In fact, one of the men who built the wondrous Taj was the man who started my family’s lineage. He came to Agra to work on the Taj Mahal and started a family here, as did many others. The monument gave rise to a community of people whose livelihood became marble inlaying work.

The intricate designs on the Taj, or the small souvenirs given as gifts are all painstakingly designed and made by one of us.

Nowadays in and around the Taj Mahal, there are several shops and in the country several hundred shops that sell souvenirs and artifacts that use the marble inlaying work of the Taj Mahal. All the artifacts are designed by our community in Agra and then distributed all over the country.

I am 45-years-old and learnt the art from my father, who again learnt it from his father. In our community the inlaying art has been handed down father to son through centuries. There is no written manual or instructions. It’s in our blood and in our minds.

We have often been criticized for keeping the art within our community, refusing to share it with people from other communities. I don’t think that is true. I feel that the work is too strenuous and poorly paid for other people to attempt it. We are attracted to it because it's in our blood.

Inlaying work requires a lot of patience and integrity. We have to work stooping over for hours. My fingers are all bruised. When I walk, I walk with a stoop. My eyesight is also very bad - my eyesight is that of an old man. I have to wear high-powered glasses.

The work doesn’t pay us much. We design the artifacts and chisel them out on the marble, but the artifacts are sold by middlemen and they keep a lion’s share of the profit.

While an artifact sells for anything between $100 to $1000 we get paid $100 monthly. That is nothing compared to the work that we do. However, we have not learnt any other trade and we have to stick to this one.

It is not just a trade for us but our identity too.

We go out of Agra often to work in different parts of the country but always come back. This place is a part of our history and tradition. We came into existence from here. Our community is the only one which has been continuing this art for centuries and we cannot abandon that.

So, even my two sons who have gone to school and college have now joined me in this work. We feel proud that we are the bearers of a very old chapter in history.

However, I do worry that slowly this art is going to die out as more and more young people are attracted to work elsewhere for more money. Already I see young people breaking away and starting in different professions.

The belief in the work, the drive to continue the tradition that helps me to ignore the physical and financial difficulties is slowly seeping away.