ariverinpursuit - Tumblr blog

[ariverinpursuit]

[ariverinpursuit]

Jhunjhunu: Beautiful City to bring a Smile on your Face (2021)

[ariverinpursuit]

[ariverinpursuit]

Lotus motif carved on the Tomb of Imam Zamin, Qutub Complex Mehrauli.

[ariverinpursuit]

[ariverinpursuit]

World Heritage Day!

Nilagumbad, Delhi.

First: Clicked by me,2021.

Second: Painting by Edwin Lord Weeks, 1885.

[ariverinpursuit]

by Tunafish Mayonnaise

[ariverinpursuit]

instagram | cakeandmoss

[ariverinpursuit]

[ariverinpursuit]

Where Stones Speak

Hazrat e Dehli kanf e adal o daad

Jannat e adan ast ke abaad baad

Hazrat e dehli is an emblem of justice and charity,

A garden of heaven flourishes and will remain forever.

-Amir Khusrau

Where stones speak is a book written  by author Rana Safvi. It  traces the tale of one of the oldest cities of Delhi i.e. Mehrauli.

Touristically mehrauli is not that explored because it is usually confined to the Qutub Complex.

But if you would like to dive further  it is an ocean of historically significant structures.

It is a thoroughly researched book covering shrines, tombs, lakes, stepwells, remnants of forts, ruins etc with  many pictures which makes it more indulging.

Starting with the ancient origins it talks of the culture, architecture and spirituality from ancient Pandavas, Tomars to the Mamluks and Mughals. Every page was embellished with beautiful couplets by various poets like Amir Khusrau, Meera Bai, Jaun Eliya and Mir Taki Mir to name a few.

Although the book was adorned with  many colourful pictures  still I was anticipating to get a glimpse of the interiors of  Qutub which the book missed. Maps would have been a more entrancing addition. Apart from that I liked the book.

A good grab for all the history enthusiasts  out there and  also for those who love Delhi and would like to luxuriate in its interesting past.

Happy reading!

PS thankyou @dimxie

For this pretty gift! 🧚

#wherestonesspeak

#ranasafvi

#harpercollinsindia

[ariverinpursuit]

Book review

Animal Farm is an allegorical dystopian novella written by George Orwell.It was first published in August 1945.

The story seems like a simple tale on farm animals starting a rebellion but it is actually a political satire on Joseph Stalin. George Orwell was a critic of Stalin who pour scorn on his totalitarian rule using allergory.

The story starts in Manor Farms run by Mr.Jones who didn’t treat his farm animals well. These underfed animals then started a rebellion against their master led by two pigs Snowball and Napoleon (Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin).

The animals after being triumphant in the rebellion introduced an ideology called ‘ANIMALISM’ including ten commandments, which were later altered in hands of Napoleon’s corrupt cracy.The rebellion started with the slogan “All animals are equal “ and it ended with “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.” This shows how in the end dystopia prevailed again . It also included the conflict between intellectual work and labour work.One needs to dive into the events of The Russian Revolution in order to decipher this caustic satire.

[ariverinpursuit]

This book is a collection of essays written at different times for different publications.

It will give you a cognizance about a lot of things related to the literary world, politics, reading and writing.

The book is divided into five parts Inspiration, Reconsiderations, The literary life, Appropriations and Interrogations.

Some of the essays were quite lucid where you dont really bump into the Tharoorosaurus vocabulary and some were up to snuff.

It includes author's admiration for literary figures like salman rushdie, pg wodehouse and a critical take on RK narayan.. Which got me flabbergasted.

At last i would say it is a sublime collection of essays albeit written a long ago. My favourite ~'Bookless in baghdad and 'Globalization and the human imagination'.

[ariverinpursuit]

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot

[ariverinpursuit]

A Princess Remembers

The Memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur

Gayatri Devi was born to the Maharaja of Cooch Behar a small kingdom of rural Bengal and princess Indira devi of Baroda.

She was raised in a sumptuous palace staffed with 500 servents.

The book offers a glimpse of other princely states as well and gave astonishing details of the surroundings.

It is written from a maharani's point of view which also shows how the elite class looked upon the society.

Writing was quite lucid and the chapters made it easy for the readers to walk from one phase of her life to another.

It covered major events that happened in the country and the world in the 1900s from British raj to the assassination of indira gandhi. But the events were recorded quite briefly.

Big events like the world war, indo-china war and the emergency too were concisely mentioned.

It also gave intricate details and close encounters with many renouned personalities like Lord and Lady Mountbatten, Prince Phillip, Queen Elizabeth, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and John f Kennedy to name a few, showing jaipur must have been an important royal state with connections all over the world.

Gayatri devi also won a seat in the Parliament of India with the majority of 1,75,000 votes making a world record.

John F. Kennedy, president of the united states introduced her as "the woman with the most staggering majority that anyone has ever earned in an election".

The maharaja jaipur man singh || addressed in the book simply as 'jai' is presented as a glamorous charming maharaja of an oppulent state who plays polo, travels extensively throughout the world and threw extravagant parties. He also got deep sense of connection with the people of his state Jaipur, who worshipped him religiously.

The book had many photographs which made it more entracing and helped to paint a clear picture of how it all must have been like.

Glimpses of opulence was ubiquitous from her mothers french furnishing and live turtle inlaid with precious gems,parties, to expensive wedding ceremonies breaking world records.

Hunting processions were hard for me to read and accept as a form of entertainment, my heart ached everytime i read about a tiger or panther being shot.

In the introduction it says ' A Princess Remembers' presents an intimate look at the extraordinary life of one of the worlds most fascinating women but the book felt emotionally diluted, like a swift glimpse.

Pain and appalling events were simply listed and labelled tragic.

It felt that the purdah system prevalent in Jaipur put a veil on the proses of the memoir as well.

In the end Maharani described her life in the 1990s how her life from colossal palaces of baroda, cooch behar and rambagh strinked merely to a small bunglow 'lillypool'.

But she loved lillypool due to its proximity to ranbagh and also how it encapsulated golden memories.

She lost her mother, her brother and her most beloved jai.

But in the end she mentioned her daughter in laws, her sons, her grandchildren which felt like a subdue end to her story like a fairytale, where in the end everything goes right.

One of her greatest achievements according to me was the Maharani Gayatri Devi school for girls. A prominent step towards ending the purdah system and uplifting the stature of women in the state.

[ariverinpursuit]

Mehrunissa to Noorjahan 🌹 @indusundaresan #bookshelf #goodreads

[ariverinpursuit]

William dalrymple on shelf!

[ariverinpursuit]

World Heritage Day!

Nilagumbad, Delhi.

First: Clicked by me,2021.

Second: Painting by Edwin Lord Weeks, 1885.