All posts for the day July 10th, 2011

India 7/10 – Agra, Inlaid marble tabletops.

Speaking of the delicate and intricate inlaid gemstone work in the white marble of the Taj Mahal, M and I visited a teeny homegrown shop where all sorts of inlay work is created from start to finish.We walked in and four skinny little men looked up, eyes bloodshot and fingers callused. One on the left was sorting and heat-treating semiprecious stones, the one next to him had this stick and wheel contraption which he used to grind and shape flakes of stone into floral designs. He was seriously an artist of the highest caliber – all the designs were solely in his head and he shaped gemstones as he saw them fitting together in slivers of petals and leaves.The two next to him were putting together the pre-shaped gemstone flowers and laying them into glue on the marble slabs. Incredibly difficult and time-consuming work.The finished products were honestly staggering in their finely detailed design. True artistic masterpieces. Of course, since I’m such a nut over furniture and home interior accent pieces, I loved the tabletops. The big surprise though, was Michael’s reaction. M totally went gaga over the marble work.

This is the guy who made fun of me for getting ridiculously excited over the hand-loomed 6×9 jute rug we found a few days ago and teased me for chattering on nonstop about how I was going to decorate our future living room using the rug as a centerpiece. This guy was totally jonesing for a piece of the marble. He wanted it and nothing was going to stop him.The tabletop you see above is ours. I wanted the blue color scheme to match the rug I just got and I love orange as an accent color – we already have splashes of orange in our apartment as is. Regardless of the jacked-up price, I’m glad we got this. The labor and artistry is something we’ll never be able to find or replicate elsewhere. Plus we have a great story behind this piece. This is the same inlay work that went into creating the beauty of the Taj Mahal.

Good job M. Even though you blew our budget to kingdom come (and you’re the budget-crazy stickler), this is a great purchase.

xoxo,

Jenn

India 7/10 – Agra, Taj Mahal.

Woke up at 3:30 a.m. after only a few hours of sleep. Our driver drove four hours through three states, in intermittent blasts of rain so thick traffic slowed to a honking, irritated crawl.

M and I had a slight altercation with a man who pimped monkeys for money – we were parked at the border to Uttar Pradesh (the next state over) and our driver popped out to fill out some paperwork before we could cross state lines. A man with a small family of monkeys had the female jump right onto our car window. After I cooed at the baby monkey desperately clutching its mama’s belly and snapped a few pictures, the pimp tried to extort Michael for 500 rupees. I actually felt really sad for the monkey family forever in captivity and forced to perform silly tricks.

M basically told the pimp, “F*** you, here’s 20 rupees, that’s all you get.” (He didn’t actually swear, too classy for that.) But the monkey pimp got all up in the car window’s business and tried intimidation tactics. It got a little dicey there for a second. But ha, like intimidation is going to work on someone M’s size with his past Army Ranger experience. We won this round. In a land of aggressive hawkers who try to fleece American tourists at every turn, winning felt damn good.

Soon enough though, we were there. No exhaust-producing automobiles are allowed within a mile of the Taj Mahal so we traveled the last bit by camel. You know, that’s how we do.

I had to pinch myself a few times and actually got a little overwhelmed. It’s always been one of my dreams to see the pyramids and the Taj Mahal, and to do both in the space of a little over six months is kind of unbelievable. I am really lucky.So there it is. The 400-year-old white marble Taj Mahal. A tribute of everlasting love, one of the most inspiring and romantic buildings ever created.The Taj Mahal took about 20 years to complete and used the labor of over 20,000 craftsmen. All of the artwork and decorative detailing is created either by inlaying semiprecious/precious gemstones or chiseling out of the marble itself.Viewing the Taj Mahal was kind of a bifurcate experience. On the one hand, the Taj itself is indeed amazing and the level of work so incredibly detailed and skilled. On the other hand, part of the experience is also the realization of the Taj’s reputation in reality. The building has been hyped up and is such a recognizable monument that when I actually stood in front of it, I couldn’t help but feel awed.I can check off an item on my bucket list today.