me in front of the taj mahal
Archive for February, 2008
almost done
The backlog of Indian photos is almost clear. And then I suppose this blog can resume its normally-scheduled programming, which has been completely laid to waste by the strain of having to form my experience in India into meaningful or amusing narratives.
agra fort
Agra
Photos from UP are starting to make their way onto the internets. It has been over a month since my return from India, and I am still not done post-processing! Next time, I am leaving the camera at home.
its in his eyes
There is a long story here. I hope you can see it, because I am too exhausted to tell it.
night Time
hawa mahal
oh the sights and smells of the bazaar
janter manter
On our second afternoon in Jaipur, we hit up some of the usual highlights (City Palace, Janter Manter), and some less-famous ones (Royal Gaitor). City Palace is poor way to waste 200 rupees; it’s largely uninspiring and as evocative as a block of ham. Janter Manter, on the other hand, strikes me as a 400-year-old abstract art park.
Jai Singh II built this one (of four total in India). It houses a slew of large astrological/astronomical devices. Some sundials tell time with remarkable accuracy (provided you can read the bloody thing) and others mark auspicious days for marriage, battle, and probably ovulation.
We visited just before sundown, and lighting was dramatic.
We forwent hiring a tour guide, resigning ourselves to complete ignorance as to each devices’ operation. Instead, I wandered around, snapped photos, and just enjoyed the day. Highly recommended.
Amber Fort
While in Jaipur, we visited the famous Amber Fort. It was by far my favorite of the Mughal forts I visited in India.
It is set strategically at hilltop, so as to be repellant towards invaders. There is a bonus dramatic effect earned here, in addition to a relative quiet solitude not found in other Indian forts that are, well, still bedeviled by the usual din.
Middle-class Indian tourists, busing in from all over the country, packed the fort. Their presence comforted me. I felt less like an exploitative invader, as if feeling, “See? They’re enjoying their country too.”
In one part, Hindus rushed the entrance of the Shri Sila Devi temple, as a groundskeeper tried to close the doors and place a large closed-for-noontime signpost in their path. It was like watching the entrance to an ant colony being overwhelmed by a mass of swarming ants, its own ants, and all the ants purposefully flout all chemical trails and directions. That’s like India, actually, generally.
Indians are not immune to the temptations of defacement, even of their own monuments.
There were guards.
There were also tourists.
godzilla
NY Times: Four undersea cable lines have been severed; no one knows why. The whole article reads like a piece of viral marketing for Cloverfield. Read until the creepy end.
the very essense of modern india
