Jaipur's Beautiful Hawa Mahal: Rushing in the crazy traffic
We rush. We rush. We rush. Why are we in a hurry?
I Have Never Entered the Hawa Mahal. My Bad.
I confess I've never entered the Hawa Mahal. Reflecting on all the places I've traveled to, I realize I've never had much emotional connection with Rajasthan. In an earlier post, I posted an image of the Hawa Mahal, reflecting on the princesses standing at the windows (jharokha is the Indian word for these windows), looking down at the action on the street. Of course, whenever I gaze up at the jharokhas, I visualize the princesses looking down at me, swooning with desire.
Reality often bites hard, and its teeth seem to favor our posteriors. When I visited Jaipur, I weighed much more than I do now, and the chance of a royal princess swooning at the sight of my portly frame was always close to zero. Still, daydreams are fun.
A Spot of History
The structure that presents itself to the world is the rear side of the palace and extends inwards to the zenana (the private quarters of the royal women). I doubt the kings encouraged the women to show their faces to the public. The Rajput women always stayed behind their purdah, in contrast with the wives and sisters of the early Mughal kings, who were high-spirited women. Until at least the reign of Aurangzeb, the Mughal women were active women accompanying their husbands on their campaigns, running businesses, and writing poetry.
People are clueless about history
Most of us don't know history, and for me, I admit, it is a journey of continuous discovery. When an educated Dilliwallah insisted Aurangzeb was Jehangir's son, it took all my willpower to curtail a powerful impulse to knock sense into his empty skull. The gentleman's rudimentary knowledge of Mughal history shook my soul. His ignorance was shocking, especially considering the attention our Prime Minister always pays to the Mughals.
No wonder politicians across the world manipulate history and laugh in our faces.
Remember what George Orwell wrote in his book, 1984
Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.
But I have been digressing, and everything I have written until now has nothing to do with people rushing. But maybe I am on the right track. We rush about so much these days that no one thinks.
People Rushing on the street. Me, with my tripod.
I shot a few images of the structure and then experimented with the shutter at a slow speed. I placed my camera on the tripod, closed the aperture to the minimum possible, and ensured I shot images with a slow shutter speed. The structure of the Palace wall remained in focus, whereas the people became a series of blurs. Consider this: the old kings built this road almost three hundred years ago, which still serves us well. He was not prescient. No one could predict the crazy traffic that torments us nowadays. Compound this with the new habit of driving in the wrong direction. It is a mess. Everyone is rushing. Why is everyone rushing? We always seem to rush from one point to another. People are on a treadmill that moves faster than their legs, and when we arrive at our destination, we are off again.
Your Interpretations will change with time.
Now, ponder the beauty of photography or art. Your interpretations change with time.
When I made these images, I focused on the composition, juxtaposing a stationary object (the palace) with movement (people). I only focused on getting decent, sound, or acceptable compositions. I will try this again soon. And, someday, it will come!
I did not think of the questions I asked above, but when preparing this post, the questions surfaced and refused to subside. Look around you, and you will notice people moving fast, with vacuous expressions and eyes resembling a frightened rabbit. They bury their snouts in their phones and continue the rush.
Not everyone is privileged to rush into the foreground of a beautiful, historic structure. Most of us rush. We rush from place to place, from social media to social media, from tab to tab, from social event to social event.
So Many Meetings. Gotta Rush!
When someone says, 'stop,' we panic. I remember my corporate days, and I visited our division's headquarters in Morristown, NJ, USA. An aside: if you wish to die of boredom, spend a weekend in Morristown, NJ, USA. It is worse than Heerlen in the Netherlands or Leverkusen in Germany.
When I visited our office, I noticed everyone rushing from meeting to meeting. I caught a young lady of Indian origin and asked her when they worked.
"After 5:30 pm," she said. "We are in meetings all day."
"Why?" I queried.
"If you aren't in a meeting, you are unimportant," came her tart reply.
A Closing Question for You
I've traveled around the world (in my mind!) while analyzing the images for this post.
So tell me.
Do you analyze your images? Has your analysis changed over the years? Examine some of your old photos and let me know.
Don't rush!!