Visiting the Taj Mahal was one of the most surreal experiences I’ve ever had in my life. Strangely, it took me weeks of pondering to figure out why. I’ve seen beautiful buildings before and I’ve seen natural marvels that absolutely blow the Taj Mahal out of the water with their sheer size and magnitude. What makes this place so special? Then I had an epiphany. It finally dawned on me why I froze in my tracks with goose bumps when I first saw it: it’s the only man-made creation I have ever seen that fully embodies what it means to truly love someone. When I talk about love I don’t mean that Shakespeare style Romeo and Juliet, “star-crossed teenager I’m full of hormones and I just met you a week ago love crap” I mean the”I love you with every ounce of my being so I’m going to create something so powerful and beautiful people will fly half way around the world to see it” kind of love. The kind of love that makes a man “employ” 20,000 people and almost empty his entire royal coffers just to build something that the woman he loved wouldn’t ever even see. Once I put it in that context in my mind, it’s obvious why I (a self-proclaimed rambler) found myself speechless (and wordless) for weeks after seeing one of the greatest feats of architecture in the world. The Taj Mahal truly does prove the power of love in stone.
