best possible light placed upon it. To me, it's beauty has little to do with it's history. It simply stands as a symbol of purity and shines with the same beauty as a crystal, a bird or a flower...