Raj Ghat, Delhi

Posted on May 22, 2025 by admin

Still a chill in the air here in Illinois, but a bit warmer, so we’re on a slow climb back to real spring. Back to posting on May 27. In its float around late May, Memorial Day is four days earlier than Decoration Day this year.

Chilly, maybe, but that hasn’t discouraged the back yard irises.

A gift from a neighbor last year – some bulbs that we planted in the patch of land that, decades ago, had been a garden. That isn’t quite what I’d call it now. More of a back yard feature whose greenery towers over the ordinary lawn grass.

Not just irises. On the other side of the yard:

Raj Ghat was one of the first places we went in India. Its centerpiece is a memorial dedicated to Gandhi, in the middle of a large green square surrounded by walls. The black marble platform marks the spot of his cremation on January 31, 1948.

Outside the walls is more green space. A popular spot for school groups, looks like.

Nearby is the National Gandhi Museum. Considering that he’s Father of the Nation, not many people were there, but I suppose school groups show up regularly to enliven the place. Overall, the memorial seemed to be more of a draw.

On the grounds of the museum.

The plain rooms of the museum featured a lot of photos of Gandhi and text to go with it. For someone who lived before digital photography, his image was certainly captured by a lot of cameras. There were also a few artifacts, including one large one.

The vehicle used to carry his remains to Raj Ghat for cremation. I thought of the wagon I’d seen in Atlanta used for a similar melancholy purpose.

I can’t leave it at that.

Seen at the museum’s entrance.

Amer Fort, Jaipur

Posted on May 21, 2025 by admin

Something that greater Jaipur had that Agra and Delhi didn’t seem to: hills. Impressive hills.

The thing to do with a hill, at least in pre-modern times, is to build a fort on it. Or perhaps a fort with palace-like elements, or a palace with fort-like elements. In any case, Man Singh I, Maharaja of Amer (or Amber), a Rajput princely state, ordered the construction of Amer Fort (Amber Fort) in the late 16th century. He wasn’t a Mughal, but worked for one: Akbar. When the emperor needed an enemy crushed militarily in pursuit of imperial expansion, Man Singh, a Hindu devotee of Krishna, was his man.

Even arriving by car, the uphill trip took a while, winding along narrow, busy roads to a place without enough parking. That was the driver’s concern. He dropped us off and we walked a bit further to the fort.

It’s expansive.

Amer is in fact one of six forts in the area that form a World Heritage Site.

“The series of six massive hill forts are architectural manifestations of Rajput valour, bravery, feudalism and cultural traditions, documented in several historic texts and paintings of the medieval and late medieval period in India,” UNESCO notes.

“Their elaborate fortifications, built to protect not only garrisons for defence but also palatial buildings, temples, and urban centres, and their distinctive Rajput architecture, are an exceptional testimony to the cultural traditions of the ruling Rajput clans.”

Amer displays the kind of intricate work one comes to expect after seeing a half-dozen monumental Indian structures. It seemed like much of the rest of India had come to see the superb craftsmanship, too.

Something I didn’t expect: Amer Fort toilets.

Remarkably, there is information online about these and other toilets for the relief of important people of the Indian past: “An Insight Into The Royal Mughal Toilets” by one Dr. Atul Kumar Singh Parmar.

Fatehpur Sikri, Uttar Pradesh

Posted on May 20, 2025 by admin

Here we are, in a cold May. Cold and today, rainy. Cold in April is one thing, but in May? Not wintertime freezing cold, of course, but nearly refrigerator chilly. Too cold to lounge around on the deck, which is pretty much my definition of atmospheric chill.

The cold came after considerable warmth last week, even a day that felt hot, during which a dust storm blew through northern Illinois. We didn’t feel the brunt of the storm, just a gusty and dusty edge of it. In all the years I’ve been here, I don’t remember any other Chicagoland-spanning dust storms. Odd.

Out of curiosity, I checked temps in Agra and Jaipur today. At about 2 am IST – the middle of the night – it was 90° F. in Agra. Tomorrow: Abundant sunshine. Hazy. High 106° F. Winds light and variable. As for Jaipur, middle of the night temp, 93° F. Tomorrow: Sunny, along with a few afternoon clouds. Hazy. High 112° F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph.

Zounds. Between Agra and Jaipur, on National Highway 21, is the border of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. This is what it looked like, leaving Uttar Pradesh, headed for Jaipur.

Behold, the National Highway system of India. Infrastructure, by the looks of it, that is reaping enormous economic benefits. The roads were renumbered in 2010. News of that didn’t reach my part of North America, or if it did, it was a squib of an item, lost in the news churn. Under the new(ish) numbering scheme in India, east-west highways are numbered odd, while north-south ones are even, the opposite of the U.S. Interstate system. The numbers increase as you go west or south. Again, the opposite.

Imagine the government committee meetings, the endless, hours-long committee meetings, that must have gone into renumbering the roads. Was there a bureaucratic faction that pushed not to be like the Interstate system, as a matter of national pride?

Near the border along NH 21, but still in Uttar Pradesh, is Fatehpur Sikri, which Akbar, the third Mughal emperor, made his capital for a little more than a decade in the 16th century. A short-time capital it might have been, but Akbar didn’t think small when it came to developing Fatehpur Sikri – Mughal potentates never thought small, it seems – and so left behind some World Heritage-class sites (and indeed, it is on the UNESCO list).

When we arrived, temps were nowhere near 100+ F. Maybe 80° F. or so, which I count as pleasant.

Turn up the heat another 20° or so, and those broad stone courtyards wouldn’t be that pleasant for tourists or touts.

The stonemasons, as usual, did wonders with red sandstone.

Unlike any other big-deal historic site we visited in India in February, roving vendors were allowed inside the complex at Fatehpur Sikri. The vendors tend to swarm, especially if you buy anything from anyone at any moment – as I did, a necklace for Yuriko. I might as well have painted a DayGlo rupee symbol (₹) on my back.

Never mind, Fatehpur Sikri was up to high Mughal standards: a splendor. In one courtyard, an array of Mughal tombs caught my attention, marking resting places on a less grand scale than the likes of the Taj or the Baby Taj.

Royalty gets royal treatment after death, but so many other people were involved in running a court, and they deserved dignified entombments, too. Such as, for example, the overseer of the royal flyswatters. (Servant jobs were very specific in those days.)

I hope our guide for a couple of hours at Fatehpur Sikri got a cut, one way or another, of what we paid to hire the car and driver, on top of the tip we gave him directly. He told us a good many interesting things about the town and its history, but nothing quite as interesting as how an uptick in tourism — mostly domestic tourists, I bet — had allowed him enough money to buy a motorcycle a few years earlier. “Changed our lives completely,” was how he put the impact on his family.

His brother had a souvenir stall near the historic sites, and a clubfoot. We drank tea with them, and in lieu of buying something, I gave him a tip as well. Could be he’s saving for a motorcycle, too, or needs gas money if he’s got one already.

The Tomb of I’timād-ud-Daulah

Posted on May 19, 2025 by admin

As a tourist in Agra, the thing to do is visit the Taj Mahal last. Anything seen after the Taj will pale in comparison, however grand the edifice. So after the Agra Fort, and toward the end of our first day in that city, we visited the Tomb of I’timād-ud-Daulah, with Taj Mahal slated for early the next morning.

Go through a finely styled gate.

From there, it isn’t far to the mausoleum.

An exquisite work. How is carving in stone like that possible? It’s impossibly intricate. It’s also always compared to the top masterpiece that is the Taj, which is not far away. More modest than the Taj, but with some clear similarities. This tomb came first by a few decades, so it would be the inspiration. There is a reason the Tomb of I’timād-ud-Daulah is also called “Bachcha Taj” or the “Baby Taj.”

“What makes the tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah stand out from its contemporary structures, undoubtedly is the overwhelming decorative technique that was used — its polychrome profuse ornamentation consisting of intricate florals, stylized arabesques, abstract geometrical designs, mosaic kaleidoscope techniques enriched with splendid ornamentation in semi precious and rare stones inlay and exquisite carvings that resembles the finest of lace,” explains Outlook Traveler.

“All these were mostly inspired by plant studies and motifs of vivid flora and fauna with a distinguished influence of Persian heritage drawn by masterful artisans and craftsmen of Persia who worked at the Mughal court.”

All that made me think of the outline for a bit of sketch comedy, though a bit that assumes that most people have heard of the Baby Taj, and how it compares with the regular full-sized Taj. So not a realistic idea for a sketch that North Americans or western Europeans might respond to. Still, imagine Mitchell and Webb doing the following. Or rather an Indian comic duo equivalent, to abide by modern sensibilities. Say, Mitchell-like and Webb-like. There must be someone.

The setup would be the architect hired to design Tomb of I’timād-ud-Daulah has submitted plans – which are visible to the audience – and they look suspiciously like the Taj Mahal as we know it. The architect meets with the Grand Vizier to discuss the plans (would that actually happen? Never mind, the rule of funny). I imagine Mitchell-like would be the architect, Webb-like the Grand Vizier.

Grand Vizier — We rather like your design, but we want a few tweaks.

Architect — Tweaks?

— Yeah, you know, little things. But we do think your design is wonderful. Too wonderful, in fact.

— What does that mean? What do you want to change?

— Well, it’s a bit large.

— Large?

— Yes, the building. The main one. We were hoping for something, you know, a bit more modest. Yes, that’s it. Modest. Scale it down.

— But it wouldn’t be the same.

— And the dome. That’s a little much, don’t you think?

— No dome?

— Well, something should be up there. Let’s call it a roof element. Your dome’s just a little grand.

— But this is going to be the tomb of the great I’timād-ud-Daulah! The father-in-law of the emperor! Grand Vizier before you!

— And don’t we know it. A great man, for sure. But do you know how much stonemasons cost these days? I mean, really good ones. Oh, and don’t worry, we like the four minarets. That’s a classic. But those should be smaller too.

— Grand Vizier, I object. If I do say so myself, I’ve designed one of the greatest buildings in the world! If we make it smaller, it wouldn’t be that. It would be just another tomb.

— Well, now. Who is it that is paying you?

— You are, Grand Vizier.

— And who could, let’s say, make things pretty uncomfortable for you? We still have some space in our dungeons.

— You could, Grand Vizier.

— So…

— Smaller it is, Grand Vizier. More modest. Yes.

Agra Fort

Posted on May 18, 2025 by admin

“The sky turned the colour of molten copper,” wrote William Dalrymple in City of Djinns. “The earth cracked like a shattered windscreen. April gave way to May, and every day the heat grew worse.”

February, clearly, was the time to visit north-central India, basking in warm but not oppressive sun.

The first place we went in Agra wasn’t the Taj Mahal, which we would visit the next day, but Agra Fort, a massive red sandstone and marble complex associated (of course) with Mughal emperors, especially Humayun, who seized the site of an older structure, and Akbar, who put the structure in its current form, more or less.

“Akbar arrived in Agra in 1558,” says the Archaelogical Survey of India. “He ordered to renovate the fort with red sandstone. Some 4,000 builders daily worked on it and it was completed in eight years (1565-1573).”

The wall circumscribes sizable edifices on sizable green spaces.

Marvel at the detail.

Inner courtyard splendors.

“The walls of the roughly crescent-shaped structure have a circumference of about 1.5 miles (2.5 km), rise 70 feet (21 metres) high, and are surrounded by a moat… ” notes Britannica.

“Many structures within the walls were added later by subsequent Mughal emperors, notably Shah Jahān and Jahāngīr. The complex of buildings — reminiscent of Persian- and Timurid-style architectural features — forms a city within a city.”

Through a window, something familiar. At least from pictures.

Our first glimpse of the Taj Mahal.

“In addition to its other functions, the fort also served as a prison for Shah Jahān,” Britannica continues. “Aurangzeb, his son and successor as emperor, had him confined there from 1658 until his death in 1666.”

The story is that the deposed Shah Jahān spent his time gazing at the Taj Mahal, where his wife was entombed and, when the time came, he would be as well. There are worse places to be under house arrest.

The splendor continues under elegant arches.

No matter how grand, however, time will have its say, and the splendor we see is just a fraction of the total across the centuries.

“Abul Fazl, a court historian of Akbar, records that 5,000 buildings were built here beautifully in Bengali and Gujarati style,” says the Archaelogical Survey. “Most of these buildings have now disappeared. Shah Jahan himself demolished some of these in order to make room for his white marble palaces. Later, the British destroyed most of the buildings for raising barracks.”

Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection

Posted on May 15, 2025 by admin

Go to one of the newer galleries at the Art Institute of Chicago, at least until June 29, and these figures will greet you. Or at least stay still while you take a good look.

Marcus Aurelius is front and center, looking rather stoic, or should I say Stoic, with some contemporaries near him.

He doesn’t look that much like Alec Guinness. Or rather, Sir Alec doesn’t look much like him. Long ago, I watched The Fall of the Roman Empire in Latin class, one of those last week of the school year sort of activities, finding it a ridiculous mess, despite a stellar cast that included Guinness as the last Good Emperor, and lavish production values.

Also, as a fellow named John in the class pointed out, the movie left out good old Pertinax in its depiction of the events after the death of Commodus. “Where is he?” John said. “Pertinax came after Commodus.” Latin students were the sort likely to notice that kind of omission.

There’s the seed of a series of counterfactual novels: Pertinax survived for some years, re-establishing a chain of Good Emperors, thus preventing the chaos of the 3rd century and hey – Rome didn’t fall. Or something like that.

We’d come to the Art Institute, a few weeks ago now, to see Roman sculpture.

After spending time in Berlin seeing the same sort of ancient art, I couldn’t very well miss something so close to home. The collection owes its origin to Prince Giovanni Torlonia (d. 1829) and his son Prince Alessandro (d. 1886), who bought ancient works when the getting was good, and dug up other pieces at their extensive estates.

“The Torlonia Collection is not only the largest private collection of Roman marble sculptures in Italy, but it is also arguably the most important of such private collections in the world,” the Art Institute says. “Comprising 622 works and a wide range of sculptural types and subjects, its holdings rival those of major institutions in Europe, including the Capitoline and Vatican Museums.

“Nearly half of these sculptures, which range in date from the 5th century BCE to the early 4th century CE, have not been publicly displayed in more than 70 years and have been newly cleaned, conserved, and studied specifically for this exhibition, making for a spectacular opportunity to experience their first public presentation in decades.”

For once, a curated experience that reflects the actual meaning of that now abused word, since I’m assuming expert curators were involved. They had a great deal to work with besides imperial portraits.

Such as a sarcophagus depicting the Mighty Hercules at his Labors.

Its lid.

Makes you wonder who the last person was to see it, who knew the people depicted. A grandchild perhaps, now nearly as remote in time as sarcophagus itself. After that person was gone, the figures might have been revered as Noble Ancestors, but increasingly distant ones. Eventually — who were these people again? And so no one minded as the object slipped out of sight, only to be found much later by antiquarians of a remote posterity.

The exhibit included more than people in stone.

The signage for the exhibit included information I’d never seen depicted in quite this way.

Part of the history of these works now includes restorations done during centuries previous to ours, but still comparatively recent. That’s more information that you usual get at a display of ancient art, and I compliment the curators on it.

Return to the 400 Block of Main, Bloomington

Posted on May 13, 2025 by admin

Now that Ann has finished ISU, I expect two things: solicitations for donations will start, which she will probably deal with by ignoring them, and it will be much less likely that I will go to Bloomington-Normal, just as I haven’t been to Champaign-Urbana lately. With that in mind, I suggested a post-brunch visit on Saturday to the 400 block of Main Street, downtown Bloomington, home of 2 FruGALS Thrift.

The block is also home to Ivy Land Bakery (we bought cookies there once, and didn’t regret it), Exquisite Body Arts (I didn’t get a tattoo there, and don’t regret that either), the Velvet Daisy Shoppe, Merlot and A Masterpiece, That Dapper Pet, Megli Voice Studio, McLean County Democratic Headquarters, Wilson Cycle, Crossroads Fair Trade Goods & Gifts, and Bobzbay Books.

Nice book store, but no postcards that I could see.

While everyone else was poking around 2 FruGALS, I spent some time capturing black-and-white images. On a whim.

Some buildings.

Some details.

I noticed that the metal relief above 418 N. Main is still there, though the business I saw in 2022 is gone. Ayurveda for Healing moved elsewhere; now Jan Brandt Gallery is there, along with Sync Mind Body Pilates & Reiki.

The relief is called “Meditation on a Ball of String” (2021). I know that because a sign has been added sometime in the last three years to describe it. The artist is Herb Eaton. His studio isn’t far away.

Details.

Fine whimsy. Downtowns ought to have more public art like that.

ISU Family Stroll

Posted on May 12, 2025 by admin

There was some grumbling about the fact that the ISU graduation ceremony, at least the part that involved Ann, had been scheduled for the evening. Old timers, that is me, remembered the fine spring Friday the 13th in Tennessee long ago when VU held its graduation, and its late morning start.

But ISU’s schedule had an upside. The four of us stayed in a hotel room in Normal that night, which was an extra expense, but also enjoyed a leisurely Saturday morning in our room and at the hotel’s no-extra-charge breakfast, which wasn’t bad. Leaving just before noon, we got a look around the property, whose theme seemed to be faux chateau.

How about making it look like a cake? One of those square multi-layer ones, with some French accents. That may have been the thinking during the design phase. And don’t forget bronze lions.

Ann wanted to spend some time on campus taking pictures at specific spots where she has fond memories, so that’s what we did. A few sites were inside a few of the buildings. We also spent some time, under a very warm sun, at the ISU Quad. Not our first time there.

I did what I do, wandering off for quick looks at this and that. Cook Hall is an old favorite.

In front of Cook Hall is “Ruins IV.”

“Ruins IV was created by Nita Sunderland, an art professor from Bradley University,” notes the ISU web site. “The Ruins IV sculpture reflects stylized medieval imagery and is part of a series that Sunderland said stands as ‘a statement about our relationship with history and former societies,’ as well as the importance of learning from mistakes and experiments of the past.”

If you say so, Nita. Is it ever just enough to say, this sculpture’s got some really cool shapes?

No one else approached the plaque-on-rock memorial to William Saunders (d. 1900), the horticulturalist who designed the lawn, but I did. Nice work, Bill.

Of course we had to visit the Old Main Bell.

All together, our ISU amble took about an hour. Then it was time for brunch at some distance from campus, but still in the greater Bloomington-Normal metroplex. We enjoyed some of the following wonders and more, at middle-class prices.

What a fine day.

Opera Plaza, Dubai

Posted on May 6, 2025 by admin

Lots coming up, including Ann’s graduation and a visit by Lilly on that occasion. Back to posting around May 11. Also of note: finally, there have been two days in a row that actually seemed like spring here in northern Illinois.

My ambles in Dubai, under pleasantly warm late winter conditions, took me to a nearly empty plaza not far from both Dubai Mall and the Burj Khalifa. Later I found out the place is called Opera Plaza. At least on maps.

Close by is Dubai Opera, a 2,000-seat performing arts venue with built-in variability, through seats that can be removed or added, and stages of various sizes that can be raised or lowered out of sight, creating different theater configurations.

If you’re a city with any pretentions to great cityhood, you get yourself an opera house, as Dubai did in 2016. Lead architect on the opera house was a Dane, Janus Rostock

From a site called Euronews, with the city of Dubai as “content partner,” meaning it’s an advertorial:

“I think the biggest challenge for the Dubai Opera project, which we did when I was at Atkins, was to create this building in the midst of, sitting next to, the world’s tallest building, the world’s biggest fountain, one of the largest malls in the world,” he [Rostock] says. “And to ask how could we create a building that was able to “compete” with these wonders of architecture?”

Design-wise, Rostock wanted to create a building shaped like a dhow, the traditional sailing boat of the region. As Rostock explains, the vessel has its roots in the very city itself.

“The Bani-Yas tribe arrived in Dubai and settled on the shores of the creek,” he says, “and it was the dhow that brought prosperity through pearl diving, through fishing and it also brought trade to Dubai… so the dhow itself is really part of that story, it is something which was deeply rooted in the Emirati culture.”

Not bad for an advertorial. If they were more readable, more people would read them. Other, less famed buildings rise over Opera Plaza, probably not taking their cues from pre-modern Dubai.

Including a tower still under construction. An international style residential development looking, probably, to attract some of that sweet international oligarch money.

With public plazas come public art. Such as this, near the shores of the Persian Gulf, some Persian art.

“Khalvat” (2014) by Sahand Hesamiyan, an Iranian artist. Steel, stainless steel, gold leaf and electrostatic paint.

More details at ground level, halfway around the world.

Instant familiarity in a setting far from its usual North American haunts. The work of Mueller. Hydrant maker to the world, it seems.

Indian Food

Posted on May 5, 2025 by admin

“Stop for tea? Food?” our driver said partly through the longish drive from Jaipur to Delhi, on out last full day in the country. I’m sure he had a list, probably in his head, of places he would earn a bit of baksheesh for delivering us.

This wasn’t an issue. That’s how the game is played, and besides, after nearly a week in India, we’d had some pretty good Indian food as a result, mostly the sort of north Indian specialties also available in the United States during the last 30 years or so: curries, dals, samosas, biryani, chicken tikka masala, lots of good naan, lassi, and so forth. Also, corn flakes at breakfast sometimes with warm milk.

His best suggestion was a roadside pullout zone some miles outside metro Delhi sporting an agglomeration of small food stalls, with long benches for common seating under the shadow of a large shed roof, and stand-up eating tables outside in the late February warmth. Indian roads are well traveled by private cars now, and the place had a healthy crowd, though not overwhelming, enough to create a hum of ambient conversation and kid squeals. The ambient smell: ah, Indian spices. Or, as I expect they call them, spices.

We bought tea in small earthen cups with the assistance of a boy of about 10, surely related to the proprietor, who earned a few rupees from me for his trouble. We downed it standing up at a table. But I don’t want to idealize the stop: trucks belched smoke into the air nearby, small mounds of debris – such as pieces of brick or cinderblock, along with some trash – dotted the grounds near the parking lot, which was also home to a few mangy dogs. Still, it was a lively place, and the well-spiced chai went down well.

Our driver’s second-best suggestion was the one between Jaipur and Delhi. We weren’t especially hungry, but had light sandwiches.

The humble grilled cheese sandwich. Imagine my surprise when I took a first bite and the cheese focused me completely on eating the rest of the sandwich with the same gusto. Why is the cheese so good? What kind of cheese, anyway? None I could identify right away. I put these questions out of my mind and enjoyed the cheese, but now I’m thinking about them again.

Happy cows? That seems like an oversimplification, but it is true that in India cows are on that list that every society unconsciously draws up of most favored animals, such as dogs and cats in North America. So less stress for bovines, better-tasting milk products. But that seems a little hippy-dippy and without a scientific basis. On the other hand —

The last night in Delhi we walked the short distance to a small branch of a very large international organization and had dinner. In a place without beef, chicken is the star.

Some observations (I’m working on a coffee table book, McDonald’s Around the World.)*

As I was slowly carrying my tray up a flight of stairs, a young employee came to help, taking the tray to our table. She didn’t wait around for a tip, though I would have given her one.
I didn’t make exact notes of the price, but accounting for the relative strength of the dollar (at the time), I’d say the food was a discount to domestic McDonald’s, though it has been a good many months since I’ve been to a U.S McD’s. Maybe 20 to 30 percent less, as a guesstimate.
The food was… McDonald’s. Not bad, in other words, with the French fries hewing exactly to the formula.
The paper place mat was, alas, not distinctive to India, unlike in some places and times. My idea of a souvenir is the paper place mat I got in ’90s Moscow, at the only McDonald’s I’ve seen with bouncers.

The place was busy, and clearly popular with those under 30. I might have been the oldest person in the place, though that happens more and more to me. I’ve seen it before: McDonald’s in Japan in the 1990s, which attracted few of Yuriko’s parents’ generation. I didn’t visit a McDonald’s in Japan this time around, but my money would be on finding people of Yuriko’s generation well represented.

* No I’m not.

Been There, Seen That

By Dees Stribling

Category Archives: Been There