Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Back to India. Doctor Hazzanuddin Ahmed is a distinguished muslim scholar, a pious man who keeps his wife and daughters in strict purdah and helps his guests with home made cakes engraved with verses from the Quran. A quiet man who lives in his ancestral home in the old city of Hyderabad. This is not the India we fantasize about, no women wrapped in colorful saris, no men wearing dhotis, no namaste. Its about as common as an old irish mansion lived in by an old gentleman. The spectacular we expect is often only an inch away from the cliché when plain modesty is far truer to human destiny.

5 comments:

studioJudith said...

Lots of magic here.
I especially love the layers of light filtering through the shades , with the additional texture of the lattice.

Jjj

P.Gaye Tapp at Little Augury said...

Yes, I noticed the light immediately too. How large is the home-it looks rather. I suppose the You are what you eat adage applies to the cakes.
as always superlative. pgt

IVAN TERESTCHENKO said...

quiet so pgt...to the point!

António Erre said...

The study with the lovely blue and white stripes, so simple yet grand, compensate the lack of figurative elements, paints or prints, or even plants due to religious imposition. All house is stark and very strange. Nice the view from the garden, but far away from a ashram ;-)

nativekee said...

what a gorgeous home. so tranquil.
& your use of natural light reveals it so well.
it looks like a place i would want to meander through for days on end.