A View Less Ordinary

Can the view get any better than this???

Yes.

Yes, it can.

🇵🇪 Machu Picchu, Peru, January 2025

Paris: Then and Now

I took this photo 23 years ago on a Canon PowerShot A70 compact digital camera. Nothing fancy.

And yet it captured a moment that I can still feel over two decades later.

The chill of the air on a crisp autumn morning.

The thrill of being in one of the world’s most iconic cities.

And the sense that my life was only just beginning.

Over the years, I’ve stared at this photo hundreds of times. And I’ve longed for the day when I would go back to recapture that feeling.

A few months ago, I did.

But I couldn’t.

It’s still a beautiful place. And I was grateful to return.

But it wasn’t the same.

And rather than feeling disappointed, it made me appreciate that first encounter even more.

Wonder lives in a moment, not a place.

I’ll always have (that) Paris.

🇫🇷 Paris, France, October 2003

A Postcard from Agra

I feel a bit awkward saying this.

When I visited the Taj Mahal, I didn’t experience a whole lot of wonder. I mean, it’s literally one of the (New) Seven Wonders of the World.

And it’s very impressive. Spectacular, even. But I wasn’t exactly blown away.

After spending a few hours exploring the Taj Mahal, I visited the ‘Baby Taj’. Nicknamed the ‘jewel box’, it’s widely regarded as the inspiration for the Taj Mahal itself. But unlike the majestic splendour of the Taj Mahal, the Baby Taj is more detailed, more intimate and more charming.

What they have in common is that they are both a tribute to the enduring wonder of love.

While the Taj Mahal is famously associated with love of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, the Baby Taj (officially Itimad-ud-Daulah's Tomb) was commissioned by Shah Jahan’s stepmother, Empress Nur Jahan, as a mausoleum for her father.

And it was there that I happened to witness a moment of love between two strangers — in Agra, the City of Love.

🇮🇳 Agra, India, January 2023

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