A Seattle Story Since 1982

DiscoveryOne Journey to India. One Thing to Bring Home.

On my first trip to India, I went simply because I wanted to experience the country for myself.

I didn't know much about India then.

I wasn't traveling for business. I wasn't looking for products or thinking about opening an Indian store.

I went to explore.

I traveled with only my carry-on and told myself I would bring home just one thing from India.

That one thing was a statue of Ganesha.

When I returned to Seattle, I placed Ganesha on a table in my living room.

A few days later, I looked at him sitting there alone and had a simple thought:

Something is missing from this table.

I decided to look for an Indian store in downtown Seattle.

My search led me to Taj Mahal Emporium.

ConnectionThe Store That Had Been There All Along

At the time, Taj Mahal was located near Pike Place Market, only a few blocks from where I worked.

I had worked in downtown Seattle for more than nine years.

I knew downtown. I had passed through that area countless times.

Yet I had never walked into Taj Mahal.

Until that day.

When I entered, I met Rani, whose husband, Varindra, had founded Taj Mahal in 1982.

She greeted me and asked what had brought me in.

I didn't really have an answer.

I told her I was simply looking around to see if I could find something to take home.

Then I saw a statue that immediately caught my attention.

It was Shiva and Parvati.

I didn't know who they were, so I asked Rani.

She simply told me:

"They're Ganesha's parents."

Suddenly, I knew exactly where they belonged.

I bought the statue and took Shiva and Parvati home.

TransformationThen Came a Moment I Never Forgot

The following day, I placed Shiva and Parvati on the table beside Ganesha.

I didn't know there was anything significant about that particular day.

Then Rani called me.

She told me that it was Maha Shivaratri, the sacred Hindu festival devoted to Shiva.

I had no idea.

And then she said something I have never forgotten:

"You are blessed. Today is Shivaratri, and Shiva has arrived in your home with Parvati."

I looked at the three figures together — Ganesha, Shiva and Parvati — and something about that moment stayed deeply with me.

By then, I already knew that something was changing within me.

I was beginning my own spiritual journey.

I was becoming more introspective, questioning things I had once taken for granted and becoming more aware of a transformation taking place inside me.

I didn't yet know where that transformation would lead.

What I did know was that I was changing.

Only later would I begin to understand why Shiva's arrival during that particular moment of my life felt so meaningful to me.

In Hindu tradition, Shiva represents profound transformation — the dissolution of what has completed its purpose and the possibility of renewal and creation.

When I began learning more about Shiva, that symbolism resonated deeply with what I was already experiencing within myself.

Old ways of seeing my life were beginning to fall away.

I was questioning, learning, becoming more conscious and beginning to experience my life differently.

I was awakening to something I couldn't yet fully explain.

And there was Shiva.

Not because I had gone looking for him.

Not because I knew it was Shivaratri.

I had simply walked into Taj Mahal, seen a statue that caught my attention, asked who they were, and brought Shiva and Parvati home to join Ganesha.

Looking back today, I don't experience that moment as a coincidence.

I experience it as one of the first moments when I began to recognize something that has become increasingly clear to me throughout my journey:

Sometimes transformation begins long before we understand where it is taking us.

TrustWhat Changed Was the Way I Walked

I didn't know then where my spiritual path would lead me.

And I still don't.

Perhaps none of us consciously knows where our path will ultimately take us. Perhaps, somewhere deeper, only the soul knows.

What has changed in me is not that I now know the road ahead.

What has changed is the way I walk it.

Before, I walked into the unknown with fear and doubt.

Today, I walk with trust, confidence and certainty.

Not certainty about what will happen tomorrow, but certainty that God guides my steps and illuminates my path.

Because of that, I no longer live afraid of where the road may take me.

I trust that whatever I encounter along the way — even something I may not understand when it happens — can ultimately be for my highest good.

I don't need to see the entire road.

I don't need to know the destination.

I simply keep walking — trusting that God guides my steps, that whatever I encounter along the way can ultimately serve my highest good, and that wherever this journey leads, I can meet it with peace, confidence and trust in my heart.

FriendshipAn Unexpected Connection

That first visit to Taj Mahal had created another connection as well.

Rani and I had started talking that day.

She asked me where I worked, and I told her that I was just a couple of blocks away at Simple Life, the women's boutique I own in downtown Seattle.

Her response surprised me.

She was a regular Simple Life customer.

She had been coming into my store to buy clothing, and yet somehow we had never really met.

Now, in her store, we did.

That conversation became the beginning of a friendship.

Over time, Rani learned more about me, my continuing travels to India and the connection I was developing with the country.

And I began to learn more about her, her family and the history of Taj Mahal.

LegacyThe Legacy Rani Wanted to Preserve

Taj Mahal was founded by Varindra in 1982.

What began as a spice store evolved over the decades into a destination for Indian handicrafts, textiles, statues, incense, clothing, jewelry and treasures from India.

After Varindra passed away in 2019, Rani continued caring for the store and the legacy they had built together.

Eventually, she decided it was time to retire.

But Taj Mahal represented more than a business.

It carried decades of her family's history and the legacy Varindra had created.

She wanted that legacy to continue.

And one day, Rani asked me a question I had never imagined she would ask:

Would I consider taking over Taj Mahal?

I had never walked into that store thinking I would someday own it.

But once again, life had placed another step in front of me.

And I took it.

New ChapterA New Chapter for Taj Mahal

In March 2025, I became the next caretaker of Taj Mahal Emporium.

For the following year, I continued operating Taj Mahal in its longtime Pike Place Market location.

I learned the store from the inside.

I met longtime customers.

I listened to its stories.

And I began to understand what this little store had meant to people for more than four decades.

Then, in March 2026, it was time for another step.

We moved Taj Mahal into a larger home at:

215 Pine Street
Seattle, Washington

Just two blocks from Pike Place Market.

The location changed.

The story continued.

India TodayHonoring What Came Before. Creating What Comes Next.

Today, Taj Mahal continues to carry many of the treasures that have been part of its identity for decades — clothing, jewelry, statues, incense, textiles, spiritual pieces and handcrafted goods from India.

At the same time, a new chapter is taking shape.

My journeys to India continue, but today I experience them differently.

I travel to discover pieces for Taj Mahal, build relationships, learn, and continue exploring a country that entered my life long before I understood the role it would eventually play.

Today, my journeys to India are also about the people behind the pieces we bring to Taj Mahal — the artisans, makers and relationships that continue to shape our collection.

The FutureSomething New Is Growing

My experiences in India have also inspired something new.

Today, we are developing our own Taj Mahal Signature Collection — original creations made in India exclusively for Taj Mahal.

The collection began with our Body Oils and has continued to grow with original Aroma Oils, Secret Flame Incense, Divine Dhoop and new creations still to come.

Some of what we are creating is also connected to my own continuing personal and spiritual journey.

This is not about changing what Taj Mahal has been.

It is about honoring what came before while allowing something new to grow beside it.

I don't know what the final chapter will look like.

And perhaps I'm not supposed to know yet.

For now, I continue doing what this journey has taught me to do:

I explore. I trust. I keep walking.

The Story Continues

More than four decades after Varindra opened Taj Mahal in Seattle, the story he began continues.

I will always be grateful to Rani and her family for trusting me with something that carries so much of their history.

Today, I have the privilege of carrying that story forward while allowing a new one to grow alongside it.

And when I look back — from that first journey to India, to Ganesha, to Shiva and Parvati, to meeting Rani, and finally to Taj Mahal becoming part of my own journey — I am reminded again of something I have come to believe deeply:

I don't believe in coincidences.

Sometimes you go looking for something.

Sometimes something finds you.

And sometimes, only much later, when you look back at the path you have traveled, do you begin to understand how the pieces were connected all along.

This is where my journey and the journey of Taj Mahal met.

And now, together, the story continues.

Come in. Take your time. Explore.

You never know what may be waiting to find you.