The Taj Mahal

To the outsider (or maybe just to me), the Taj Mahal is the ultimate tribute to love and devotion, a jewel encrusted white marble teardrop on the face of human history that testifies to the empty spaces loved ones leave in our hearts when they leave our living world forever. But it makes me wonder.... who was this man, really? and even more, who was this woman? It's easy to imagine unyielding love between them because of the size and grandeur of the monument built for her, but what was the truth behind the facade? What was this mother of 14 like? The man that she loved? Why did their son imprison his father to live out the remainder of his days from a cell where he could only gaze out over his monument in sadness? The spaces inside the Taj Mahal echo with emptiness- are they the reflections of a life once lived? Which truths do they hold?