Laura's Third and Final Continent: One Side of the Coin: The Taj Mahal

Which continent, exactly?

This blog's title isn't in reference to actual continents (I've now been to four), but is rather drawn from "The Third and Final Continent," a stunning short story by Jhumpa Lahiri, from her collection, The Interpreter of Maladies. In particular, I'm inspired by the following quote that summarizes the attitude I try to carry with me through life and on my travels

I am not the only person to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination.

I love this. It calls on us to consider the tiny details of our experiences, both one-by-one, and in the aggregate, and to maintain a sense of wonder even about the seemingly mundane things that are the building blocks of our lives, and often, the glue that binds us to our traveling companions.

This blog began as a chronicle of my study abroad experience in Cairo in Spring 2008, and continued last year while volunteering in Geneva, and South Sudan with a wonderful organization, VIDES.

Now in graduate school, I'm returning to the Continent this summer while interning in New Delhi, India.

Please enjoy, inquire, and learn.

Friday, July 18, 2014

One Side of the Coin: The Taj Mahal

This past weekend, we visited the Taj Mahal. Of all the adjectives I’ve ever heard to describe it, “underwhelming,” as far as I’m aware, has never been one of them, and it shall not added to the list on my account. It is incredible. It is stunning. Every minute detail is lovely, if not perfect, while the grand design integrates it all into one, breathtaking whole. It’s been described as the world’s greatest monument to love, and while the poor craftsmen who made it (see part 2) who were tasked with its creation may have not felt the same love for its honored inhabitant Mumtaz Mahal as its patron, Shah Jahan when you truly try to take it in, you can almost believe that they did.

I’m going to quit dumping out words from my mental thesaurus in an attempt to capture what it is to view the Taj, I’m just going to conduct an annotated photo dump of my favorites of the hundreds of pictures I took over two days of sincere admiration.

Some of the details.....