Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime. ― Mark Twain
Ever wonder what the Venetian Carnevale looks lik? Check out this fun video!
P.S., did you know? Carnevale takes place the week before Ash Wednesday, when Lent begins. The word carnevale means farewell to meat: Latin carne (meat) and vale (farewell).
Ciao!
When I landed at the Delhi airport last January, I was instantly ready to love with India!
My feeling was based simply upon this stunning first impression of contemporary art which represents timeless Indian culture in a simple, modern fashion.
First impressions ARE everything!
Nameste! See more after the jump.
I knew I had come to the right place! I was jet-lagged into next week, but I noticed this artwork! When a work of art can speak to me through the fog of severe jet-lag, I know I’ve hit the motherlode. India did not disappoint!
Arriving at the Indira Gandhi International Airport’s brand-new Terminal 3, filled me with a sense of awe. The incredible visual experience of this series of giant gesticulating hands, jutting from a wall of what look like copper discs, made me stop in my tracks in wonder. I like anything that has that power. It’s why I travel. It’s why I read. It’s why I study art and culture. It’s why I live.
Jaipur-based artist, Ayush Kasliwal, was commissioned to produce these giant, expressive hands. The builders of the new concourse of the truly modern airport were keen to give the terminal an Indian context, to infuse it with Indian values. The idea of the hands emerged as the winning concept, for all forms of Indian classical dance use hand gestures called mudras. Thus, mudras are a both a distinctly Indian and common vocabulary. The writer of this blog heartily adds her compliments to the designers. It really works!
If you’d like to know more about this stunning installation, please go to
Click to access DIALmudras.pdf
and
http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/friendly-gestures/638563/0
Do you see what I see?
Ha! I think not!
What is this madness, you ask:
Calcio Fiorentino is like a rugby death match played with hands and feet, but mostly fists. It may have begun as early as the first century A.D., as some believe, but it can definitely be traced to the early 16th century, when these basic rules were established: two teams of 27 members each are allowed to throw the ball over the goal in 50 minutes.
Each major Florentine neighborhood has a team as follows:
Santa Croce: Blue team or Azzurri
Santa Maria Novella: Red team or Rossi
Santo Spirito: White team or Bianchi
San Giovanni: Green team or Verdi
update: November 13, 2014, see this article for updated rules:
For those who prefer Italian.
Here’s how the garden looked today. Pretty awesome. I don’t think many words are necessary!
White camellias in bloom!
The pictures of the glossy green leaves above are a camellia shrub. You can see the flower buds swelling. They’ll open this winter.
Espaliered cotoneaster.
I think the red berries are a viburnum, judging from the leaves.
See the rock to the right of the lantern in the water? Two turtles sunning.
They were ready for their close-up shots.
This plant is this red…these are not flowers, they are leaves!
After arriving in Delhi on the heels of a 25 hour transit from the US, including a 14 hour flight over the NORTH POLE people!! from Seattle to Dubai, I snuck off to my hotel room for a few hours of sleep. Later I joined friends for a tour of Old Delhi on the back of a bicycle rickshaw through the Chandni Chowk market.. It was the most uncomfortable ride of my life and, of course, it was raining, and I don’t know if it was the lack of sleep, or the fact that I had entered a very different world, but I felt like I was on an acid trip. The pink turban of the man in front of me was my bicycle rider/driver. I was in his rickshaw.
Some of my pictures are blurry because he kept us moving. Some are a little bit more clear, but only because he paused for a moment to let the masses of humanity and animals pass us. He never gave passage on purpose, but only because he was driven to it by a lack of chance. I got my first lesson in what it takes to survive in India. Reticence and fine manners are really low on that list.
Yeah, so it was a blur and it was chaotic all around me. And then you notice the electrical wiring and you just wonder how India can operate at all.
And, I gotta say, I never stopped puzzling that last statement for the whole month I was there. I still don’t know any answers.
Tango in Florence
The Taj Mahal.
Just the mention of the name brings forth notions of exotic, white-marbled opulence. The name means “crown of palaces” in Arabic and Persian, and most people know there is a story of romance behind the structure.
The Taj was built in the 17th century by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, seen here standing on the dome of the world:
in memory of his third wife, the Persian princess known as Mumtaz Mahal, who died while giving birth to their 14th child. OMG, poor thing. Here she is:
The Taj is universally recognized as the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the great masterpieces of the world heritage. It is one of the seven wonders of the world.
The complex of buildings that creates the vast Taj Mahal is the finest extant example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Islamic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish, and Indian architectural styles.
While the white domed mausoleum is the most familiar component of the Taj Mahal, it is actually an integrated complex of structures as seen in the following CAD design.
Here’s another computerized representation of the complex.
Thousands of artisans were employed to create the vast complex. Typically, Indian architecture used red sandstone as a primary building material, but the Emperor had the Taj constructed in white Indian marble inlaid with precious and semi-precious stones.
The marble dome that surmounts the tomb is the most spectacular feature, and is decorated with a lotus design, which accentuates its height.
The dome and chattris (smaller domed kiosks on the sides) are topped by a gilded finial, which mixes traditional Persian and Hindustani decorative elements.
The finial is topped by a moon, a typical Islamic motif whose horns point upward towards the heavens. When you add the horns of the moon and the finial point of the main spire, you obtain a trident shape, which may be a reference to the traditional Hindu symbols of Shiva.
Four minarets frame the tomb, one at each corner of the supporting plinth. The minarets, which are each 130 feet tall, are working minarets used by the muezzin to call the Islamic faithful to prayer.
Each minaret is effectively divided into three equal parts by two working balconies that ring the tower. At the top of the tower is a final balcony surmounted by a chattri that mirrors the design of those on the tomb.
The main chamber houses the false sarcophagi of both the princess Mumtaz Mahal, and for her husband, Shah Jahan; their actual graves are at a lower level. I will be showing the interior in Part 3 of these blogs on the Taj. Stay tuned.
I included many shots of the inlay at the Taj in my post entitled “This is India 4. Let’s look at inlaid tiles and other patterns.” Please have a look at that post for more Taj details. Thanks!
In the meantime, feast your eyes on some more views of the exterior. It is a very photogenic structure to say the least!
Gorgeous, no?
get back, lauretta! 
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