This is my third visit to India, and each subsequent trip takes me back to my first in 1989. My friend Melissa asked me to travel with her during the university summer holidays and - not having thought it through fully, in my usual style - I accepted immediately.

It was a wonderful trip, and I’ve still got fond memories…
- the overwhelming experience of travelling in to the heart of Delhi from the airport, the first introduction to the Indian style of driving
- a perfect and idyllic bakery hidden in the heart of Kathmandu
- an intense (and ultimately unsuccessful) battle to hold onto a sleeping carriage travelling from Kathmandu to Agra

… but above all, seeing the Taj Mahal for the first time.

The other day here in Mumbai, I met a couple of Irish lads who’d just had an unhappy experience at the Taj - too busy, too touristy, too much. But for me, that first visit was magic.

We arrived after a three day train journey at 5am on Christmas Day. We went straight from the station to the Taj and were first through the gates when they opened. Finally, the Taj emerged from the dawn mist - and really for the first time I saw something whose beauty far surpassed the pictures

It’s amazing for a number of reasons - the 20 or so semiprecious stones in the marble, the legendary Black Taj that was supposed to have been built across the river, the austerity of the mausoleum inside.

But here’s what I’ve been thinking about today. The four towers on each corner of the Taj each lean slightly away from the building itself. The reason they’re slightly off centre? In the case of an earthquake or some other calamity, the towers will fall away from the Taj protecting the building itself.

I love that as a way of thinking: that by leaning away you can provide greater protection than leaning towards.

So…

Who or what might you be protecting?

And how could you “lean away” to give it greater protection?