Agra Fort and Sikandra

The days go by so quickly and we are now in Varanasi.

I want to present this collage of Agra Fort and of Sikandra, Akbar’s tomb. It seems easier and less time consuming to post photos rather than write. I seem to have so little time to blog on this trip.

Agra Fort and Sikandra (Akhbar’s Tomb) were built in the 1600’s, but they look as if they were built more recently. The inlay work of semiprecious stone on marble or marble on red stone is so well preserved and the colors bright.

Ah, India! India is madness…India is sheer beauty. I have never met so many kind people who are quick to smile, eager to reach out in the sweetest ways. Arvind helps us decipher India’s complexity. He brings the very stones and ancient fountains to life with stories of emperors, their wives, their concubines. When he talks and describes the life of the court, I smell fragrant rose petals floating in pools, veils and carpets hanging from ceilings, fans moving via the efforts of human labor hidden behind walls, and I see men being smuggled into the concubine quarters and risking death in order to be with the trapped beauties who are forever hidden from the public eye, to be used only for the emperor’s occasional pleasure. We are disgusted by stories of murder or incest and giggle at presumed theories of “miraculous pregnancies” via an impotent ruler.

My photos below focus on the details that delight us: the exquisite art, architecture, dazzling colors, and textiles. What I will never be able to capture via words or photos is the intensity of this place, of how, simultaneously, one can be BOTH delighted and, turn around, be disgusted or shocked. Sometimes, it is the constant buzzing and humming of a billion heartbeats going every which way that floors you. All I can say is that I LOVE India. It’s EVERYTHING all at once!

Collage below is to music and shows each photo separately…about 5 minutes long..