The Taj Mahal, described as a symbol of eternal love, stands silently and imposingly on the southern bank of the Yamuna River in Agra, India. Its marble serenity has fascinated poets, emperors, photographers, historians, and travellers from all corners of the world. Yet, beyond its pristine symmetry and poetic aura lies another reality, one that's vibrant, pulsating, and deeply human: the lives that unfold around the Taj Mahal. For me, it became a frame through which to observe the symphony of life moving around it.

This photo series is not about the monument itself, but the human stories that orbit it daily. I walked the surrounding alleys before dawn, lingered through sunny afternoons, and sat quietly with locals who shared stories of the Taj not as tourists, but as neighbours. I witnessed how the monument breathes into their lives, not merely as history, but as heartbeat, even livelihood.

The Yamuna, once a life-giving river that nourished Mughal gardens and fed the imperial imagination, now meanders past the Taj Mahal, a neglected, polluted, and toxic shadow of its former self. Yet, the river remains vital. The birds that still soar over its surface, the fishermen who cast their nets into its depths, and the children who play in its waters are all reminders of an increasingly endangered and age-old connection between the Taj, Yamuna, and human life. 

Then there are the small settlements from Kachhpura to Nagla Dhimar and Mehtab Bagh—boatmen, street vendors, rickshaw-pullers, workers, and a thousand regular lives. Many of them rely indirectly on the Taj Mahal through tourism and heritage commerce. Artisans who create marble inlay souvenirs mimic the Parchinkari or Pietra Dura patterns of the Taj, while families who’ve lived here for generations share oral histories, songs, and myths about the monument and the emperors who built it. 

This is not a tribute to a monument. This is a tribute to the humanity that surrounds it. This is life around the Taj.