Monumental Mismanagement
Whether history repeats itself remains to be seen. But sometimes it does whisper warnings. And the clear message from the apex court now is: heed the warnings of history. Taking a cue from the August 29 Supreme Court order, we set out on a pictorial walk through the Taj Mahal complex, keeping the larger picture in mind: that is, we approach the Taj, not as the present-day visitor does, descending on the monument one fine day, but as a visitor would have done in the 17th century: experiencing the larger Taj complex. Our purpose is to look, with photographic evidence, at visual pollution, years of deterioration, vandalism, shoddy oversight and neglect of a magnificent heritage. So let's start the journey to the Taj:
Night has fallen over the Taj Mahal. In its
