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For the love of the Taj

The Smiths walk down the nostalgia path with SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY, sharing anecdotes about the one and only Taj Mahal

PHOTO: V.V. KRISHNAN

SHEER BEAUTY There was once a time when no tickets were required to enter the Taj Mahal nor were their hours restricting entry

The Taj has evoked reams of writings since ages. An enigma of a beauty which has almost always succeeded in making visitors fall in love with it, most writings about it turn out to be a declaration of one's fascination with. Something of `awed-writing' if such a term exists. And therefore, in most cases, the author name changes but the treatment remains the same.

The book, "The Taj - Myth And Reality" too is a collective expression of one's love for this `perfect beauty' on marble. But what holds it apart is its concise form. Published by Hope India, the 115-page book can give readers a quick recap of the Taj, its history, its myths, the controversies surrounding it and its present condition.

Edited by R.V. Smith, the book spans articles, mostly published in various newspapers, periodicals and journals, from 1906 till now. Smith, a native of Agra, has included the already-published articles largely written by his family though it includes an article by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad on the Taj, one by Reverend H. Hosten S.J. on the Italian claim that the Taj was actually built by a Venetian by the name of Geronimo Veroneo and yet another eye-opener of an article by Percy Brown.

Smith's father, Thomas Smith too had dealt with the issue of Taj's construction in an article published in The Statesman in the 1930s, which has found its way to the book thanks to his younger son Neville Smith, who carefully preserved it for so long.

Says Smith, "The book was earlier meant for the Uttar Pradesh Government which was celebrating 350 years of Taj Mahal last year." But for some reasons, it didn't form part of the official celebrations and was published in February this year.

Like Connaught Place

Recalling his Agra days, Smith says going to the Taj in the evening in his growing up days was like going to Connaught Place.

"There were no tickets to enter the Taj those days nor were their hours restricting entry. So we used to spend most of our evenings at the Taj," recalls Smith, who has churned out as many as five nostalgia pieces on the monument.

"While working on the book, I thought of asking my brothers, my sister and a nephew to do a piece each on the Taj as all grew up in Agra in its shadow," says Smith, and so came about rest of the articles by N.R. Smith, Ivan Smith, L.E. Smith and Amit Newton. And all of them have gone down the nostalgia path.

But you can't possibly blame them. As Smith himself says at the end of one of his articles, "Pardon the exaggeration but that is the Taj effect for you."

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