centuries ago when mughal emperor shah jahan cast his melancholic lovelorn gaze on the marble dome rising in commemoration of his favourite queen mumtaz little did he realize that the real tragedy was not in the passing of his beloved but in the future preservation of the taj mahal itself nearly 350 years after its construction the greatest threat to the building came from uttar pradeshs chief minister whose life purpose appears to be selfpromotion through grand public gestures she proposed a corridor of malls that would allow tourists to shop their way across agra from one monument to anothernow the agra development authority ada has come up with an equally harebrained and controversial scheme a ropeway to connect agra fort and taj mahal via mehtab bagh while a massive london eye replica nearby allows an aerial view of agra in one fell swoop the tourist covers three important monuments without suffering the indignities of urban indian lifeis tourist convenience the primary reason to maintain heritage taking the taj ropeway idea to its logical conclusion should a covered walkway be built right up to the main structure for those visiting the monument during the monsoons and for those hot agra days a 400tonne airconditioning unit installed under the dome are history and archaeology of value only when viewed through the eyes of japanese and american visitors on a sixdayfivenight tour of the golden triangledoubtless earnings from tourism are not to be scoffed at when they pay for the upkeep of major monuments but surely the success of any tourist itinerary is also linked to cultural experience rather than just controlled glimpses of isolated landmarks if the ada has the funds for ropeways and ferris wheels as indeed it seems to the money may be better spent on upgrading tourism facilities resurrecting the original recreating the scents and plantations of the mughal garden and using technology interactively to draw the tourist into the folds of courtly life besides if the authority were to use the opportunity to restructure the existing streets and connections to the monuments it might be better for agras residents what is good for tourism should also be good for a citys economyunfortunately the government conveniently uses technology as a means to bypass its resigned acceptance of dirt noise and filth as the eternal condition of agra london eyes cable cars and sky lifts are not merely seen as tourist conveniences but become a source of pride in a nation that sorely lacks such symbolswhen built more people will come to see the agra eye than agra there is however another angle to the hitech venture much of agras historic architecture is based on the mughal ideal of spatial invisibility you move through courts and buildings in a soft focus of surprise and revelation every movement orchestral and controlled high walls enclose in them gateways reveal only a partial section of that experienceyou walk along an axis in a sequence of courtyard to garden to building