TAZIYA

"It's a sad day" she said,   "Muslims feel sad today".....     "but what are those structures?"

It had taken my rickshaw twice as long to battle its way up O.P. Road.   But it gave me time to gaze in awe, at the endless procession of miniature architectural wonders, on board a flotilla of trucks, with Muslim devotees hanging on and projecting off every angle of the vehicle, drums beating and music blaring out.  The structures were quite beautiful, every one different - white as marble with elaborate domes,  beautifully lit and decorated. www, takes on a new significance as I ask, 'what, what and why'  What were they, what were they made of and why this procession ?

So it has a name ?  The material used in packaging electrical goods ?  That stiff white stuff packed around a new iron or radio....it's called "thermocol" !  The structures looked as if they were cut from marble, but in fact it was thermocol, intricately carved to create beautiful miniature mausolea - each one about 4-5 foot tall, although size varied - some a little larger !

This was the Day of Ashura, 17th December - a day of mourning for Shia Muslims, commemorating the death of the grandson of Mohammed at the Battle of Karbala in the 7th century.  Replicas of his mausoleum, called taziya are carried in the Muharram processions.  Every year thousands of taziyas in various shapes and sizes are created and displayed in this way.

In the chaos of O.P. Road, with its heavy traffic, wandering water buffalo, hooting cars, bicycles and traffic police, this amazing spectacle, causing so much further chaos, seemed to reveal India, with its largely Hindu population, at its best - the ability to accept anything and everything, life ambling on, around and in spite of the obstruction.

WEDDINGS

It's the Wedding Season !  Some couples leave in a car bedecked with floral bouquets, but some opt for the traditional Horse and Carriage with a fanfare !

JOURNEY FROM PUSHKAR

         The words of T.S. Eliot's 'Journey of the Magi'  ran through my mind.

ULTRAMARINE

"It means: 'over the water'" - I heard one guide explain, about 'ultramarine', in the Uffizi Gallery, in Florence one day.  The beautiful Early Renaissance paintings, always glow with this ultramarine blue, and real gold leaf, laid on in sheets so thin, that the slightest puff of wind would blow them away. But the fabulous blue ultramarine pigment, is derived from the semi-precious stone Lapis Lazuli, which came from Afghanistan, as it still does, today.

Ground up, with mortar and pestle,  to just the right point and mixed with egg yolk, it became the most prized and expensive colour of Renaissance paintings. Reserved for the robe of the Madonna and the sky of Heaven, the quantity used in the painting, was laid down in a formal contract with the patron.  As you wander around the Uffizi, you can see the paintings which have been restored, they are brighter than the rest - over the centuries, the Madonna's blue robe darkened with over glazing and the smoke of a million candles and by removing the dirt, the paintings are revealed in their original form.

Stepping into the pottery workshop in Jaipur, was like walking into a Renaissance painting - the famous Jaipur Blue Pottery, is overwhelming in its radiance - surrounded by shelves and shelves of glazed blue pottery, the colour derived from cobalt oxide, gives the feeling of total immersion  - there is something about that blue !  The technique came to India from Persia hundreds of years ago and developed in Jaipur with Rajputana patronage and continues to flourish.

WINTER SKY IN GUJARAT