Grounded art

I need a Mughal art expert.

I've been examining these carvings and inlaid stone work designs along with those of the Taj Mahal and I'm fascinated by something.  Unlike designs elsewhere, and like those done by the modern-day inlaid stone artists, the flowers depicted are all firmly grounded in the earth.

Beautiful flowers have to grow out of dirt.

So often flowers are shown as something that float in space.
But this is realism.  Earthy realism--something I'm not sure the Mughal emperors (believing they were kings of the universe) had a very grasp of.

I'm also really curious about the two odd fish-like things flying past the flowers.  What is that supposed to be?
They aren't symmetrical at all.  Was there some significance to this part of the design?

I need an expert, with answers to my questions.  As it is, I'm conjecturing all sorts of theories.

Mughal Garden

The lovely dahlia here is from my balcony, not from the garden. I would like to show you some of the wonderful garden, but I cannot.
Nothing but ourselves was allowed into the garden.
No cameras.
No phones.
No food.
No water bottles.
No pens.
No chapstick.

All I had in my pocket when I went to visit the Mughal garden of Rashtrapati Bhavan was my keys and some money.
I searched for information about whether or not there would be a place to deposit anything before entering, thinking surely there must be dozens of people showing up with their belongings and needing somewhere to put them. I even called the tourist department in Delhi, but I couldn't find evidence of any such possibility, other than one article that mentioned "depositing" your things at the entry gate.

The gardens are opened once a year during February and March when the flowers begin to bloom. Otherwise they, and the rest of the Presidential residence, remain off limits to the general public.
There are over 250 varieties of roses--not to mention all the other kinds of flowers--in the gardens. And right now, they are wonderfully in bloom.

For there to even be 250 varieties of roses, people have come up with some unique names, which lead to some confusion in one of the articles I came across. It gave a list of some of the famous international visitors to the gardens, and Abraham Lincoln was on the list.
Huh?
Abraham Lincoln was dead long before Sir Edward Luytens was even born, let alone designed the Rashtrapati Bhavan and it's surrounding gardens.
Yet when I was there, I noticed that Lincoln had been to the garden--the Lincoln rose, named after him.
The Christian Dior rose, too, another of the famous people like the article mentioned.

Haha. These are the distinguished visitors--roses.
Ya, the roses are pretty nice, but don't believe everything you read online.

Then there were two

A lily isn't from a seed. It comes from a bulb. It needs to be hidden and protected; and it waits for the right time to sprout and then to bloom.
You don't just toss it out into the field and it takes root. You don't spread its seeds all around everywhere.
It's a quiet taking of root, a slow revealing.

I am impatient for my lilies to bloom. For them to open up and show me what color they are.
Today I had another nice surprise: pink tip lilies.
You can't rush beauty. You can't demand it within your own time frame.

The search for a vase

I decided that flowers need to live in my house.
The flowers that will be living in my house will need a place to stay.

A vase was needed.

And I went looking for one.
I stood in the market looking at an assortment of vases, fish bowls and candle holders--nothing very striking.
"We have a shop," the man said, and pointed to a tiny hole of a window in the wall nearby.
"Where's the door?" I asked and one of the boys nearby led me to their small, dark room where hundreds of vases and candle holders were stacked on dusty, crowded shelves.
It wasn't really like a shop at all, but more like someones forgotten cellar storage.
I blinked and my eyes adjusted to the light. It was such a dusty, cave-like room, I wanted to walk back out and go look somewhere else for a vase. But instead I took a closer look at what was around me.

Sometimes it's a matter of finding the beauty amidst the unexpected, right? Sorting through the trash to find the treasure.
Shine up the old brass lamp and out pops a genie to grant your wishes.
Smile at the somber old woman on the street and watch the amazing transformation when her own return smile lights up her face.

So I had that boy pull vases out of the deep recesses of the shelves and dust them, and I held them up to the slim bit of light coming through the tiny window.

In the end, I found one to take home with me. It cleaned up even better than I thought it would. It surprised me even more once I had it home, cleaned and in the light.
For the seeker, hidden beauty once revealed is a treasure indeed.

The turned down sheets service

The hotel I am staying at wished me a good night with turned down sheets and a rose. How nice. :)
And not just the first night, either. They bring new flowers every evening, and they turn down the sheets.
So now I have them all over the room.

Mustard

The mustard fields are in bloom.
They are yellow yellow.
Full of color.


Here are some of those who live near the fields.