Around the world in 30 fountains (Part 1)

Recently, while admiring a picture of a beautiful fountain, I started thinking about the most beautiful fountains that I had seen during my travels around the world. This post is a result of that reflection. This first part has fountains from countries that start with "A" to "G", that means from America to Germany.

The criteria for selecting the fountains presented in this post were different such as beauty, expression of quirky ideas, quality and materials of the sculptures and the quality of images.

While I searched for the images of fountains in my image-collections, I realised that in some countries, especially in Asia and Africa, fountains are not very common, while Europe seems to be full of them. From some countries, I did have a few images of fountains, but they did not inspire me. So many countries are missing from this post.

Fountain 1 – America, New York

I will start with 2 fountains from New York, America. The first fountain is from the Central Park and is shown in the image above.

It has an angel, who is shown as an 18th century young woman with short curly hair, wearing a long dress and holding some flowers in her left hand. It seems as if she walking in a mountain area, her feet ready to wade in the waters of a gentle torrent.

Fountain 2 – America, New York

The second fountain from New York is in front of the Lincoln centre. This one does not have any sculptures, it is about thick streams of gushing waters surrounded by a round black ring. The colourful posters on the front of the Metropolitan Opera building form its background.

Fountain 3 – Austria, Vienna

Next there are 3 fountains from Vienna, Austria. Vienna is full of baroque marble sculptures and there are many fountains.

The first Viennese fountain is from the old part of the city. It has a young royal looking woman sitting on a high chair in the centre of a pond, slightly turned to look behind her, while there are baby angels on the sides of her chair. On the outer walls of the pond, there are figures of men and women, inspired from Greek mythology.

In this fountain, I especially like the sculpture of the young Neptune, using his trident for fishing in the pond. I love this kind of irreverent attitudes expressed by the sculptors and artists, refusing to take themselves too seriously.

Fountain 4 – Austria, Vienna

The next Viennese fountain is from a park near the opera building. It is inspired from the Roman mythology and depicts the abduction of the Sabine women. If you have been to Florence (Italy), perhaps you have seen the more famous sculpture of Gianbologna on this subject in the Loggia dei Lanzi in the Signoria square? However, here the water gushing out of the man’s mouth, makes him look as if he is vomiting and takes away the seriousness of the subject.

Perhaps it is the depiction of actors doing rehearsal of a play? Or it is something more sinister, as if the man spitting out water is a way to express how he is going to ravish the kidnapped woman. What is your opinion?

Fountain 5 – Austria, Vienna

The third and the last Viennese fountain of this series is placed just outside the Austrian parliament. Underneath a goddess with a Roman soldier’s headgear sit serious looking old men and chubby angels, inspired from the Greek mythology, while water gently falls down into round pans placed on the heads of young muscular male figures, bent under its weight like Atlas holding the earth.

However if you look carefully at those young men, you can see that they are actually mermaids with fish-tails. I am not very knowledgeable about the fantasy world of mermaids, but, I find the idea of placing muscular but dainty male mermaids in the fountain, mildly subversive – a way of questioning our ideas of masculinity. (Looking at this image, I can almost feel a pain developing in my neck, in sympathy with the boy of the sculpture!)

Fountain 6 – Belgium, Brussels

The fountain from Brussels is almost a non-fountain. It is a tiny fountain placed in the middle of a lake, out of which a tiny stream of water comes out so if you don’t look at it carefully, you can easily miss it. I loved this lake surrounded by lush green vegetation. It is difficult to imagine such a wonderful place so close to the centre of the city.

Those of you who have been to Brussels, might ask why I have not included the famous “peeing boy” fountain (Manneken Pis) in this post. It is supposed to be one of the landmarks of the city and the souvenir shops of Brussels are full of tiny statues of that boy. However, I was a little disappointed when I had seen it and thus, I have decided to not to include it.

On the other hand, I love another icon of Brussels, the comic book boy hero Tintin. The souvenir shops of the city were also full of his statues. I am sure that if the city had a Tintin fountain, I would have included it here!

Fountain 7 – Brazil, Bahia, Salvador

I have chosen 4 fountains from Brazil for this post. The first one is from the Digue do Torero lake in the Baixa part of Salvador city in Bahia state. Salvador is also the focal point of those who believe in Orisha gods, the religion of Yoruba, brought as slaves from Africa.

This lake is very beautiful but the fountain is nothing special. However, since it is next to the statues of dancing Orisha gods standing in the lake waters, it has a wonderful backdrop and that is why I have included it in this post.

Fountain 8 – Brazil, Bahia, Salvador

The second fountain from Salvador is from old city centre of Pelorinho in the Alta part of the city situated on the top of a hill.

The last time I was there, it was the sunset time and I was mesmerized by the clouds tinged pink and orange against a blue sky. It was a small fountain in a park near the church. I really love this picture.

Fountain 9 – Brazil, Goias, Goias Velho

The third fountain from Brazil is from Goias Velho, the old city in Goias state in the central part of Brazil. Like the fountain from Pelorinho, even this is an unassuming fountain from the Portuguese colonial part of Goias Velho. It has a Portuguese peasant woman standing demurely facing the cathedral. The picture is made special by the dramatic colours of the sky behind.

I think that without the dramatic evening colours of the sky, these last two fountains would not have found a place in this post.

Fountain 10 – Brazil, San Paulo

The fourth and the last fountain from Brazil is from San Paulo, from a park near the opera building in the old city. This part of the park and this fountain were built by the Italian immigrant community of San Paulo to highlight their contribution to the city.

The galloping horses of this fountain remind me of the Trevi fountain in Rome (Italy). The violent graffiti on the sculptures and the walls surrounding this fountain, adds to the sense of urban decay and abandonment of this place, making it look like a noble family fallen on hard times. Looking at this fountain, I could almost smell the rancid beer and feel the sleepy looking eyes of drug addicts, sitting nearby, checking me.

Fountain 11 – Britain, London

The next two fountains are from London, another city that has many beautiful fountains. The first image is from the Trafalgar square taken with a simple Kodak camera in December 2005. That day there had been a big explosion and fire in the city, so the sky had turned black with dark smoke clouds, making for a dramatic background to the Christmas tree with lights.

The second image taken a few years later, shows a detail from one of the fountains in Trafalgar square. It has a boy mermaid with the two fish tails (like the rubber fins that people sometimes put on for swimming), riding on a dolphin, with a stream of water gushing out from his mouth. It makes me think of children vomiting due to motion sickness.

Fountain 12 – Britain, London

The second fountain from London is from the Hyde Park, near the Mable arch entrance. It has been designed wonderfully. The couple holding each other are balanced on the back of a dolphin that rises up from the centre of the pond, making them look as if they are floating in the air. On the four corners of the pond, four boys are jumping as if they are frogs, startled by the sudden appearance of the dolphin with the couple from the depths of the waters.

Fountain 13 – Czech Republic, Prague

The fountain of blindfolded musicians and dancers in the old part of Prague is a personal favourite. I love going back and looking at the images of this fountain. It reminds of one of the reasons of my love for photography – the possibility of stopping, looking at the details and discovering new things about things and people.

Each sculpture of this fountain is so exquisite, expressing the joy of music and dance. They seem to be flying in the air. These sculptures are by the Czech artist Anna Chromy.

Fountain 14 – Germany, Munich

The last image in this first part of the post about fountains from different countries is from Marianne platz in old part of Munich, near the cathedral. There is a ball like round fish at the top with water coming out from its mouth. Water also comes out from three small pipes near the top. Finally, a gentle flow of water comes out from the vases held by 3 Peter Pan kind of boys who look lost in day dreams. With lovely blue water in the lighted pond, this fountain looks very harmonious.

Conclusions

Preparing this post I had a lot of fun going through lot of images of fountains and deciding which ones to keep and which others to exclude. I have chosen a mix of fountains that evoke different emotions and are not just about beauty.

I hope that I have made you pause, see these fountains in the way I see them, and think of different ways of appreciating beauty and art. Often when we visit places, we see things but usually we do not stop to really look at things and to understand their details and think about their significance. I hope these pictures have helped you to see some of those details.

Part 2 of this post will continue the remaining part of this journey.

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Delhi Metro Walks: Jor Bagh

The extensive and ever-increasing network of the Delhi Metro has made it relatively easy to discover different parts of Delhi. This post is about the places to visit near the Jor Bagh station on the Yellow line of Delhi Metro. This walk will take you to discover the Delhi of 16th and 17th century, including one of the most beautiful parks of Delhi.

The image above shows “Shish Gumbad”, built around the end of 15th century during the reign of king Sikander Lodhi. It is one of the riches awaiting you on this metro walk.

1. JOR BAGH METRO STATION

Jor Bagh area of Delhi had been the city centre around 14th and 15th century during the reign of the Lodhi kings. After them for a brief period, the city centre had moved to what is now known as Purana Qila and then starting with Akbar, the Mughal Kings had decided to build their capital city in Agra. Later, in 16th century, Aurangzeb had brought his capital to Delhi but he had preferred to build his city more to the east in an area known as Shahjahanabad and thus, this part of Delhi had been abandoned.

Life came back to this part of the city when the British decided to build New Delhi. The area known as Jor Bagh was just outside the city of New Delhi built by the British in late 19th and early 20th centuries. During those constructions, the British had discovered some of the historical buildings of this area and had had initiated their restoration.

Delhi’s first airport known as “Safdarjung airport” was built here and had functioned as the city airport from 1929 to 1962. Under the British it was called Wellingdon airport. In the 1960s, it was felt that the Safdarjung airport was too close to the city and thus a new airport was built in Palam village. The new airport was known as “Palam airport” and parts of that second airport are still there in the area that has terminal 1 of the Delhi airport today and is still used for some domestic airlines. Today of course we have the new airport, also known as Terminal 3, that was given the name of India's prime-minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi.

After the construction of Palam airport, it was decided to use Safdarjung airport for training and military purposes. It was from this airport that Sanjay Gandhi, the son of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, at that time the prime minister of India, who was learning flying, had taken off his aeroplane on 23 June 1980 that had crashed and killed him.

As you come out of the Jor Bagh metro station, you can see the Safdarjung airport across the road. With this brief introduction to the history of that period, let us proceed now with our walk.

The route for this walk is shown in the image below. You can also check this route on the Google Map.

2. SAFDARJUNG'S TOMB

As you walk down from the Jor Bagh metro station, you will see the red building of Safdarjung’s tomb on your left. When I was a child, it was known as “Madarsa”, probably because at that time, there was an Islamic school here.

In this building was buried Mirza Murim Abdul Mansur Khan, also known as Nawab Safdarjung, who was the governor of Oudh (now known as the Awadh region and is a part of Uttar Pradesh) during the reign of emperor Muhammed Shah (1719 to 1748) and prime minister of his successor, emperor Ahmad Shah (1748-1754). Safdarjung had died in 1754 and this tomb was built by his son Nawab Shujauddaula.

The building construction is similar to many other Mughal buildings such as Hamayun’s tomb, with a char-bagh (garden divided into four areas) around a central canal with fountains. It was one of the last important Mughal constructions in Delhi.

Today, it is one of the favourite places for the young couples of Delhi, to be together. The building hosts a number of tombs. I especially like the entrance gate of this building, which some how makes me think of Rajasthan and its palaces.

3. LODHI GARDENS

These are one of the most beautiful gardens of India, spread over an area of 90 acres and dotted with a number of historical buildings, mostly from the Lodhi period of Delhi. After this area was abandoned in 17th century, two villages had settled here. In 1936 the British asked the villages to vacate this area and the gardens landscaped by lady Wellingdon were laid down, and were thus called Lady Wellingdon gardens. (Just an aside about the Wellingdons, who had given their names to many important places of Delhi, including the hospital near Wellingdon crescent, now known as Dr Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.)

Coming from Jor Bagh, as you enter the garden from the first gate on Lodhi road, you will see the beautiful tomb of Mohammed Shah Sayyid, who had ruled Delhi from 1434 to 1444. The Sayyid dynasty was not very powerful and the territories covered by them were not so big, thus they did not build any big palaces or monuments. This tomb is one of the few remains of that period. It resembles the Isa Khan tomb built near the entrance to Hamayun's tomb.

The Sayyid tomb is an octagonal building with chattris (umbrella like decorations) on its top. It has different tombs of the Sayyid family, out of which the central tomb is considered to be that of Mohammed Shah’s.

Our next stop is the Bada Gumbad (Big dome) mosque. The three domed mosque was built in 1494 during the reign of Sikander Lodhi.

The beautiful building decorated in some parts with blue and red stones is full of arabesque decorations and Quranic inscriptions. At the back of this building there is a Mihmankhana (guest house).

The building known as “Shish Gumbad” is just behind the Bada Gumbad mosque. It is one of the most beautiful buildings of Lodhi Garden built in a square shape and with blue-tiles decorations. It has different tombs and was probably built at the end of 15th century, also during the reign of king Sikander Lodhi.

If you walk behind Shish Gumbad, you will soon reach a water canal that made me think of the Serpentine pond in the Hyde park in London, though of course the pond in London is much bigger (and better maintained).

Across the canal, on a small hillock is the tomb of king Sikander Lodhi. He ruled Delhi for 28 years, from 1489 to 1517. His tomb shows his importance. It is set in a walled garden behind a raised platform guarded by two chattris. (In the image below, you can also see my sandal in the left corner, because I was trying a new angle for clicking this picture!)

Its dome is decorated with exquisite designs surrounded by red geometric shapes.

After visiting Sikander Lodhi’s tomb, you can walk along the water canal to reach a beautiful bridge with eight arches called “Aathpula” (8 arches) or “Khairpur ka Pul” built by a nobleman called Nawab Bahadur during the reign of Mughal emperor Akbar (1556 to 1605).

At one time, a river flowed here, a tributary of Yamuna river, that is no longer there. In its place, the present-day canal was built here later in early 20th century, when this bridge was restored during the British reign. Along the southern boundary of the water canal, there are many water birds such as, ducks, swans and geese.

If you walk back towards Lodhi road from the Aathpula bridge, you will come across an old mosque and a rose garden. The mosque and garden were also built in the Mughal period and inside the mosque you can still see some painted inscriptions. The present day rose garden has been created at the site of the old Mughal garden.

There are many other smaller buildings in Lodhi gardens. There are also some more recent additions in the Gardens such as the fountain shown below, that are not always well maintained.

Municipal corporation has also put up some garbage collection boxes in the Gardens, painted with social messages like the one shown below (with a message about “saving the girl child”).

My favourite among these painted garbage collection boxes is the one shown below that has a tongue-in-cheek variation on the call of India’s independence leader, Subhash Chandra Bose, who had said “Give me blood and I will give you freedom”. This one says “Give me garbage and I will give you cleanliness”.

Lodhi gardens are very popular with local inhabitants of the area who come here to take walks, do jogging, exercises and yoga.

The park is also a great place to admire nature with different birds, small animals, plants and trees including a beautiful groove of bamboo trees.

4. INDIA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE (IIC) AND 5. INDIAN HABITAT CENTRE (IHC)

Two important cultural venues of Delhi are close to the Lodhi gardens – IIC and IHC. These are also exclusive clubs, membership to which requires money and connections.

IIC came up in 1958, after a talk between Dr Radhakrishnan (then vice-president of India) and Mr. Rockfeller. Many important and famous persons from India and abroad have been here.

IHC is more recent, it came up only in 1993. Both these places have conference rooms, auditoriums and exhibition spaces, which are much sought-after venues for cultural events.

If the long walk in Lodhi Gardens makes you feel tired, you can perhaps stop at the "Food court" area of IHC and have something to drink or eat, before taking an auto to go back to Jor Bagh metro station!

CONCLUSIONS

Lodhi Gardens are the most important part of this metro walk. They require a lot of time but are certainly worth it. Entry to the Lodhi Gardens is free.

There are some other minor places to visit around this area such as the Islamic Cultural Centre, Tibet house with Buddhist cultural centre and a Sai Baba temple. However, if you can manage to visit Safdarjung tomb and the Lodhi Gardens, you can be satisfied with this visit.

Rather than going back to Jor Bagh metro station, you can also go the Jawahar Lal Nehru stadium metro station on the Purple line further down the Lodhi road.

To conclude this post, I have a picture of a couple in the Bada Gumbad mosque, to remind you that Lodhi Gardens are another favourite of the young couples of Delhi looking for a bit of privacy.

Final Note: Since I had written this post, the area round Jor Bagh metro station has a new tourist attraction - the murals painted over the walls of the houses in Lodhi Coloney. The image below has one example of this beautiful world of Murals from this part of Delhi. You can spend whole days only looking at these murals. To see these murals, when you come out of the Jor Bagh, walk towards the old market of Lodhi Coloney or Habitat Centre, and you will see them on the main roads and on the side-streets. They are amazing and worth a visit.

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Cultural life in Guwahati

When I had come to Guwahati, I had not expected to find so many opportunities for an active cultural life. However, the past 2 months have been wonderful, full of stimulating discoveries. It helps that Guwahati city is relatively small and reaching most places is easy through the public transport.

Here are some notes from my diary about the cultural events in the city in the past weeks. The picture above is from a Purulia Chau dance performance from West Bengal in the "Bharat Lok Parva", a festival of folk dances, music and theatre held in Guwahati that was organized by the East Zone Cultural Centre of Kolkata.

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The National Youth Festival (NYF) in the beginning of January 2015 was the first big cultural event in Guwahati for me. Youth groups had come to the city from different parts of India to present folk-dances, classical dances, music, poetry and theatre. All the events were simultaneous, held in parallel sessions in different venues around Dighalipukhuri in Uzan Bazar.

Finding information about the programme, venues and times was not so easy but in the end, I had managed to attend the folk-dance performances held in the library auditorium. It was an opportunity to see a huge variety of traditional folk dances from different states of India. I was especially thrilled by the folk-dances of the north-east, since I did not know them very well.

Since I had decided to focus on folk-dances, I had to miss all the other events of classical dances, theatre, debates, etc.

However, one evening during the festival, I had gone to the concert by Assamese singer Papon in the Guwahati stadium. I love his singing and it was a nice coincidence that he had started his concert by my favourite, “Din-dinae” song.

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One day while visiting the Assam state museum, by chance I had found myself in the middle of the national conference of Indian museologists. There I had met Prof. R. D. Choudhury, the president of India’s Art History Congress as well as, the former director of Assam State Museum and the former director general of National Museum in Delhi.

After the conference, I had gone to meet him one afternoon. Talking to him about his life, his work in different museums and about the art history of India, was a fascinating experience. I love art history and I hardly know anything about the art history in India, so hope to learn more about it. The image below shows Prof. Choudhary in his office.

Prof. Choudhary has told me that he is working on his autobiography and it should be ready for printing in another six months. I am looking forward to reading it.

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By chance I had heard about a creative festival called “Rain Dance” that brought together environmental protection and art, to be held in Bashistha. I had written to Alak Pathak, the organiser of the festival, who had given me instructions about reaching the festival venue near Bashistha.

However, reaching that place had turned out to be much more difficult than I had imagined. I had walked on a small inner road for a very long time without finding any sign of the festival and instead, found myself in the middle of a Saraswati Puja celebration in a girls’ school.

Then talking to some young boys, I had discovered that I had missed the turning for the Dancing Rain festival venue. Fortunately one of the boys offered to accompany me to that place on his vespa scooter, which was another small adventure!

The images below is from the "Dancing Rain" festival, it shows a beautiful rhino “green” sculpture that Alak Pathak had created with Sal (teak) tree leaves. As you can guess from the sculpture, this festival was held in a field, close to a forest.

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Coming back from a visit to Bashistha temple, I had also visited the Art College of Guwahati. Arts college is in a run down unassuming low building. However, there are many beautiful sculptures in its courtyard made by its students, many of them covered by dust and cobwebs. These give it a kind of look of an abandoned open air art exhibition.

I found the ambiance of this place magical. If you are ever in Bashistha, don’t forget to take a look at the surroundings of the art college and discover the hidden sculptures.

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The news about the first North-Eastern GLBTQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual, Queer) Pride Parade was a pleasant surprise - it was a surprise because I had thought that outside the big metro cities in India, people will not have the courage to raise their voices about alternate sexualities.

It was very colourful and joyful. An unexpected pleasure of the GLBTQ parade was the readings of poems and some wonderful music and dance performances. And it was good to see so many young persons.

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I had walked to Shilpagram. From the way it was described, I was expecting to see a cross between Dilli Haat and the crafts village at the Pragati Maidan in Delhi.

It was almost 11 AM. However, the ticket window was closed. The guards and some persons were sitting near the ticket window.

“It is closed”, one of them had said.

“But I had read that it opens at 10.30?” I had asked.

“When the ticket-babu will come, then it will open”, he had explained.

“What time does he come?” I had insisted.

“He lives far away, so it takes some time. Sometimes he reaches at 12 noon”.

So no luck Shilpagram. May be the next time, I will go there, I will have better luck. It was one cultural visit that did not happen!

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I had seen the billboard of the “Bharat Lok Parva” (BLP) at Ravindra Bhawan. It was supposed to be organised at Kalakshetra from 16 to 21 February 2015, but the time was not specified. Since Kalakshetra is not far from where I live, so it was easy to go there to find out more about this folk-dance and theatre festival. Though it will be helpful if such information is shared in a more systematic way.

BLP has been a really beautiful festival. The quality of the folk dances and plays has been very high. It was organised by the East Zone Cultural Centre in Kolkata. They have promised to hold this festival every year.

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It is not so easy to find the time and venue of most cultural events in Guwahati. Local English newspapers like Assam Tribune do not have a regular space to inform about the different cultural events planned in the city. Often I know about them when they decide to publish a report or pictures, sometimes a week or more after the event.

Perhaps such events are advertised only in Assamese language newspapers? (Unfortunately, I am still learning Assamese alphabet so to read the Assamese newspaper, I will need some more time!)

I think that journalists, media persons, artists and persons interested in culture in Guwahati, need to find a solution so that precise information about cultural programmes (what, where, at what time, how much do the tickets cost ..) need to be available to general public through the press and through some websites.

The above notes from my diary are about the principal cultural events that I could attend. There were many other events like the Kite festival at the river front in Uzan Bazar where I was unable to go.

Ravindra Bhawan and Kalakshetra are the two main cultural venues that I have discovered in Guwahati but probably there are many more.

I had not expected so many cultural activities when I had come to Guwahati. It has been a wonderful surprise. I am slowly trying to learn Assamese, so hopefully in future, the cultural opportunities will be even more!

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