hello people
I had wanted to see akshardham for such a long-long time and after a dozen (plans- gone-haywire) i finally saw it yesterday.:) And the effect on us was mesmerizing...... Dont get me wrong, it was not because the deities brought about a sudden fervor in me. (in fact i totally adore the metaphysical concept called GOD but me not religious at all) . It was the sheer beauty of the sculpture.... the perfection of those lines , the expressions which brought the cold marble to life ; every single murti was different- right from the arrogant expressions on the kings face to the ethereal goddesses who were in profusion. Maybe because it was the first time we saw akshardham , me and aparna were totally lost in the sheer magnifecence of the sculpture; when a few shoves and pushes brought us back to life. Then i noticed something strange, people were staring straight ahead just concentrating on the deity and not even stopping to look at the beauty around them. I saw something more sad. There was a young couple pushing their child on a pram inside the temple. Akshardham is not jst a temple, its a work of art ... i cant understand do we allow the public to bring prams inside the taj, the jama masjid or to any of our other historical monuments.
And what by the way are historical monuments and why are we in constant awe of them? Lets consider the Taj, when i saw it for the first time i was spellbounded. But does history always has to be put on a pedestal and the present carelessly squandered? People say the taj is an everlasting monument of love. I think its an everlasting monument to human talent that built it- those50,000 artists who lost their hands. While shah jahan was simply someone with adequate financial resources to fulfill his needs for self actualization, (all fellow mba's refer to maslows pyramid please)
But the world thundered..... this is history, cant you see. Its the absolute limit to all human abilities, which we can never now think of touching, much rather surpassing it. All that lies of our greatness now resides in our past and the past is holy and cannot be challenged. We should not think in any of these directions but just make a bed out of all feathers in our cap and then sleep peacefully. The taj is the absolute limit of artistic expression.
Expression? but whose expression ? Every building or monument has a purpose and a goal and the expression of every ones goal is different. why must something be sacred just by the virtue of our not creating it? why should the present pool of talent be restricted by the absolute dictates of the past? why must every principle and everyone be right as long as it is not us?why is accepting dictates of these "others" so very important? i dont know. i have never known. i would like to understand...........
Sorry if i have ruffled a few feathers. T'was not intentional.
Have you read the alternate version of how the Taj was created? Do a search on Tejo-Mahalaya by P N Oak, it should throw up something interesting to read, whether historically correct one can't say :) By the way Gargi, for parents of young kids, prams are life-savers. Believe me, I know this. :)
ReplyDeleteHey, "life saver" thats some term 2 use man. I totally uphold the view expressed in the blog that pulling prams across the floor of Akshardham, or 4 that matter even if its whithin the Taj Mahal or so isnt a very gud practise. These things do make life easy, but is ur child too heavy a burden that U cant even lift it for a couple of minutes or even 1/2 an hr. Hadnt our parents carried us around in their arms when we were toddlers.Prams I beleive is just one of our blind apings of (T)he Western culture coz a scientific aspect goes 2 show that kidz dnt feel so comfortable in a pram compared to the warm feel of familliar arms wrapped around them.So much 4 that, signing out on a lighter note, YuP, even I enjoyed my trip 2 Akshardham solely bcoz of the sculpted walls & pillars that bought life in stone structures.....I bow b4 those whose hands made it happen.
ReplyDeleteAkshardham is undoubtely an awesomw work of art. Its magic will leave anyone spellbound.
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