T is for the Taj Mahal – that was the item both kids mentioned I should include for my AtoZChallenge’s letter T to go with my theme – Favorite Childhood Memories, be it games or books or food or movies or
just random somethings – with one additional twist – these are memories I
would like to build for the future as well – with my kids!

So this does count as one of those. My first trip to the Taj Mahal was when I was around 5 or 6 years old, I am guessing. I have a photo back home in India of my brother and I standing at Agra fort (silhoutted and with the gleaming white Taj in the distant background).  I tried to recreate that (though do not have my old photo) with a photo I took of my kids in a similar location – at Agra fort with the Taj in the background. The photo is below with other photos taken during the same trip.

We visited the Taj last summer and all of us were awed by it – the kids declared this was the best part of their trip despite the fact that after an hour of exploring the Taj in absolute peace with minimal crowds early in the morning, we were then caught in an unexpected downpour for the next hour as we were walking around the rest of the attractions the Taj has to offer and were drenched to the bone.  But the sheer beauty and magnificence of the place made us forget everything else.

In the below photo, which was taken at the mosque built to the left of the Taj, you can see that the floor is tiled to exactly accommodate for prayers – each tile meant for one person to lay their prayer carpet and pray.

Some more photos taken during this trip – a collage…  and if you wonder about the minimal crowds in the photographs taken, we were there at dawn (the Taj is open from dawn to dusk), and it had been raining earlier in the morning (pre-dawn) which accounted for fewer people around..
In the collage: clockwise from the top-right, one of the four towers/minarets around the Taj, a closeup shot of the Taj, the red sandstone building to the right of the Taj – which was built as the “jawab” or the mirror to the mosque on the left of the Taj to maintain the symmetry, closeup of the top of the sandstone, the front view of the mosque on the left, the entrance gate as seen from the inside and reflected in the pool, and finally the Taj and its reflection in the pool.

No photograph or description can do justice to the beauty of the Taj and we left the place with contentment and awe all at the same time!

Q to the reader:Have you visited the Taj? If not, what is the most beautiful monument you have visited? Do let me know so I can add it to my list 🙂

My #AtoZ2017Posts and #UBCPosts: 
  Theme_1 A3 B4 C5 D6 E7 F8 G9  Day9 H10 I11 J12 K13 L14 M15 Day16 N17 O18 P19 Q20 R21 S22  Day23 T24 U25 V26 W27 X28 Y29 Z30