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Published: December 25th 2007
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Taj entrance
Beyond this gate, I shall show you the most beautiful monument man has ever created.... It feels sort of fitting that my final blog from India (and more than likely my final blog, period) comes from Agra - India's tourist mecca featuring the one and only - drum roll please - TAJ MAHAL!!!!
Woooowwweeeeewwwwaaaaa
Originally worried about what to expect in a place such as this, I feared being touted to death or purchasing more 1,000Rs bowls in haste. Unfortunately, this was not so. I was actually a little surprised at how FEW vendors were surrounding the three entrances to the Taj, as well as Agra Fort. I hope to God that these vendors never meet anyone in Khajuraho, or the rest of India for that matter, as they may become aware of their timidness and regroup to commence a new phase of warfare against those westeners.
I guess it wasn't until I paid my 750Rs to enter the Taj that I realized maybe the touts are just too afraid of the government - the biggest cheat of them all. 750Rs for the Taj!?!?!?!?! Thats 15 meals, 5 nights accomodation, 25 hours on the internet , 7 t-shirts, 3 exotic temples, 7.5 bat-inhabited palaces, 5 kingfishers, 6 long-distant bus rides or 2 'luxury'
The beauty!
My God, isn't she lovely...especially when surrounded by the minarets of the Taj bus rides, and most importantly, 150 masala chais. Those cheats!
To make my monies worth, I ensured to as much time at the Taj as I could muster (10am - 7pm) to soak in this white marble Indian ode to women often described quite crudely as, "Man's largest erection for a woman". Or if you prefer Tagore's words, "the embodiment of all things pure", or Kipling's "a teardrop on the face of eternity", or as Gregory David Roberts (author of Shantaram) would surely write,
"The exquisite purity of the Taj soaked into our souls as the three of us drank in its beauty, like the parched farmer after hours of toiling his fields only to discover the water less refreshing than the kiss of a fair maiden on a crisp spring dawn. I hadn't known it then, but that view was ready to change me - a hardened, lost, lonely, prison escapee - in a way that would make the Lord smile with a look half in admiration and half in jealousy." At first, I found the Taj as it should be seen: a giant, architecturally unimpressive, white beacon calling its several thousand tourits and locals alike
Taj surroundings
I'm telling you, that Taj is magnificent to its overcrowded bosom. But, being a stubborn man, I refused to leave and explore Agra as I had to understand what it was about this place that inspired so many and drew in countless (literally, countless) people in a steady march towards its threshold.
It was around the 3 or 4 hour mark that my impression changed. Staring at its minute cracks, intricate inlayed flower designs, symmetrical layout, and greyish hue it dawned on me that what makes the Taj so beautiful is its embodiment of its own contradictions.
From a distance, you will never see a more pure white light than that of the Taj on a sunny day, yet up close its impossible not to notice the intermingling of greys, off-whites, and white stonework. From a distance, you will never see a more simplified and easily silhoutted structure, yet up close it would be bold to say you've seen finer or more intricate flowers or gatings carved out of white marble.
From a distance the Taj is exotic, chaotic, overwhelming, glowing, and a beacon to those all over the world. Up close, the Taj is intricate, diverse, colourful, and loving.
It was upon
The Taj Mosque
Equally as beautiful realizing these things that I realized why, so often, the Taj is the global image of India. Why so often, the Taj Mahal is mentioned, emphasized, and praised when India is mentioned. It was then that I realized that the Taj Mahal is India, and India is the Taj Mahal.
It was simple, but delicate. Chaotic but unnerving. Cramped and agressive, yet a place so unquestioning loving that it was easy to lose yourself in a smile, or a laugh. It spurred me to reflect on my time in India...
A short 7 weeks that felt like a lifetime. A place so frustrating and agitating that for some reason you can't get enough of, refuse to get enough of, and just when you think you're at your wits end - you discover some secret beauty: some love that seemed to be saved just for you. It was a foreign place of weird customs, weird traditions, and no concept of personal space that, if you surrendered, accepted you in and made you part of something bigger.
I have never been somewhere more foreign that I felt right at home in. And a few times, I was even lucky
Taj, looking out
From the Taj towards the entrance...Gorgeous! enough to have been welcomed in, as if it were my home.
India had everything I could have wanted, yet gave me but a taste. I covered one third of the geography, yet sampled only a fraction of a fraction.
I fear that I may return to India again and again. And I think... I think I love her for that...
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Kris Penner
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Long Live the Neckbeard!
All hail the mighty neckbeard, for it is mightier than all others in its path. Shall the neckbeard ever return, I fear not, for it will rise again from the faces upon us! Well, it's Christmas mate; Meeres, Stuke and myself are drunk. I await your arrival and thus our reunion in 5 days time. Merry Christmas and Happy New Beard!?