There was elections on Saturday so I had the day off. Hurrah! Sometimes you should do the tourist thing so Alem and I went to the Lotus Temple.
This is probably the most iconic piece of modern architecture in Delhi. It's India's version of the Sydney Opera House or the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum. It was completed in the mid '80s and is a house of worship for the Bahai faith. It's really beautiful.
Inside the temple you are suppose to be completely quiet. The Bahai religion has no rituals or sermons. You aren't supposed to take photos either, but I took a few. This is the ceiling.
I like this inside a lot. It is purposefully without any decoration whatsoever. It is kind of like if you took a marble parking garage and filled it would be light; it would be pretty and minimalist and spiritual.
There are lots of Indians hanging around outside the temple. I love this little princess with the ELLE bag.
Some people like getting their photo taken.
The Lotus sits amidst aqua pools into which people throw coins and beside which they pose.
Coming at a moment when she chanced to be fatigued, it had managed to murmur, 'Pathos, piety, courage- they exist, but are identical, and so is filth. Everything exists, nothing has value.' If one had spoken about the vileness in that place, or quoted lofty poetry, the comment would have been the same- 'ouboum'. If one had spoken with the tongues of the angels and pleaded for all the unhappiness and misunderstanding in the world, past, present, and to come, for all the misery men must undergo whatever their opinion and position, and however much they dodge and bluff- it would amount to the same, the serpent would descend and return to the ceiling.
E M Forester, A Passage to India
The Lotus sits amidst aqua pools into which people throw coins and beside which they pose.
Coming at a moment when she chanced to be fatigued, it had managed to murmur, 'Pathos, piety, courage- they exist, but are identical, and so is filth. Everything exists, nothing has value.' If one had spoken about the vileness in that place, or quoted lofty poetry, the comment would have been the same- 'ouboum'. If one had spoken with the tongues of the angels and pleaded for all the unhappiness and misunderstanding in the world, past, present, and to come, for all the misery men must undergo whatever their opinion and position, and however much they dodge and bluff- it would amount to the same, the serpent would descend and return to the ceiling.E M Forester, A Passage to India
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