The Amber Fort in Eastern Rajasthan. Photo / Greg Bowker
The Amber Fort in Eastern Rajasthan. Photo / Greg Bowker
Diana Plater is alternately charmed, dazzled and overwhelmed in the Land of Great Kings.
It didn't have quite the same dimensions and certainly none of the sense of mystery but it was an amusing souvenir of our visit.
However, first I had to ask our guide to buy the Taj Mahal snow dome for me, in case my interest started an avalanche of sellersraining down on us.
He bargained hard and got it for a good price, complete with cardboard box, as I surreptitiously jumped on the bus and tried to avoid the arms stretching in through the window trying to sell even tackier souvenirs.
The other local find I bought during a trip to India was in a quieter setting, and hopefully will prove to be a much more enduring and aesthetic piece of memorabilia.
It was a miniature painting done on silk of a tiger hunt scene. Two tigers leap through the air as nobles shoot at them. You can even see the smoking gunpowder.
When purchasing my beautiful piece of tiny art I was told that when princesses were pregnant, they would go on tiger hunting parties so that if their male babies heard the roar of a tiger while inside the womb, they would be born brave.
The maharajahs took their artists on safari with them but also had them paint scenes of court life, and miniature painting soon flourished in Udaipur, the capital of Rajasthan in northern India.
After they left the patronage of the palaces, the artists established shops in the markets, then started schools teaching the art of painting miniatures.
These exquisite paintings are intricate, colourful works, executed meticulously with delicate brushwork. The colours used are derived from minerals, vegetables, precious stones, indigo, conch shells, pure gold and silver.
Many of the subjects are based on ragas or other forms of Indian classical music.
They are done on silk, rice paper, marble and ivory, with brushes made of squirrel tail hair or camel eyebrows.
An artist at work in Udaipur. Photo / Supplied
Sureh Gothwal (or Guddu for short), one of the artists from the Village Art School in Udaipur, explained his style of painting was influenced by the Mughals, who swept down from Mongolia, Afghanistan and the Middle East in the 16th century.
His work, and that of his 24 fellow artists from the co-operative, follows the more figurative local Mewar school of painting.
From a distance, the paintings appear three dimensional.
"At the Village Art School there are 25 artists ranging from senior to junior working on their own paintings," he said. "They have their own skills and images on their mind.
"A professor teaches them and gives them assistance. The art and skills are handed down from generation to generation.
"The women work from home."
The school has a shop where the work can be bought and demonstrations are done. Whatever money is made is distributed among the members of the co-operative.
The contrasts between weren't far away either. As we watched fireworks provided for the guests at a wedding being held at the luxurious Lake Palace hotel in the middle of Lake Pichala one night, I couldn't help but be amused at the name of the cocktails on the drinks list at our fancy lakeside restaurant - Cosmo Politan, Sex on the Pichala, Bloady Mary.
That afternoon I'd walked past the lake as boys soaped up. Guddu told me this is where he swam a yearly race around the islands.
Another supremely colourful aspect of India is its film industry.
From city kids to farmers, everybody loves the movies. Even in a shepherd's humble abode in a village a few hours from Udaipur, a huge poster of Bollywood star Ajay Devgan holds pride of place.
At Jaipur's salubrious Raj Mandir cinema we saw Moulin Rogue meet Bollywood in a film called Saawariya.
The highlight that brought everyone to tears of laughter came during a scene where our hero danced naked behind his towel in front of a window while singing about his newfound love.
The giant meringue-like cinema is designed in spectacular art deco style, with a facade of zigzags, curves and even stars.
The name, emblazed across the roof in large neon letters, also proclaims it to be "The Showplace of the Nation - Experience the Excellence".
Opened in 1976, its 1237 seats are divided into five different classes, each named after a different gemstone.
Indirect lighting that changes colours beneath Plaster of Paris mouldings comes on at interval, breaking up the typically three-hour long extravaganza.
There are four screenings daily and tickets can be purchased 30 minutes before each screening - but for blockbusters it's a good idea to buy even further ahead.
Jaipur, 270km southwest of Delhi, is the most frequently visited city in India after Agra. It is dubbed the Pink City in honour of the colour representing the Hindi god Shiva. Pink is also the Indian hue of welcome, and there's even a drink named after this city.
The Pink City cocktail apparently contains gin, lime juice, pineapple juice, rose syrup and sugar syrup.
The colours at the Amber fort about 11km north of Jaipur are more, well, amber. The palace and fort complex, perched on a steep mountainside, is widely regarded as the most beautiful on the subcontinent.
India's Famous Taj Mahal. Photo / Greg Bowker
The Taj Mahal in Agra was recently named one of the modern seven wonders of the world. The Great Mogul Shah Jahan built this monument to eternal love for his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died in 1631 at the age of 38 during the birth of her 14th child.
In the gardens you can sit on a bench and soak up the views and contrasting bright colours of the women's saris against the white of the marble.
Sunrise and sunset are the times of day most popular with visitors, with mostly Indians going at sunset, while more tourists tend to opt for sunrise.
Shah Jahan originally planned to build an identical black marble mausoleum for himself on the opposite bank of the Yamuna River. However, he was toppled by one of his sons, who imprisoned him in the nearby Red Fort from where he cast longing glances at his Taj Mahal.
And to help you remember these magnificent buildings, their hues and stories, you can always buy a snow dome.
CHECKLIST
Getting there:Cathay Pacific offer airfares with daily flight connections to Delhi via Hong Kong. Local carriers continue to Rajasthan.
