Blistering, Bollywood and Books
May. 24th, 2005 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieWe are in Granada. The Alhambra is spectacular but it is 34 degrees centigrade in the shade and even the soles of my feet are melting. And this is only May! I now realize that the reason Granada was the last Moorish Kingdom conquered by the Spanish was because the soldiers kept passing out fro heat stroke, en masse.
The paalace complex, the protective towers and the gardens are incredible. I have never seen anything like it and my camera is probably worn out with all the activity. One view especially, of a limpid green pool, with intricate arches in the background, looks like it could be the setting of a musical number with Shahrukh and Aishwaria. Something about doomed and forbidden love. (Apparently there was one, as one of the most powerful nobles had an affair with the Sultan´s favorite and it let to him and his whole family being slaughtered).
But yeah, amazing.
I am reading Dalrymple´s ¨White Mughals¨ about high ranking 18th century British officials who went ¨native¨ in India and had Muslim or Hindu wives, adopted customs and/or coverted. I didn´t even realize that it´s the same Dalrymple queenofthorns and linaerys kept recommending. Excellent author, so I must find out more.
The central story is that of a Hederabad Resident (high ranking Brit official) who fell in love with the Prime Minister´s daughter, converted to Islam for her sake and married her. Quite dashing and all, but I find other scraps of stories even more fascinating: ¨Hindoo¨ Stuart, a British General who despite impossibility of conversion became a practicing Brahmin, William Grardiner whose own love story is something that SHOULD be made into a BW flick (he saw an exiled princess´eyes during long negotiations, fell in love just with that (and vice versa), had to beg her family to let him marry her and lived many a happy decade with her).
This all reminds me of one of my favorite short stories, Kipling´s ¨Without benefit of clergy¨ which is heartbreaking star crossed love story between an Englishman and an Indian woman. Stories like this, where he clearly condemns the prejudiced British society are why I get utterly mad when people who know nothing of his writing see him as an Imperialist stooge.
Two SW comics: http://www.reallifecomics.com/index.php?do_command=show_strip&strip_id=1452&auth=00000-00000-11111-00000-00000
and
http://www.leasticoulddo.com/comics/strips/20050521.gif
The paalace complex, the protective towers and the gardens are incredible. I have never seen anything like it and my camera is probably worn out with all the activity. One view especially, of a limpid green pool, with intricate arches in the background, looks like it could be the setting of a musical number with Shahrukh and Aishwaria. Something about doomed and forbidden love. (Apparently there was one, as one of the most powerful nobles had an affair with the Sultan´s favorite and it let to him and his whole family being slaughtered).
But yeah, amazing.
I am reading Dalrymple´s ¨White Mughals¨ about high ranking 18th century British officials who went ¨native¨ in India and had Muslim or Hindu wives, adopted customs and/or coverted. I didn´t even realize that it´s the same Dalrymple queenofthorns and linaerys kept recommending. Excellent author, so I must find out more.
The central story is that of a Hederabad Resident (high ranking Brit official) who fell in love with the Prime Minister´s daughter, converted to Islam for her sake and married her. Quite dashing and all, but I find other scraps of stories even more fascinating: ¨Hindoo¨ Stuart, a British General who despite impossibility of conversion became a practicing Brahmin, William Grardiner whose own love story is something that SHOULD be made into a BW flick (he saw an exiled princess´eyes during long negotiations, fell in love just with that (and vice versa), had to beg her family to let him marry her and lived many a happy decade with her).
This all reminds me of one of my favorite short stories, Kipling´s ¨Without benefit of clergy¨ which is heartbreaking star crossed love story between an Englishman and an Indian woman. Stories like this, where he clearly condemns the prejudiced British society are why I get utterly mad when people who know nothing of his writing see him as an Imperialist stooge.
Two SW comics: http://www.reallifecomics.com/index.php?do_command=show_strip&strip_id=1452&auth=00000-00000-11111-00000-00000
and
http://www.leasticoulddo.com/comics/strips/20050521.gif
