Tuesday, March 23, 2010

India: 3/8/2010






























































































































- Clairissa, Tommy and myself started playing frisbee in the morning. As we played some teenage boys were setting up piles of scaffle in the courtyard. They were very curious about us. I decided to throw one of them the frisbee. Over the years when I've played frisbee with friends there are always those people who stand to the side who want to play but deny wanting to play when asked. So I just throw the frisbee at them! They have to catch it, if they don't then their just rude! People always join in this way. So these indian boys joined in. It was awesome fun no spoken language needed. Soon one of the girls living in the hostel joined in as well.
- Our day started at Qutb Minar. This was the first important Hindu structure ever made. Due to the Muslim Mughal invasions many of the relief carvings of Hindu Gods were defaced. The Mughal ruler attempted to construct another tower near by but failed and abandoned the construction. The most significant architectural value I found in the whole site was not so much the relief carvings or the height, but the unique sandstone laying. Somehow craftsmen created the facing of these structures out of irregular multicolored rectangular stone.
- Tina's professor as well as one of her close friend/college room mate/classmates came to speak to us about the site. Her professor was tall and when he met Tina he affectionately placed his hand on her head when he met her.
- While exploring Clairissa was surrounded by a large group of young indian school girls. She was enveloped in a sea of beautiful girls with long black hair. I had a nice moment as well with three nine year-old school boys.
-Lunch at Swagath- South Indian cuisine. It was very good and we had "blackforest" cake for Anna Will's birthday.
- Next on to Humayun's Tomb. This was the first grand Mughal tomb. It houses the tomb of Babur, made by his son Akbar and his widow. It is surrounded by four grand gardens.
- When I sat down to sketch the one of the garden attendants- a teenange boy carrying a large bale of grass and leaves stopped in front of me to watch me sketch. He stood there with that bale of grass and watched me in amazement for about 15 minutes. Another young indian guy probably visiting from a college/university came and photographed me as I sketched. The garden attendant still stood and watched as the other photographed me. No matter how invasive they may have been the serenity of the gardens allowed me to sketch very calmly. When I moved on to sketch the tomb of Babur's royal hairdresser a few boys came to check me out as well!
- Dinner at an "American style Diner." I didn't really eat much of my spaghetti as I was worried about the sauce... good thing since Ben got sick the next day.
- After dinner we attended a musical performance. Both the diner and the performance were housed among a large complex of towers designed by a firm Tina was with after she graduated. I could see how they responded to the past as many large courtyards existed within the complex. Like the Muslim architecture we would continue to see; large overhanging structures capping the buildings hung over the courtyard. Like we've studied in studio I felt a sense of interiority from these overhanging structures. It looked very futuristic much like my favorite movie Bladerunner. From the tone of the building facing I was able to imagine the complex among the the sepia skies and mega-structure pyramids of Bladerunner.
- The first musical performance was very good, sounding similar to bluegrass music. The second performance due to its slow nature seemed to put most of us to sleep. In efforts to stave off the sleepishness I sketched some of the people around me on an advertisement passed out by one of the ladies attending the performance.

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