Anyway, most of the time people would just want my picture, a few times they wanted my mom's picture too. My dad's brush with bizarre Indian pseudo-celebrity status came because of his art. How, you ask? I shall explain...
After visiting the Taj Mahal we went to a place called Fatehpur Sikri. It is about an hour or so outside of Agra and is a city that was pretty much abandoned (in 1585) about 20 or so years after being built because there wasn't enough water to support the population, unfortunate for the people that had to up and move again, but it is remarkably well preserved and really cool to explore.
So, after exploring for a while we sat down in the shade and dad sketched while mom and I relaxed. Usually, in other countries, when dad sits down to sketch there might be someone else nearby also sketching or painting and no one really thinks twice about it. But here it is very uncommon and as such dad had people stopping by and asking what he was doing and wanting to look at his sketches. I hadn't thought about it before but now that I do I realize that the only time I have seen anyone doing any type of sketching/painting here was at the museum, and I think it was a class since there were about 10 college-aged kids in two rooms all sketching different sculptures. I wonder why that is? I mean Indians seem to love art and I've seen some really beautiful stuff here.
Anyway, with his artwork, dad became the celebrity of our little group. One boy even asked if he could have one of the sketches (which he was given). I bet dad could have sold some pictures actually, although with the way people haggle here he probably would have gotten about $1 ...if he was lucky.
Oh, total aside, there were "don't walk on the grass" signs all over the place and these poor guards spent a large portion of their time chasing people (all Indians) off of the grass. And at the Taj Mahal you aren't allowed to bring magazines or newspapers into the area because, according to our (Indian) guide "Indians will just sit on the grass and read a magazine and then leave it there". It cracks me up how Indians know that they break rules and talk down about their fellow countrymen so openly and they give us foreigners a bit off leeway because we actually follow all the rules.
Aside #2: the guy next to me at the office has two cell phones with the two most annoying rings in the whole wide world and they just keep ringing and it is driving me crazy
Aside #3: another light bulb went out in my apartment that I am again unable to successfully change. I got it in but it wouldn't stay on, I feel like such a dingbat. Just heard back, apparently the socket was broken, I am not a dingbat, hooray!
Anyway, pictures! Both from Fatehpur Sikri (we also went to the Agra Fort that day, but this is very different from what we've seen before which is why I'm showing these pictures).
First, a super cool balcony/walkway thing within a building. Mom is in the picture for perspective. Click on it to get a better look at some of the carvings on the pillar.
A view of one of the open spaces within the city. As you can see, remarkably well preserved.
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