Love is expensive... isn't it

In Twelve Night, Shakespeare remarked that if music be the play of love; play on give me excess of it. But I suspect love is a mirage; on the other hand, it is meant to keep us awake, dream and laugh that is good. Often times, you hear lovers telling each other ‘I love you’; one thing that keep lurking in our mind is the content of that short but lucid statement.

While some of us have been one way or the other hard hit by a love tsunami; we re-opened our hearts again knowing fully well that we have to be part of the establishment in order to be counted. But that’s not fair: How can we keep falling in love, suffer series of disappointment, pick up again and end up saying – alas, I have found real love and this is the love I have never had.

In those days in the village, love to us meant writing on the walls; Sukai love Buba, Adama love Pateh etc. Full of energy, we would group ourselves, then the boys will choose the girls they love and someone will announce it before the girls. Our understandings of love were more or less like playing hide and seek. It was not until during our adolescent that we started to experience love is an entrapment; something that drive you crazy.

When you are in love; it is just like someone has put a mask in front of your face; we do not want to be hear negative stories emanating from the girl or boy we cherish. No wonder Toni Morrison said in her book, Love; you open your legs instead of heart. Where all is said and nothing is understood.

If love was not real and expensive why was the Taj Mahal in India build? If love was not real why do thousands of people from all over the world converge on Agra on daily basis to just to see the house which is tagged as one of the Seven Wonders of the World? If you have never been to Agra; let me tell you more about the symbol of love and what it means to different people.

The road was rather long and bumpy; in some instances we would pass some little kids who perhaps were wondering where on earth we came from, only that they did not have the chance to talk to us for our bus was moving faster. I was still trying to figure why we had to go to Agra and not Mumbai which is by far one of the most important places in India (that is if you want to know how Mumbairians are coping after the 26/11 attack). Guess what do you know why we could not go to Mumbai? Mumbai was very expensive and the security situation there was rather stiff period.

What was not clearly stated was the fact that why we were hell-bent on traveling to Agra; was it our handlers who wanted us to learn about the story of love and harmony. I suspect that the issue has to do with what we sometimes experience in our loose moments; when we quarrel with our love ones, those arrogance tendencies we exhibit: ‘Look I have no time for her’ when deep inside you, you know that’s not true.

Away from the monotone lectures, and sometimes abstract issues we, so often talked about in class, this journey was meant to be a special one. Something that should change the way we think about love and the shallow concept some of us have about love; that love is all about presenting Vals, writing on face book, or playing hush-hush games. And there we joined hundreds of pilgrims most of whom traveled with their wives, children and friends. A friend from the United Kingdom commented: ‘For me the Taj Mahal is a spiritual retreat; I’m here to ponder about love and what I can do to improve my love life’.

Like many people facing series of love problems, here was a young and reticent man who could not swallow his cough just because he doesn’t want to offend others; but he had to spit out when I saw him gazing fixedly at the beautiful pieces of gold and silver that were plastered all over the Taj – giving it a befitting colour.

The Taj Mahal was built by a Mongul emperor called Sahah Jahan; it was build in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Actually, Jahan was born in 1592, while Mahal was born in 1593, they got married in 1612 and had seven children. In 1628 Shah Jahan became the Mongul Emperor. Three years later his beloved wife died shortly after childbirth. Not only was he disoriented by the death of his wife but Jahan became disillusioned about life and lived in hibernation. In 1632 Sahah Jahan began the project of building a mausoleum or tomb for his wife, Taj Mahal.

The Taj is located on the banks of the Yamuna River. It took twenty-two years to complete with an estimated twenty thousand workers. The building is surrounded by four 138 ft. minarets and sits on a 315 ft. square marble platform.

Lets stop thinking about the Taj and asked ourselves why did Sahah Jahan constructed this building for his favourite wife Mumtaz Mahal when he (Jahan) had many wives at that time?