Bush, Laura to miss the Taj

Washington, Feb 24 (UNI) US President George Bush and first lady Laura Bush will miss the world's most famous monument to love on their first visit to India.

Mr Bush has not broken the news to his wife that their tour itinerary doesn't include a stop at Agra to view the Taj Mahal. The President rues the fact that he has no say in the scheduling of his own trip.

''...look, if I were the scheduler, perhaps I would be doing things differently,'' Mr Bush told Indian journalists barely days before he starts his historic visit.

According to him, people who have seen the Taj are of the opinion that its pictures don't do it justice. ''It's one of the great magnificent sites of the world.'' Mr Bush is, however determined, that he is going to have to come back for the Taj, the 16th century marble mausoleum built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. ''I hope that I would be invited back sometime after this trip,'' he said.

After all it is this great monument which made his lucky predecessor Bill Clinton once famously say that there are only two kinds of people in the world, ''those who have seen the Taj Mahal and love it and those who have not seen the Taj and love it''.

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