Magnificence of the Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal needs no description. Standing tall and beautiful in Agra, the marble wonder has been recognized as an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Thousands of tourists flock to visit the Taj Mahal every day. I had an opportunity to visit the Taj Mahal today. Here's an snapshot of the magnificent structure. Pictures speak more than words do!!!

The First Temple of Modern India

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru described as them as the 'Temples of Modern India'. Conceived in the pre-independence period, construction work started in 1948, project commissioned in 1963, standing tall and strong across the Sutlej river even today is the Multi-purpose reservoir @ Bhakra, Himachal Pradesh. A little downstream of the Bhakra Dam is the Nangal dam. Together known as the Bhakra-Nangal Project. An interesting thing is that though separated by only about 16km, Bhakra & Nangal lie in different states. Nangal is now located in Punjab. Though at the time of conceiving this project, Punjab included the whole of Himachal also.

Pandit Nehru had given immense importance to the construction of this project as it was evident from some of his photographs kept for display there. Whenever any foreign leaders visited the country, Pandit Nehru took them to Bhakra and proudly showed them the project under construction. The leaders who visited Bhakra included Lord Mountbatten, the then Queen of Iraq, Marshall Tito and others.

The most striking feature of the project is the Gobind Sagar reservoir, which has an area of about 166 sq.km. The massive artificial reservoir created on the upstream side of the Bhakra Dam is one of the largest in the world. The reservoir water is used for irrigation in the states of Himachal,Punjab,Haryana,Delhi and even as far as Rajasthan, which is mostly a desert. What a visionary Idea!!

As I went from the dam crest to the bed level(about 500 ft) by means of an Otis elevator, installed way back in 1963, I could feel the pressure drop and disturb my ears (the same kind of effect you get when you fly in an aircraft). The powerhouses installed on both the left and right banks were capable of producing about 1300 MW. The view from the dam crest was awesome. This concrete dam stands testimony to the work of Harvey Slocum, an American dam-builder who had no degree in engineering or any great qualifications to boast of. Only experience and judgment was used by him to build those massive structures.

A statue of Pandit Nehru stands there, overlooking the dam. He called them as the 'Temples of Modern India' . But I would say that it was the first step towards becoming a super power. Pandit Nehru liked Robert Frost's lines "Miles to go before I sleep". Well, it's still valid - there are miles to go before we sleep.