ONLY THE MOON IS MISSING






I had taught Aparna some twenty-five years ago. Presently, she lives in Gurgaon with her husband and little son – who she has playfully made famous by the nickname ‘L’le Tiger’. Aparna carries in her body that funny bone which delights all of us, particularly her FB friends… She had been delighting us with L’le Tiger’s stories even when he (when she had no clue whether it would be ‘he’ or ‘she’!) still inside her belly. Aparna’s stories about her L’le Tiger don’t seem to end…

Last evening, Aparna shared a lovely picture of L’le Tiger and his L’le lady friend at Agra’s Taj Mahal. I loved the picture, instantly... and my mind had started working around it…

“What are these little kids watching?” I wondered, “What is crossing through their mind?”

Many years ago, when I had been on a visit to Agra with my wife and little son, what took my breath away was not the romantic glory of the Taj under the moonlight… not the passion with which Emperor Shah Jahan had built it in memory of his last wife, Mumtaz, taking 22 years and 22,000 workmen to build this gigantic monument - hailed as one of the new Seven Wonders of the world… No, I wasn’t impressed or inspired by all these, at all… On the contrary, I was numbed by the tragic tale that awaited us when the guide took us to the Agra Fort, where Shah Jahan’s own son, Aurangzeb, had kept his father captive… with a window through which the fallen Emperor could view the great monument of love … and suffer there a slow and silent death!

Yes, to me, the story of Taj Mahal is not a romantic one… It’s a sad one. A tragedy!

When, little kids grow up, they will know why love cannot be confined in colossal monuments… but only in simple, sincere and clean hearts!

I think, one of the greatest gifts we parents can give to our little children is the quiet wisdom that Love is simple. It is sincere. It is silent…

Just as the Moon…

Probably, that seems to be the reason why I had left my comment on the amazing picture shared by Aparna: ‘ONLY THE MOON IS MISSING’!

GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: Aparna Deshmukh


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