Monday 9 July 2007

Wah Taj!!

Bart Simpson has taken the lead to present her views about the Taj Mahal being one of the seven wonders... Now let me present my views from the perspective of a Taj Nagari Vasi (person from the City of the Taj)... Ok, may be while reading the post you might feel that staying in Singapore has made me "un"patriotric... but then it depends on how you define patriotism.... Patriotism is something like Bravery... For some, a person who has the courage to kill himself (commit suicide) is brave [fair enough! you need courage to kill yourself] while for some the one who faces life is brave.... I prefer the latter... Same goes for Patriotism... For some the person who speaks well of his country is Patriotic.... But for me Patriotism means accepting the shortcomings of the country and then working to free the country from these....

Again, as Bart mentioned, India is known primarily for the Taj and Kashmir, and I feel proud while introducing myself as a citizen of the City of Taj Mahal (Agra)... I am probably among the most happy people from this news and I invited every Tom, Dick and Harry I met to visit the Taj and stay at my place... (Psst psst.... it also includes some very good friends like Juliana and Won Jang, good news being that I'll probably meet Won Jang.... Hurrah!!!) But then, I remember the state of the places around the Taj.... Do I really want people to see that??

It is all shitty, tacky, smelly.... so much so that I (living only 15 km away from the Taj) find it really hard to motivate myself to visit it.... The Taj is indeed a marvellous monument but it is tarnishing... Yellowing... and what about the river Yamuna which flows right behind it... The water there is worse than sewerage water... What are we doing about it??

Just proclaiming that I am from the City of the Taj doesn't mean that I am patriotic.... There are so many children in that City of the Taj who don't even know that their city is one of the most renowned places in the world.... For them life is a constant struggle for survival... What are we doing about it??

And can you guess that what will happen now??
Here is a much underestimated crookedness which will take place... The MP (Member of Parliament) of Agra will appeal for a huge sum of money to maintain the Taj Mahal and the nearby places....By huge I mean, HUGE......

And then, 10% of it will be used to do some temporary maintenance (To last till his term gets over)... The remaining 90%..... ahem ahem ahem.... The result being that the money allocated for the welfare of the people (out of which again only 10% would have been used) went to maintain the Taj or rather unmaintain the Taj...

Do you want to know why the MP would go only for a temporary maintainence??
So, that during his term the Taj looks maintained and in his successor's term...well, let me not use the word I intended to... This will then be used as a point in the next election...

Complicated?? Nah.... This is the most common tactic in Agra Elections...

So, now tell me, what shall I feel about the Taj being one of the seven wonders of the world??
Proud to be from the city or worried about the political game which will be played using Taj's name??

9 comments:

Quarter Past Seven said...

Abey Hugh Grant ki chhati aulaad...phir se mujhse pooch rahi hai ki "What shall I feel?" tch tch.. ab nahi bataungi main.. :P
Aur jitne paise ikatthe hue hain na singapore ko 2 3 mahine barbaad kar ke, usse "Taj-Bachao-Warna-Chhaggan-Bhai-ki-Supari-Paao" abhiyaan shuru karte hain..

Confused Soul said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Confused Soul said...

Be proud of the monument itself.. be proud about the reason it was built.. the fact that people from all over the world come to see it, come to see the Taj Mahal, not Agra.. so be proud of that.. As for the rest of Agra, it's something that happens all over India and it's a never ending debate, which I don't wanna start.. :P

Won said...

Ha you just made the most public announcement about me going (back) to India lol. I STILL haven't told my mama yet lol. Paid for the tickets today. And stop addressing me as Won Jang! :P :P My name's Won, and my surname's Jang! Nobody addresses you as Shubhangi Faujdar collectively :P

We'll have ice cream together yah? Butter scotch :)~~

Won said...

And now I really don't want to visit the Taj Mahal haha.

shubhangi said...

@confused soul,

the reason for which it was built... Lets look at it this way... 20,000 people who built the monument were rewarded with their hands being cut... Right?? And do I need to mention here what happened to the architect... Do you justify that to show your love for a dead person, an emperor disabled 20,000 able bodied men and you never know how many more suffered...

Are you still proud that Taj was built??

Anonymous said...

der r alwayz two sides to de coin...one is dat de hands were cut..the other is dat PROBABLY becoz de hands wer cut, another similar monument was nt built elsewher which wud prolly have been better maintained n mebe dat mite have become a wonder leavin de taj behind coz of its dirtiness...

n abt de politics...wut canu do abt it?! its thr in de whole of india...everyone knows abt it but no one can do anythin abt it! helpless situation...but atleast 10% is used to maintain it whilst he is thr rite? his successor will prolly ddo de same rite...maintain it whilst he is thr...so ttechnically it is maintained =P eheheh

Confused Soul said...

I admire the monument and the reason it was built.. I didn't mention anything about what Shah Jahan did to the people.. obviously what he did was truly disgusting.. but here I was referring only to the beauty of the structure itself..

rashika said...

hey ...since when have u started looking at the bad side of things??i agree to shankar..n to "won" i'll just say..when u cum to india just have a glimpse of the mesmerising beauty of taj..n am sure u'd be ready to exchange any kind of discomfort for it..be it looking at "shitty tacky places"..bt anycase you would cherish having visited taj..!!