Love Is Eternal
- At September 01, 2015
- By mausoleum
- In Mausoleum Design
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The grand Taj Mahal in India is, if you were unaware, a mausoleum that was built to express the love of Shah Jahan for his favorite of three wives, Mumtaz Mahal. The immense structure, created out of white marble, has stood since it was finally finished in 1632. Few on this earth possess the means to construct such a lavish expression of our love for another.
But simple means did not stop an octogenarian retired postmaster from trying his best to do the same. Faizal Hasan Quadri set out to erect a structure that would comfort the concerns of his now deceased wife; that they would die and be forgotten as they had no children to carry on their name. And so Quadri met with several architects to draw up plans for a mausoleum that would ensure immortality for the two who would one day reside within.
“I wanted to make a ‘monument of love’ in her memory. I called up an architect and assigned him the work, but I did not like his design.” It was then that Quadri recalled his younger days in Agra, where he was training for work. The glorious Taj Mahal stuck in his memory. He decided he would create a Mini Taj.
Na koi shish Mahal hai, Na koi Taj Mahal
Hai yaad-gaarey mohabbat, ye hai pyaar ka hai Mahal
(This is not a glass palace, This is not the real Taj…
Yet this is for my beloved.. a monument of love)
– Faizal Hasan Quadri
In order to design and build an eternal home for his beloved, Quadri was forced to sell possessions and land. Even still, he has run out of funding in order to finish his project. The man with love still in his heart refuses to give up, however.
“Now, the only work left is that I have to get the marble studded on the monument and build a lush green park around it,” Quadri explains. “This monument will be always be an epitome of our love.”
It is natural that we, as humans, want to present the world with an expression of our immortality. We have constructed monuments and statues, named structures and bridges, and established days of reverence for those whose lives we have held dear. Faizal Hasan Quadri proves that your mausoleum doesn’t have to be as large as the Taj Mahal in Agra to hold the love you have for those you shared your life with.
