When the Taj Mahal is described, usually they use words like 'a
teardrop on the face of time' or 'a monument of extreme beauty' or 'a
memorial to everlasting love' and rot like that. One descriptor usually
not used, but that I will now add to the list, is 'a venue for
screeching parakeets'.
That's right, the Taj Mahal is parakeet
heaven, along with Shah Jahan's paradise, along with quite a few other
birds, including red-vented bulbuls, probably red-cheeked bulbuls,
eternal mynas, rats-on-wings (crows in this case), infestations of
pigeons, and quite a few egrets flying past as well as Black Kites. You
can guess that I was reprimanded for paying more attention to wildlife
than one of the most famous monuments in the world. Which isn't really
the case, but that's an argument for another day. For the moment, let's
just say that I was admiring the contrast of a man-made wonder and the
brilliant green of a nature-made wonder. I love history, and I love
natural history. What combination could be better?
We also visited
Agra Fort (a long history of over.... well, over quite a lot of years
graces this place, mostly involving some king, emperor, or person coming
and saying oh! someone's built something here! let's destroy it and
build something bigger and better!) in whose dark rooms filled with
beautiful but barely visible paintings and wonderfully carved alcoves
that had become the home of bats. We never saw them. Unfortunately, that
doesn't mean that I'm making that up, more to do with the pungent smell
that preceded a room containing them and hovered about your nostrils
after you left, coughing. I spotted two parakeets that had probably made
this beautiful place their nesting ground, too. Ah well.
Then we
went to Fatehpur Sikri, a city that Akbar had built for himself, lived
in for ten years, and then promptly abandoned to the ravages of time.
These rulers! The ravages of time had left it very well preserved,
actually, and along with marveling at the beautifully carved pillar at
the center of the Diwan-i-Khas (3D model following) I also marveled at
the beauty of my first Plain Tiger (no, NOT like the orange-and-black
striped one. This one's a butterfly.) And at the slovenliness of pigs.
(Luckily, not inside the complex) And at the delicateness of the
Astrologer's Seat. And the remarkable grazing habits of goats. (Again,
not inside the complex... pheuf!) And at the.... well, you get the idea.
History, natural history. History, natural history. I've often thought
the two to be unable to reside together, and perhaps that is the case
with more prolonged interaction. Tree roots, while providing wonderful
resting places for birds, can also be the most wonderful destroyers of
buildings. I was reading somewhere where, upon opening a door in a
temple, they found bat's poop piled up to the height of seven feet! Yet,
when the the two coincide, I find it wonderfully beautiful and
remarkable. What do you think?
Pictures to be added later.
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