Building a monument of love

How do you build a monument of love?

Well, you start with a single brick...  after you have sorted out all the 5922 odd bricks that are said to be in the Lego Taj Mahal set that is!

We were given this set last month - and we started building on the 19th of March Anno Domini 2014.

Enoch put in the first bit on that day - and since then we have tried to grab little bits of time to work steadily through the three books of instructions to make our masterpiece.

Our dear friends Kumar and Shanti Vedanayagam and their 5 kids Jeevan, Anand, Karuna, Kirti and Nitya gave us this massive gift.  And now just under a month later the master-piece is finished!

There were of course a huge number of white pieces.  Which we first stored in a large plastic tub and kept pouring out on our blue dhurrie to get enough contrast to find the little pieces needed for a particular part of the building.

In my growing up years lego was by far my favourite toy (hmm... it still is ... am I grown up yet?).

But the sets we got were very much on the small size (due of course to the monstrous costs the good folks at the lego company have always charged for their products).

So to have this flood of pieces - and to be building this one big building was phenomenal.  It really was a three dimensional puzzle.  The same joy of seeing piece fit with piece and make something beautiful, the same delight in seeing the jumbled chaos of random bits at the beginning slowing whittle itself down to nothing - and instead form a complete whole.

Enoch was in his element (as was his dad too).   As the days went by we managed to squeeze in the odd building session - and were always thrilled to see another big step forward.

 The ingenuity of the plans were a source of marvel.  On one hand the ability to render curves of domes through layers of small white pieces.

On the other hand the way that certain pieces were marshalled into ways that I had never thought of.

And all along the gradual development of the familiar lines of the Taj Mahal.

As we came nearer to the end we started running out of some of the pieces.  Not many - considering the huge number in the set - but enough to be seen 'from the outside.'

This brought us to dip into the lego hoard that we have built up over the years.

Some pieces were found - exactly like the missing ones.  Others were the same but a slightly different colour.

And in a few cases we had to engineer a slightly different way forward.

 And then we came to today.

The main structure was ready yesterday - we just needed to rejig the little cupolas on the top.

Dig, dig, dig... can you find me a flat 2x4 white piece?   Dig, dig, dig.  The sound of lego pieces tumbling over each other.

And finally it was finished.  We had summitted.  There were clear skies and views all around us!

Many a person has taken a picture with the Taj in the back-ground - acting like they are picking up the Taj by their fingers.  Well - how about a shot of a giant of a boy actually touching the top of this august building!

The building is just a thrill to look at.

Hats off to the lego designers who have so elegantly minituarised this beautiful structure - and given it such a royal look!

And being lego - you don't just build something, you play with it.

Lunch break was over for me - and I had to go back to work - so Enoch took over.

Apparently some tourists showed up with their cameras.

Pictures have to be taken of course - I mean - what's the use of going to someplace if you can't have a shot of yourself their to prove that you have been there and been seen!

We just got over with the building and had to clean up stuff - but I am pretty sure that there will be a whole gang of 'good guys' and 'robbers' that will probably be living out their chases and other exciting events in and around the Taj in the coming days.

We have started talking about seeing if we can recreate the famous gardens and ponds in front of the Taj too.

Let's see... but till then, we savour the outcome of 3 weeks of building (albeit in a quantum way).

The Taj is finished!

And since my darling bride and I actually went to Agra for part of our honey-moon (the other part at Ranthambhore National Park), I think that we need to have one more shot.

Not a full moon-light picture, but here is the Taj at night!