Now, much older, a full-fledged lawyer, with an entertainment company and tutorial and music school of my own, the exhilaration I get when traveling has not diminished at all. I make it a point to avail of every opportunity to travel alone with my husband Paul, also a lawyer, or with our children, 18-year-old Atenean Jon and 10-year-old Miriam student Mika, to different tourist destinations here and abroad.
I believe it was in the early ’90s when I saw a picture of my then heroine, the beautiful Princess Diana, taken by the Taj Mahal. This picture gave me such a profound and lasting impression and I promised to myself that one day, I, too, should find a way to visit this renowned monument built by the Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal.
Before the year 2005 ended, I finally got the much-awaited opportunity, with my husband and some lawyer friends, to see the Taj Mahal – which is the most beautiful edifice I have ever seen in my whole life.
I honestly do not think I could adequately describe the beauty of the Taj and the multifarious emotions it brought out in me. But to borrow from some writers who have seen its grandeur, it has been described as "a prayer, a vision, a dream, a poem, a wonder," "the Niagara Falls of Architecture," "an architectural masterpiece" and "one of the most elegant and harmonious buildings in the world." An Indian poet called it "a teardrop on the cheek of eternity." The British writer Rudyard Kipling described it as "the embodiment of all things pure."
Perfectly proportioned, looking the same from all sides, and still immaculate white after three and a half centuries, the Taj Mahal was erected by 20,000 laborers for 22 years at a monumental cost that up to now has not been precisely computed. A rough estimate of the construction puts it at Rs3 million, equivalent to about $70 million today. Built of mostly white marble, yellow marble, and black marble, specialists were brought in from as far as Europe to produce the exquisite marble screens and delicate inlay work and elaborate designs made with thousands of semi-precious stones such as jasper (from Punjab), cornelian (from Baghdad), turquoise (from Tibet), onyx (from Persia), lapiz lazuli (from Ceylon), coral (from Arabia), crystal (from China), garnets, diamonds, onyx, agate, rockspar, amethyst, sapphires and red stones all from different countries and faraway places. It comprises a forecourt, a majestic entrance leading to an exquisite garden with water channels and fountains, the mausoleum itself with its domed two-storied building flanked on four sides by minarets, an attached mosque, and a crypt in which the royal graves have been placed.
Said to be the embodiment of grace and romance and a masterwork of balance and symmetry, the Taj Mahal is guaranteed to leave you in a state of awe and wonderment. Still, as shared with us by a kindly Indian doctor who sat beside me on the plane to India, the Taj Mahal should be seen at different times of the day as, "Every change of light gives it a different kind of loveliness. The view at sunrise is magnificent. By moonlight, the sight is most entrancing." We were there at 10 o’clock in the morning and the Taj Mahal was both magnificent and entrancing.
The love story and romance behind the building of the Taj, as told to us by our tour guide, made it even more beautiful to me. Mumtaz Mahal, wife of the Emperor Shah Jahan, was said to be the inseparable companion of the Emperor. They were so attached to each other that the Emperor would not leave the Empress’ side even during military expeditions. Everything she asked for was granted including the pardon of persons already sentenced to the extreme penalty of the law which made her a much beloved Empress. When she died giving birth to their 14th child on their 19-year-old marriage at a very young age of 39, the Emperor was said to have been so overwhelmed by grief that for the next two years, he abandoned all forms of pleasurable pursuits, especially listening to musical instruments (which, for me, is equivalent to death), wearing of jewels, perfume and expensive costumes. Sources of these accounts further narrated that Mumtaz’ death left the Emperor so heartbroken that his hair turned grey overnight. Several years later, when his very own son Aurangzeb deposed and imprisoned him at the nearby Agra Fort, Emperor Shah Jahan was said to have spent the rest of his life looking out along the river to the perfect monument he built for the love of Mumtaz – mourning the loss of his wife and his empire. In the end, upon the death of the Emperor, and realizing the Emperor’s undying and great affection for his mother, Aurangzeb let him be buried side by side with Mumtaz Mahal, his wife, and the love of his life.
As I end the writing of this piece on the dazzling white beach of Boracay, I look around and say to myself that we Filipinos are blessed with so many beautiful sights to visit within our country. We should be proud of our own tourist destinations and endeavor to visit them all.
But to all the readers out there, if once in your lifetime you would have an opportunity to go to India or anywhere near it, go visit the Taj Mahal. Princess Diana did it. I did it. You should do it, too.