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
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.
Here’s what I know: You can pick just about any topic in the world and the variety of that topic in India is infinite. Absolutely.
Let’s take the subject of gorgeous inlaid tiles found in so many Islamic buildings throughout the world. I loved them in Andalucia, Spain; I loved them in Morocco; and, not surprisingly, I loved them in India. Of course the Indian tiles have a distinctly Indian flavor; how could they not?
The palette of colors is completely “Indian.” Similar applications of tiles in Islamic buildings in Morocco and Spain have a completely different palette.
For example: here’s Morocco
And here is an example from the Alhambra in Spain:
It was in Spain that I first fell in love with Islamic architecture and decorative arts.
So, now you see how different the Indian palette of colors is.
And then there are these incredibly complex ceilings in some old Indian major monuments, completely unlike anything in Morocco or Spain. This one fascinates me.
Then there are the carved traceries (carved stone) that cover so many windows and other openings.
Just look at the amazing use of inlaid tiles. Every piece hand cut.
The photo above and the one below are taken looking up along an outer wall of the Taj Mahal.
My pedicure blends in with the palette of tile work. I am wearing slippers from my hotel room. You bring them with you in your bag because you will be required to remove shoes at the entrance to monuments. But, if you bring your slippers or socks, you can wear them. Stone tile floors are cold in February on a misty morning!
A stucco ceiling.
And the cut out metal lanterns create amazing patterns. This is not at Taj, but the pattern the light casts on the wall reminds me of the traceries found at the Taj and other places throughout beautiful India.
And finally for today, here is a huge wall well, which means there is a well at the bottom of this wall with the stairs leading ever downward in these incredibly intricate patterns. It is mind-bogglingly beautiful.
The Baptistry in Firenze, all dolled up in 60’s pop colors. Hmmm. I wonder where this is headed…stay tuned, ragazzi!
get back, lauretta! 
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