At a rest stop between Fatehpur Sikri and Jaipur we order chai and lassi.
Seeing the Taj for the second time was just as exciting as the first time.
Even though when you actually go to India after having dreamt about it for your whole life, you find out that that type of architecture is actually quite common, when you visit at least a couple of the major cities you see that building a whole palace and dedicating it to a significant other is also quite customary between kings and the like, and finally when you get out in the country side you start thinking the milk in your chai might have had a kick to it since you start seeing Taj Mahal's everywhere, as there's almost an unlimited number of monuments, temples and palaces very similar to the original one.
But even if you sum all this up and you know about it the second time you go there, you still can't help falling in love over and over again for that wonderful, magnificent piece of art.
This love is by myself expressed by taking millions of photos that I will then have to edit and probably just save in an HD and work on them when back home.
Now, theoretically they tell you there's no problems with taking photos of the Taj, provided you don't take photos inside.
Which is true of course once you're finally on your own and not weighed down by eager guides that want to tell you the finest and most unusual details about the construction, while the only thing you're thinking of right then is how the light is just perfect and why doesn't he finish already!!
Our guide doesn't understand why I'm so nervous during his explanation and I start agonising while I watch the light growing fainter and fainter... switching the aperture of my camera to lower numbers and debating whether I should just crank up the ISO.
"Any questions?", "NO!" I yell before Steve has the chance of thinking of anything he might want to ask.
"Ok the, now we go inside"..... "Errr.... inside? hummmm, ahhh, how about you go Steve and I catch up with you guys?".
Finally free! I rush to the steps, get rid of my shoes without even paying attention to where they land and climb up the first level.
And then my freedom ends quite abruptly.
"Madame can we take a picture of you?"
Why on earth would anyone want to take a photo of a scruffy looking, sunburnt, yellow-haired white woman wearing extra baggy pants, no make up and lugging around a heavy duty camera I don't know.
But I must now be on at least 300 Indian mobile phone's wallpaper.
After a dozen photos I understand I'm the only tourist from outside India and some of the little girls staring open mouthed at me must come from remote parts of India since it's school holidays here and they might have never seen my features (otherwise quite common, albeit not very Italian).
Anyway between a shot and a smile I manage to take a few photos as well, and by the end of the evening I'm happy with them.
And the photo below is the result of an experimental panorama.
Seeing the Taj for the second time was just as exciting as the first time.
Even though when you actually go to India after having dreamt about it for your whole life, you find out that that type of architecture is actually quite common, when you visit at least a couple of the major cities you see that building a whole palace and dedicating it to a significant other is also quite customary between kings and the like, and finally when you get out in the country side you start thinking the milk in your chai might have had a kick to it since you start seeing Taj Mahal's everywhere, as there's almost an unlimited number of monuments, temples and palaces very similar to the original one.
But even if you sum all this up and you know about it the second time you go there, you still can't help falling in love over and over again for that wonderful, magnificent piece of art.
This love is by myself expressed by taking millions of photos that I will then have to edit and probably just save in an HD and work on them when back home.
Now, theoretically they tell you there's no problems with taking photos of the Taj, provided you don't take photos inside.
Which is true of course once you're finally on your own and not weighed down by eager guides that want to tell you the finest and most unusual details about the construction, while the only thing you're thinking of right then is how the light is just perfect and why doesn't he finish already!!
Our guide doesn't understand why I'm so nervous during his explanation and I start agonising while I watch the light growing fainter and fainter... switching the aperture of my camera to lower numbers and debating whether I should just crank up the ISO.
"Any questions?", "NO!" I yell before Steve has the chance of thinking of anything he might want to ask.
"Ok the, now we go inside"..... "Errr.... inside? hummmm, ahhh, how about you go Steve and I catch up with you guys?".
Finally free! I rush to the steps, get rid of my shoes without even paying attention to where they land and climb up the first level.
And then my freedom ends quite abruptly.
"Madame can we take a picture of you?"
Why on earth would anyone want to take a photo of a scruffy looking, sunburnt, yellow-haired white woman wearing extra baggy pants, no make up and lugging around a heavy duty camera I don't know.
But I must now be on at least 300 Indian mobile phone's wallpaper.
After a dozen photos I understand I'm the only tourist from outside India and some of the little girls staring open mouthed at me must come from remote parts of India since it's school holidays here and they might have never seen my features (otherwise quite common, albeit not very Italian).
Anyway between a shot and a smile I manage to take a few photos as well, and by the end of the evening I'm happy with them.
And the photo below is the result of an experimental panorama.
No comments:
Post a Comment