Some time back, when this thing came up, I remember it to be on some NDTV debate with Vikram Chandra, everyone was laughing their pants off, and I had written a post pleading with my friends not to share it widely even in mockery.
Why? I had explained that this is exactly how it starts. They say something nutty, we point fingers and mock them publicly, they dig their heels in, we present facts and best them at logic, and then continue with our lives and forget about it, while they remember us insulting them and humiliating them publicly, and share that (the insult and humiliation) as a symptom of all the wrongs done cumulatively on their community, and appeal to the believers to avenge those via sharing their nut case conspiracy theories as true history, and then it snowballs. Before you know, you go from laughing your pants off to being caught with your pants down, as they arrive at the gates with sledgehammers and you are too shellshocked for words. Then, in front of your disbelieving eyes, the monument falls. The world loses a part of itself. They move on to their next crazy theory. You react the same way. The cycle repeats. And you wonder how on earth did things come to such a pass.
Well, now you know.
For those who came in late: P N Oak is one of those nut cases who we all mocked and ignored during the 1980s and 90s as kids who would come to Pune in our summer holidays and hear of him from some of our cousins and neighbours whose parents had never left their respective ‘peths’, leave alone the city, except to go on a pilgrimage. I also remember by own grandfather being courteous to him (he visited us some time) but not really going beyond that, while my father clearly told us to stay away from him. That is why when suddenly his pet theories started popping up on social media, I rushed to caution everyone. Turns out, Cassandra’s curse was real after all.
Anyway, it’s too late now. The genie is out of the box and we will, in the next 2 decades or less, see this becoming an important national issue, maybe earlier given how everything moves faster online with social media and ubiquitous messenger services.
My advice: As soon as possible, go see the Taj Mahal.
I have lived in Agra and have seen it numerous times in various lights and angles in the 1970s and then again twice in the 1990s. Let me assure you that no amount of photographs, pictures, videos, movies, images, descriptions, poems, documentaries, holograms, or 3D or life-size models can prepare you to stand in front of that marvel and not be shocked and awed to the core at its sheer beauty and the genius of all those involved in it, from the person who thought of it to the last artist who fixed the last jewel in it (unfortunately, all the precious stones inlaid are gone long ago). But prepare for further surprises when you see it up close and actually touch it. And then, when you enter it. And once again, when you see it from another angle. Nothing and no one can remain unmoved by this wonder. The one time I would honestly use the word, ‘indescribable’ is in this monument’s context.
Go. Behold its sublime beauty at least once. Before vandals and revisionists amongst your own friends murder it.
Later edit: It has already started. Check this out.
