Seeking the Taj

Sometimes you regret reading a book or wasting time on it even though you waste a lot of time daily on other ever pointless activities. Even though I like most of the book I read but unfortunately “Seeking the Taj” was not one of them. What was so bugging in it? The writing was good initially then what went wrong? Anyway let’s go through the story first; shall we…

An American girl with a disturbing past comes to India on a poetry grant to write on Mymtaz Mahal. In her journey she is traveling with her ghostly past, literally. Anyway she sees the Taj Mahal and meets a prince on her way and falls in love with him (The story is based in the year 1969 when we had lots of phony princes). So moving forward, the guy also falls in love with her and takes her to her aunt where they spend some evening and attend royal parties. Then the prince takes her to his state and they stay together in the palace for months. The story was moving slowly and then enters the villain and who is that? None other than the mother of the prince and she is strictly against prince marrying an American. As a Hindi movie story the guy fights with her mother and succeeds in marrying her. Happy ending!!

So coming to the basic point; what exactly is wrong with the story?? I like happy endings, the information in Taj is good. But the overly sweet taste of this book leaves you with a feeling of nausea. First, the book shows India as a land of magic where sadhus know how to cure people without medicines. If that is not enough then it proves the power of temples when an American with no power to conceive gets pregnant after only one visit to some stupid Fertility Temple. Second, the way author has connected sex with pleasure and nirvana is absolutely shocking. Okay we do have a book on it and some temples with such sculpture but that doesn’t mean we worship it. To find some lines in a sacred book and quote them to glorify a person who has done nothing else but indulge in this act was…I don’t know. No don’t stop there is more to it. Last and the most bugging part is the connection shown in their love story and that of ShahJahan and Mumtaz Mahal. And guess what the clues are?? The date of birth of the prince is same as the Shah Jahan and we know this because the prince himself shows it off to his American. The author miserable attempt to relate the incidents again by quoting book which narrate the lives of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal.

In the end; too sweet, too monotonous and too predictable. Skip it please……