Courtly love, 1954

It&rsquos hard not to feel touched by this 1954 photo from the personal album of the Queen Grandmother of Bhutan. In it, Bhutan&rsquos third king Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, a youthful 26, prefers to gaze at his queen Ashi Kesang Choeden Wangchuck, instead of the Taj Mahal, rising mistily like a romantic vision before them. King Jigme Dorji was the Father of Modern Bhutan ridding his people of the feudal system, creating its first parliament, high court, hospitals, and, upon China&rsquos invasion of its Tibetan flank, forging ties with India. But what&rsquos more likely to get us misty, is seeing the once-pristine Agra and the once-pellucid Yamuna, before heavy industries began their asphyxiating reign, and malls that looked like Lego parts walloped together by an angry child were still a distant nightmare.