the perfection of repetition and symmetry

In all my years,

I've traveled many places,

but the one place I had yet to see

has been India.

My silence, dear friends,

is because as I write this,

I am sitting in Dehli.

My purported purpose for being here

has been a conference.

(Did I write about that already?)

But my other raison d'etre

was to see,

if only for a moment,

some of India's finest landmarks.

Magic can be found

in the hinterlands of this land;

for instance, the Amber Fort, near Jaipur:

(all photos by me)

or this fabulous floating palace, Jal Mahal, in the same area:

I suddenly understand that the worlds of the Arabian Nights,
which happens to be
one of my favorite books in all of the world,
may indeed have a foundation
in something very real.


But more than anything else,
I am struck by the sheer beauty of symmetry and repetition.
It creates an experience
so much like a song,
as I travel from town to town,
past poverty and controlled chaos,
the trip has been held together
by the most terrific harmony.

Let me please share with you
some of the sites I have been lucky enough
to see: moments
of perfection on a landscape in a symphony that helps us see
that perfection is rare,
but possible
in our troubled world:

 ( Amber Fort, near Jaipur, India)

(Chand Baori, Abhaneri, India (between Jaipur and Agra)

(Chand Baori)

(Fatehpur Sikri )

(interior design, Fatehpur Sikri -- photo again by me)

(Taj Mahal)

(Taj facade)

. . . and my favorite (well, other than the Taj) Akbar's tomb:

( Akbar's Tomb, entrance gate -- Sikandra )

 (Akbar's tomb)

(Akbar's tomb)

(Akbar's tomb)

Truth to tell
these sites render me speechless,
and all I can do
is share their beauty.