Qutub Minar… some call it as tallest brick minaret of world, some call it an architecture marvel but I wonder why nobody seems to recognize the beauty of something which perhaps has characterized our history for centuries. The virtue of religious tolerance.

Ashoka pillar and Qutub standing side by side, is such an astonishing site. Why someone as staunch an Islam follower like Aibak and many others who contributed to Qutub Minar decided to keep the iron pillar and not bring it down? Its true that Qutub was built by demolishing many Jain temples, as is evident from ASI reports, but then why did they not demolish the Ashoka pillar? These reasons can be debated forever or they may not exist at all but certainly anyone who came to India and recognized its cultural diversity, sure survived for long. And those who failed to do so and pestered their will on us, perished… regaled to ranks of dacoits and invaders, not warriors and great rulers!!

To me Qutub Minar represents a weird combination of perhaps how our lives unfold. There is a unfinished Minar (Alai Minar) just across Qutub Minar, which was supposed to be built twice as tall as Qutub, but remained unfinished as Ala-lu-din, the conceiver of this idea, died even before the first level could be completed. And then there is Ashoka pillar. Sometimes even our greatest ideas fail and sometimes we survive and succeed even in face of adversities. How true!!!

This is perhaps what I learnt from my day with Qutub.