The palace through a window

Dr Farrukh Saleem

The writer is an Islamabad-based freelance columnist

farrukh15@hotmail.com

Some three hundred and thirty-five years ago, Shah Jahan, the fifth Moghul Emperor, lay in his deathbed confined by his son to the Octagonal Tower of the Red Sandstone Fort of Agra. The emperor's last gaze was directed at the milky-white pristine marble monument built in memory of his passion, Mumtaz Mahal. Shah Jahan died a good 6,000 meters away from the Taj Mahal (because of air pollution the Taj can no longer be viewed from the Great Red Fort of Agra).

The 12th President of Pakistan, even while he sleeps in Agra, would be ten times closer to the 7th Wonder of the World than the dying Moghul emperor who built it. Our president's hotel suite is a mere 600 meters away with an uninterrupted, spectacular view of the al-Kawthar (the Celestial Pool of Abundance), the "curving, gently swelling dome" and the "square base upon which the Taj rests so lightly".

Agra has at least half a dozen five-star hotels, including Taj View Hotel, Moghul Sheraton, Hotel Agra Ashok, Hotel Clarks Shiraz, Hotel Park Plaza, The Trident and Howard Park International. None, however, comes even close to what Amer Villas offers. This is the hotel where our president shall be occupying the Kohinoor Suite. The Kohinoor Suite has a lounge, a study-room, a bedroom, a separate dinning room, a bathroom and a butler pantry (the entourage has a chef traveling with it). Total area: 3, 000 sq ft. All of the rooms provide a lucid view of the Taj. Interiors are expensively appointed, marble bathrooms, personal bar, walk-in closets, satellite television, compact disc, digital video players, tea wood flooring, hand crafted furniture, private terraces, in-room safes, him and her shower stalls and computer data ports. Amer Villas has a total of 106 elegantly decorated, spacious (42 sq meters) rooms and suites. Forty of these are being reserved for the guests from Pakistan (the official size of the delegation is claimed to be 33). Suites are even bigger: 85 sq meters. Hospitality, comfort, originality, ingenuity and opulence. All this for a paltry Rs100, 000 a night per suite. Total tab at Amer Villas: Rs500, 000. Vajpayee will be occupying two suites at Jaypee Hotel for Rs15,000 per suite.

The hotel has a gymnasium, a library, tennis courts, heated swimming pool, Jacuzzi and then there is a professionally-run spa that offers non-clinical programmes for relaxation and beauty. There are therapy rooms and a heat treatment area with steam rooms, saunas, showers and treatment on Ayurvedica principles (a natural healing system), holistic health maintenance, herbal treatments and aromatherapy (alternative medicine that utilizes scents as a medium of therapy). There are two fine restaurants serving Continental, Asian and Indian cuisine. There is open air dining on the terrace while snacks and beverage service is by the pool bar. The tea lounge is appropriately named the Eternity Lounge. To be certain, the hotel lobby, restaurants, bar and tea lounge also offer a direct view of the Taj.

Viewing the Taj from the Kohinoor Suite has been compared to viewing a pretty woman from a distance. The rectangular base of the Taj appears to be "different sides from which to view a beautiful woman. The main gate is like a veil to a woman's face which should be lifted delicately, gently and without haste on the wedding night. In Indian tradition the veil is lifted gently to reveal the beauty of the bride." Then there is the arch something like a background frame enfolding the radiant face. Sir Edwin Arnold, the English poet, described the Taj as "not a piece of architecture, as other buildings are, but the proud passions of an emperor's love wrought in living stones."

Part of the Pakistani delegation lucky enough to get into Amer Villas will be surrounded by the traditions of Rajasthani loyalty; Rajasthani royal turbans and Rajasthani-style sarees all around. Then there would be the combination of dal, bati and churma to enjoy.

For the General, Master-Chef Narinder Singh, along with 12 other chefs, are busy preparing a five-course meal that includes: Thakali Rasam (a tangy-spicy soup from Kerala), Kundan Kaliya from Awadh, Spinach Koftas with black, oyster and button mushrooms, Dal Saat Salaa a Hyderabadi delicacy (seven varieties of lentils tempered seven times with seven different ingredients). For dessert there is Tiranga Kulfi in a saffron, cardamom and pista kulfi confection. All of the dishes are "balanced for the tahseer to produce a cooling effect on the body while the masalas are professionally balanced by a hakim" (poor Shaukat Aziz, Razak Dawood and Moinuddin were left out of this).

To be sure, the Taj is a reminder of a King grieving for his wife. In 1947, millions of families were separated. Half a century of harsh restrictions on cross-border travel has already filled up rivers of tears on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC). Seven years ago, the Indian Consulate in Karachi was shut down. India then ordered the closing down of the Pakistan Consulate in Mumbai. The poor have been hurt the most (having to travel to Islamabad or New Delhi for a visa).

On July 9, PM Vajpayee declared that "designated points along the International Border (IB) and the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir" would be opened up for Pakistani passport holders. That shall re-unite perhaps a million Kashmiri families (is it a step towards a 'soft border'?). Up until 1965 there was a rail-link joining Munabao in Rajasthan and Khokraphar in Sindh. Re-opening the rail-link would re-unite millions more. Issuing visas along various border checkpoints, including the Attari checkpost, would be another splendid idea.

The Indian Council of Social Sciences Research has now offered 27 scholarships to Pakistani academics to come to India for research. On the Pakistan side, Razak Dawood, our Commerce Minister, recently announced an export target of $10.1 billion. An easy route to actually achieving the target would be to grant the MFN status to India (India has already granted us the Most Favoured Nation status). Taking Razak along would have been another good idea.

Agra's Muslim population also wants to get closer to their Mohajir brethren in Pakistan. Altaf Hussain's family, for instance, moved from Nayee Basti (which actually is one of the oldest Muslim neighbourhood in Agra) to Pakistan. The dwellers of Nayee Basti have pinned high hopes on Musharraf, himself a Mohajir. By some strange coincidence, Neharwali Haveli, Musharraf's birthplace, in Delhi may have been the residence of one of Shah Jahan's minister (Shoaib Iqbal, the area's legislator in Delhi, has already spent $30,000 from his district budget to clean up the area).

How did the Oberoi Group manage to put up a hotel so close to the Taj? That question would have to be answered by the Government of Uttar Pradesh (and they are not talking). Perhaps, Rai Bahadur Oberoi, the Chairman, gets his things done in India the same way as our own Sadruddin Hashwani gets his done in Pakistan. Not to forget that just one Oberoi is the equivalent of at least 20 Hashwanis (the Oberoi Group is capitalized at over $700 million and owns or manages 37 luxury hotels in seven countries).

It took Shah Jahan 22 years to build the Taj. Twenty-two thousand workers, a thousand elephants and a total of Rs32 million. Viewing the Taj through a window for Rs100,000 a night doesn't sound that bad of a deal as long as its not your own money. The general may, however, feel guilty for getting a superior view of the Taj than did Shah Jahan from his cell at the Diwan-i-Khas of the Great Fort of Agra.