my 21st birthday gift: The Taj Mahal

When you turn 21 in Fort Collins, CO, it’s a big deal. Everyone pulls out the “Finally 21” birthday sashes, bright pink feather boas, sorority paddles with upside-down drunk Barbies on them, and all your favorite alcohol you weren’t supposed to drink until now. You’re woken up with a Smirnoff ice and forced to get on a knee and drink it at 9 am, and in summary: the day is yours. Everyone throws a pre-game where you take pictures with big “21” balloons and try to act sober enough to go to the bars. You go to Old Town square and everyone buys you drinks at Bondi Beach Bar and Lucky Joes and the real test is if you can make it to Rec Room. It’s like a national holiday in a college town when you turn 21.

My 21st birthday fell on March 3, when I was in India. I was obviously bummed I would be missing out on all the rituals and not have a “traditional 21stBirthday” with my best friends, but I get to travel the world – which is the most fulfilling gift I could ever receive. I had a lot of time to prepare for the day I can finally drink legally being in a country where the drinking age for is 25… and it was something I chose to laugh off instead of complain about. I started researching my itinerary for India and realized my birthday would fall on the day my group visited the Taj Mahal!

HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN SAY THEY VISITED THE TAJ MAHAL ON THEIR 21STBIRTHDAY? No one, okay.

The Taj Mahal is not only the tourist pinnacle of India, but the most magnificent monument to visit if you appreciate architecture, art, and love. Shah Jahan, the leader of the Mughal Empire in the 1600’s, built this monument in appreciation of his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal. She passed away in the child birth of their 14thson, and both of their tombs are housed inside the monument next to one another. The grandest monument in the world costing $800 million US dollars to build, was all in love and admiration for his wife – real relationship goals.

You better believe SAS girls were posting Instagram photos with captions like, “Find yourself a Shah Jahan” or “Still waiting for my Shah Jahan” – but mine was “What’s better than blacking out at Bondi Beach Bar? Spending your 21stBirthday at the TAJ MAHAL!” And I still stand by my statement.

Knowing the Taj is one of most touristy monuments in the world, I expected it to be packed with both foreigners and Indians, but nothing could’ve prepared me for the beautiful chaos I was about to enter. After getting our entry tickets, we had to wait in kiosk aisles resembling those of “It’s a Small World” in Disney Land. After pushing our way through the lack of security, we walked towards the monument. The archway of the entrance framed the bright white building sitting in the distance and as it came into focus, I’m not exaggerating when I say it took my breath away. I stood there in chocked up with overwhelming awe of its beauty and the fact I was standing in front of it at 21 years of age. I was at the freaking Taj Mahal – what a life moment!

I looked to my right and I saw older Indian women dressed in brightly colored saris, then looked to my left and saw older Indian men sneaking photos of me. Men were shoving their camera in my face snapping selfies and telling me to pose in front of the Taj Mahal – I felt like freaking Ariana Grande. I realized pretty quickly I needed to put my CBF (chronic bitch face) on, so older men would leave me alone. This worked in other countries, but it was seriously relentless here. I’m not sure when it became acceptable to take photos of foreigners like they are exotic zoo animals, but I really don’t think they see young white American women in India very often, which makes their fascination only grow. I had mothers throwing their children in front of me for photos, and Indian women my age snapping selfies too. Throwback to my blog post where I said “I always knew I was meant to be famous”… thank GOD I’m not.

There is an elevated platform to take photos which is where the classic pictures you see on Google Images are taken from, and Annie and I lasted approximately two minutes up there before the harassment got too overwhelming. We only had about an hour and a half there in total, so we were already sick of wasting precious time taking photos for someone else’s camera roll. People, look up and see this building in all its masterpiece instead of focusing on all the young female foreigners GEEZE!

Annie and I got close to the building and its intricate carvings and flowered designed became clear. We were able to go inside the dome and see the two tombs of Jahan and Mahal which was very surreal. Its actually pretty small in there because most of it was fenced off. We walked around the outside of the building and had a moment where we paused and were like, “We’re standing… on the TAJ MAHAL!” It didn’t seem real.

We walked to the left-hand side where the classic archway photos are taken, hoping it would be less crowded. Well, we quickly realized we draw crowds wherever we walked. There was about a 10 second window to get pictures before people crowded around us asking for selfies or filled the frame. We would move to the archway on the other side and repeat the process. At one point, Annie was taking photos of me with my back turned to the camera and I turned around to find her engulfed in boys with arms in the sky taking selfies. The sheer look of panic on her face had me keeled over in laughter. Like it was comical at this point how we literally drew a crowd around us. It got so annoying and overwhelming, at one point I snapped and was like “Okay. We’re done! No more photos! Please leave us alone!” And they looked at me with such confusion and frustration like we had no right to say get out of my personal bubble. I also didn’t want to take photos with them, because as a female my mind obviously goes down the dangerous rabbit hole of where are they putting these photos…

We ran into some friends walking back to our meeting point, and my friend Angie goes “Oh girl, you’re going to need to put that scarf over your hair so we can get there in time!” I burst out in laughter, but it seriously worked. People did not bother me for photos nearly as much when my red hair was no longer visible. Amazing how that works, and how this hilarious Snapchat was birthed into existence:

Some tips and tricks if you visit the Taj Mahal:

- Give yourself plenty of time to walk around. There’s so many people to push through and the area surrounding the monument is massive.

- Wear a scarf if you have red or blonde hair or else you’ll be harassed like celebrities on the red carpet.

- Expect to have a sentimental moment and feel a deep connection to a building you cannot describe.

- Don’t expect that beautiful blue water you see in photos to be real. It’s paint ya’ll.

- Buff up on your photo shop skills if you want any pictures without people in them because unless you go at sunrise, you’re screwed.

I asked my friend from Turkey, Esra, to edit out a few people in a photo because they were distracting, and she did THE MOST. Just glance at how incredible her photo shop work is. Ugh, I love my major and digital design. True works of sorcery.

Besides the constant harassment for photos in extremely impolite ways, the Taj Mahal was absolutely surreal. It was breathtaking and something everyone needs to put on their bucket list. It was my favorite birthday I have had to date, and the best unwrapped birthday gift I’ve ever received. Better than wearing a birthday sash with my ID stuck to my forehead while I black out at a shitty Fort Collins bar? Most definitely.