Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Shah Jahans of our times

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By Bimal Saigal — Mughal King Shah Jahan is immortalised in the history as he has given to the posterity one of the wonders of the world — Taj Mahal. Recognized universally as the symbol of immortal love, Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, Arjumand Banu Begum, better known as Mumtaj Mahal.  She was Shah Jahan’s childhood companion and they were engaged for several years before their marriage in 1612.  She died in 1631 at the age of 37 while giving birth to their fourteenth child.


Shah Jahan loved her so much that her untimely death left him heart-broken and devastated completely.


He decided to build a marvelous mausoleum in her memory which would be unique in construction and design, world-wide. To accomplish his vision, artisans were requisitioned from the whole of the empire and also from the Central Asia and Iran. It took 17 years to construct Taj Mahal from 1632 to 1648.


Shah Jahan was an emperor, and he had indeed the whole state machinery and infinite royal resources at his unquestionable disposal to execute his whimsical passion.


But then centuries after the royalty bid adieu to those catalytic components firing its fancies, in these modern times as well we see occasionally such lovers who rise above the rut to match that celebrated royal zeal of love and passion for their wives, and undertake seemingly impossible missions to pay them their tributes.


Dashrath Manjhi of Gehlaur village in the state of Bihar was only an ordinary mortal of the modern times.


But like Emperor Shah Jahan, driven by immense love for his deceased wife, he undertook a mission which not only endeared him to the people of the region and engraved his heroism in their memory, but like the Taj Mahal left a monumental feat of goodwill for them for all times to come.


Manjhi was a humble labourer, who dedicated all his remaining life to the memory of his wife, Phalguni Devi. She had died young by stumbling down accidentally from the height of the village hillock which, in absence of any road link, she enthusiastically scaled each day for serving home-cooked fresh food to her husband.


There being no connecting road to any nearby city from the hills-bound village, Phalguni died as she could not get the medical attention in time.  Manjhi was so much moved by the tragic loss that he decided to bring down the very hill which had snatched his young wife from him.


He worked single-handedly thereafter with hammers and chisels for 22 long years and cut a 360 feet long, 30 feet wide and 25 feet deep passage through that hill which opened up his village to a neighbouring city by reducing the circuitous distance of 55 km to a mere15 km.  The lone crusader Manjhi, who came to be known as the Mountain Man, died in 2007 but the gift of the love he has left is equally enchanting as the Taj Mahal.


Retired postmaster Faizul Hasan Qadri is one such Shah Jahan of our times who has also built a Taj Mahal for his wife, Tajamulli.  Resident of Kaser Kalan village in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Qadri had married Tajamulli in 1953. He was so much enamoured with her that when she died in 2011 he decided to build a mini Taj Mahal as her mausoleum.


Qadri has spent all his life’s savings of rupees 11 lakh to raise the replica structure but has run short of funds to give it finishing touches, which need another 6-7 lakh.  But he refuses to accept any financial help from anyone and wants to complete it entirely with his own resources. Childless, Qadri spends most of his time by the grave of Tajamulli in this Taj Mahal, which rhymes with his wife’s name, and is hopeful that he would be able to complete it before he joins her side after his own death.


And then, newspapers showcased recently Tapeshwar Singh, who was struck by the love for his wife to the extent that he wandered madly across the country for nearly a year looking for his missing wife, Babita.


With huge posters displaying photographs of his wife mounted on his cycle, he pedalled thousands of miles across the length and breadth of the country looking for any clue of her.  His untiring efforts finally met success the last month when he could trace her in a remote part of the country begging on the streets.


In fact, Babita was of unsound mind and was lured away by her abductors.    But this happy ending revealed to the world yet another Shah Jahan of our times whose passion and love for his separated wife was no less than that of the historic icon.


— bimalsaigal@hotmail.com


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