Agra, India

A dedication to love?

- Can you talk?
- Quite the impossible question to answer in the negative. Saying no means yes.
- I don't follow.
- You lead then?
- What?
- Never mind. I can talk but I suspect you would rather I listen
- Yes.
- Ok.  My aural attention is centered on your oral outpourings.
- My girlfriend has left me.
- Oh dear.
- Yes.  I am very upset and was thinking I want to do something to get her back.  Something to show her how much I love her.
- A wise move?
- Thanks.
- On reflection I needed more inflection.  So pray tell by what method, by what means do you propose to regain the affection of the one you held so dear?
- I'm not sure - any ideas?
- One or two.  A poem perhaps? The evocation of love through words on a page.  Simple means, powerful ends.  Shall I compare thee to a summer's day...
- I'm not really into poetry.
- Quite.  Will a song perhaps fit the bill? Bringing about harmony through harmony as it were.  To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die...
- I can't sing.
- Then no supper for you.
- Sorry?
- Really no need.  We are not getting very far.  Have you any ideas of your own?
- I want to build something.
- Ah.
- Ah - good idea or ah  - bad idea?
- Ah with no opinion attached.  So you desire to build something? Some form of monument to love?  With these hands I prove my love for you. With my blood, sweat and tears I make emotion stand tall. Any reason for such a desire?
- I saw a photo of the Taj Mahal and thought it looked impressive.
- Undeniably so. A feat of many years and many hands. The anguish of the human soul taken solid form.
- Didn't some guy build it for his wife?
- Quite so.  Shah Jahan, ruler of the Mughal empire, was said to be so devastated by the death of his third wife and mother to fourteen of his children that he built the Taj Mahal in dedication to her.  A place for her body to rest and her soul to live on.
- Sounds pretty powerful.
- And with a sad twist.  Imprisoned by his own son in a nearby fort he could only watch as his dream became completed reality.
- Oh.  Well anyways - I want to do something like that.
- Ambition is a virtue.
- Isn't that patience?
- You have one I am losing the other.  Back to the Taj.  Are you able to marshal the wealth of an empire?  Are you able to call to hand the finest artisans, the greatest living artists?
- No but then I was thinking maybe something on a smaller scale.
- Perhaps wise. 

"Can I get you something else sir?"
"Coffee, black as the night."
"Certainly."
"I have no doubts."
"Excuse me?"
"Certainly."

- So, perhaps a new Taj is too much?
- I did really love her though.
- Quite but a building of a thousand bricks does not declare love with any greater force than one built with ten.
- Hmmm. So, what should I build?
- To persuade her of your love?  To pay fitting tribute to the power of your feelings for her?  To convey the emotion you feel in your soul?
- Yes.
- A snowman.
- Sorry?! A snowman?
- Yes, I can think of no more fitting monument to love than that. Here today, gone tomorrow.  Love is futile. Love is whimsy.  When the snow stops falling the snowman melts.  All that is left is a memory and a damp patch. 
- You are being cynical.
- I prefer clinical.

"Your coffee - black."
"My gratitude is extended."
"Can I ask you a question sir?"
"You just have but another I will allow."
¨Who are you talking to?¨
"My romantic side."