India 2/11/2016 - 2/27/2016

Saturday, 2/13/16 - Delhi to Agra, Kohinoor Jewelers, Subhash Marble Emporium

We had a very restful sleep, waking at 7:30 a.m. We used the wi-fi for a while. We went to breakfast in the dining room at 9:00. We overlooked the garden. Despite the fact that we were in the midst of the city, this little oasis felt quite relaxing. Purple sunbirds (which resemble hummingbirds), came right up the the window glass and peered in at us. We also saw wild green ringed parakeets, and a bird of prey with a stick in its talons through the window. We had a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, hash browns, coffee, and orange juice for just 100 rupees ($1.50) each! The restaurant is subsidized by the Center, so it is quite affordable.

We checked out at 10 o'clock: it had only cost $126 for the room and breakfast. That is an amazing value in New Delhi, so we are very grateful to Mukul's cousin who arranged it for us. We waited outside in the cool morning air. I wandered around, taking photos of the lovely landscaping. Next door was the India Islamic Cultural Centre. We could see its beautiful dome encircled by Arabic script rising above the trees.

Mukul and Bishwan arrived at 10:20. The drive to Agra took about 3 hours but it flew by. We were much more lively than last night, so we had plenty to talk about with Mukul. As we arrived in Agra, we passed by familiar sites: the Yamuna River passing by the Tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah (aka the Baby Taj) and the Taj Mahal, and the imposing Agra Fort. We saw monkeys scurrying along the roadside. This was our third time in Agra, and it felt so familiar and comfortable. The hustle and bustle was invogorating. We noticed that the infamous bridge across the Yamuna no longer allows cars to pass. Probably a good idea, since there is so much traffic from pedestrians, rickshaws, animal-drawn carts, etc.

We followed the familiar streets to Mukul's house, around the corner from the Taj Mahal. It felt like a homecoming as we pulled into the driveway. We were greeted by Mukul's lovely wife Sunita. It was nice to see her again after a 6.5 year absence. Sonam and Sara were here too. They had left the wedding soon after we had, and had driven home overnight. We got settled in the upstairs guest room (known as Jagdishji's room, as Mukul's friend Jagdish is the one who usually stays there). We met Jagdishji on our prior visit, and were honored to stay in his namesake room. The room we had stayed in on our last visit had been renovated into a little suite for Sukumar, Sonam, and Sara.

We went downstairs to the dining room, where Sunita served us a delicious home-cooked lunch of chappathi, rice, peas and carrots with spices, yogurt, and dahl. She is such a good cook, and we love authentic Indian food!

At 3 p.m. we all took a little siesta. We were a bit jet-lagged, and the family was tired after the wedding. We had planned a few days in Agra to reunite with the family and rest up before embarking on our journey to the south. Craig napped and I wrote in the journal. At 5 o'clock, we went downstairs for tea, savories, and homemade cookies.

Prior to the trip, we had asked Mukul if we could go to Kohinoor Jewelers while we were in Agra. We had visited them on our first trip to Agra in 2007. It was a very enjoyable visit, and I had purchased a ring while we were there. The ring was stolen in 2013. I corresponded with Kohinoor at the time, and they made a hand-crafted replacement for me. I was very happy with it. Unfortunately, one of the stones fell out. At the last minute, we decided to take the ring to India with us in the hopes of having it repaired.

Mukul asked if we would like to go to Kohinoor now. I got the ring, and Bishan came to pick us up. In addition to being a jewelry showroom, it is also a museum showcasing the amazing embroidery of Padma Shri Shams. As we walked into the building, which is a high security vault, we were welcomed and shown some framed examples of Shams' work.

It is amazing embroidery, done with cotton thread layered with split silk thread. The priceless works of art in the collection are larger than life. Shams invented this technique, which resulted in 3-D art. The embroidery is almost an inch thick in places. We got to touch one, and it is amazing how firm it is from all of the layers that make up its depth. And the depth is made up of layers upon layers of thread; cotton batting is never used.

The pieces in the lobby depicted birds. One was a vibrant peacock, and another was an albino peacock. They were amazing to compare. One used color to great effect, and the other took advantage of its monochromatic-ness by using texture to denote different feathers.

Soon Mr. Mathur, the proprietor, arrived. He greeted us and asked if we remembered the Shams museum from our last visit. We said that we remembered it fondly. He invited us to refresh our memories. We entered the now-familiar climate-controlled private museum. The room looked empty. Using a tablet, Mr. Mathur initiated a curtain to lift on one of the walls, revealing a beautifully lit piece of embroidery. An audio narration about Shams and his work accompanied the dramatic reveal of each piece. The first piece was The Good Shepherd, an unbelievable iconic image of Jesus with a flock of sheep (though Shams wasn't Christian). The sheep were incredibly puffy; the depth had to be at least five inches. Next was a large square embroidered chess board with African wildlife tableaux around the perimeter. There was an image of the Taj Mahal, and the center line seemed to follow you as you moved about the room.

And finally, there was a life-like embroidery of a bejeweled vase of flowers which Shams embroidered for his wife’s 40th birthday. Gems adorned the embroidered vase. Shams has said that this piece was his Taj Mahal - his monument of love to his wife. But he was proud to actually deliver it to her while she was still alive! When you see the detail and sheer size of the embroidery pieces, it is not entirely surprising to learn that Shams became blind in the final decade of his life. The amount of strain put on his eyes by such precise work on such a grand scale must have been enormous.

Mr. Mathur’s family (a long line of jewelers) had provided the gems for Shams’ works, and it was obvious that Mr. Mathur was quite proud of being associated with Shams' body of work. We walked past an emroidery opiece which resembled a Persian rug, which was embellished with 2500 carats of gems procured by Kohinoor.

After seeing the gallery of embroidery, we went up to the jewelry floor. I showed Mr. Mathur my ring. I had put it away hastily when I had lost the stone, and it hadn't been work in a while. Craig looked at it, and, feigning embarrassment, joked to me, "You didn't even clean it?!" Mr. Mathur looked at him and deadpanned, "That's MY job!" We were introduced toi Mr. Mathur's son, who was in charge of recreating my ring after it was stolen. They said that it would be no problem to fix, and that they would have it ready for us before we leave Agra.

Once again, Mr. Mathur showed us an issue of National Geographic from April 1985 in which he was interviewed about jewelry made from Mumtaz Mahal's emeralds. Like last time, he then produced the necklace. The emeralds were not cut; they were tumbled smooth, and they seemed to change in the light, to dance almost like an opal.

Then Mr. Mathur let me once again try on some priceless diamond and cut emerald jewelry. I felt like an empress. I tried on a dainty gold and emerald bracelet, and an enormous emerald pendant surrounded by diamonds. And the huge emerald and diamond ring fit me perfectly...just sayin'!

Kohinoor Jewelers is excellent with customer service. They treated us like treasured guests. It was so nice to get to see Mr. Mathur and his son and thank them for the wonderful job that they did recreating my ring. And we apprreciate him taking the time to show us the Shams embroidery and the Mughal emeralds again!

After a very nice visit, Craig asked if Subhash Marble Emporium was still in business. We had bought a marble lamp inlaid with flower motifs in 2007. Mukul said that they were indeed (the business dates back to 1962), and he offered to take us there. I said that was a dangerous proposition. If we visited, I knew that we wouldn't be able to refrain from purchasing something. Craig accepted this risk, and we decided to go.

It was an unassuming building. We passed the demonstration room, where hand-powered grinding wheels are used to painstakingly shape 2 millimeter thick semi-precious stones to be inlaid into marble. This is the age-old technique called pietra dura, which was used by the artisans who created the Taj Mahal, the tomb of Itimad-ud-daulah, and various marble buildings inside the walls of Agra Fort.

We met with Mr. Himanshu Bansal. He showed us some amazing newly commissioned works which are made using the centuries old techniques used to embed semiprecious stones into the face of the Taj Mahal. The artisanship on display at these 2 places is amazing. Shams spent 18 years on a single embroidery piece, and 2 artisans (one who cut the semiprecious stones and one to set them into the marble) spent 12 years making a beautiful delicate tray which had paua shell inlay from NZ. There was also a Belgian black marble box. The detail of the work is amazing. Some of the inlays are so small that you can barely see them without a magnifying glass. The manager said that fifty years ago, this art had nearly died out, but there had been a concerted effort to bring it back, as it was so important to the area's history and culture.

We wandered around, looking at all of the pieces. Although the delicate workmanship on the small boxes was absolutely gorgeous, we had nowhere to display something as intricate as that. So we decided on a flat piece of black Indian marble, inlaid with oyster shell to depict the Taj Mahal. It also contained paua shell, malachite, and turquoise. The workmanship was less intricate and delicate, but it can be appreciated from a distance as well as up close. And what is more iconic than the Taj Mahal? Mr. Bansal asked us to send him a photo of the piece, along with the lamp we purchased last time, when we get home. We were happy to do so.

After our mission, we came home and ate a delicious homemade meal (egg curry, mattar paneer, and chappati) prepared by Sunita. Being vegetarian, Sunita doesn't eat eggs. She wasn't able to taste the curry so she worried about how it tasted. She needn't have worried - it was delicious. Mattar paneer is one of my favorite Indian dishes, and it didn't disappoint.

We had peanut clusters for dessert, and then adjourned into the drawing room. As Mukul is a bird-lover, we brought some bird-themed gifts. We gave him a book of Audubon's early drawings, and we gave little Sara a stuffed owl. Sara slid down her Little Tykes slide. Sara showed us her stuffed panda, so I got my tablet and showed them our video of volunteering with pandas in China last year.

We enjoyed chatting and catching up with Mukul, Sunita, Sukumar, Sonam, and little Sara before heading to our room to rest at 9:30.

Kohinoor Jewelers