Taj Mahal 30 July 1971

I was looking through an old scrap book when my family did a tour of India (July 1971 only 42 years ago!) and came across this colour photo of my parents, sister and I sitting on the famous bench on the viewing platform on the approach to the Taj Mahal.

My youngest daughter is actually on holiday in India at this very moment and was visiting the 'Taj' yesterday and it looked very crowded by comparison.  I assume we asked another visitor to take our photograph?

Movie - Meeting an elephant on the way to Agra.

I am having a go at adding a small video file to my blog.  Last time I tried I failed, either it was too large a file size or of the wrong format.  It was taken around 1968 and is only of a very low quality.  That is me on the elephant. My family was driving to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and we came across a man riding his elephant on the way to a wedding.  You can see a lorry go thundering past me at one point.  Eventually we get to see the Taj Mahal. Hope you like it.

G D Paulraj - Taj Mahal

My friend Kashinath has sent me a photo of this painting by G D Paulraj, it seems to be showing the TajMahal in Agra.  It seems to be a little unusual for Paul to paint a real place, most paintings appear to be imaginary or maybe slightly based on real scenes.

It certainly is a very bright painting, the minarets seem a little skinny to me but it captures the scene.  I have previously added some photos of the Taj captured from a Cine film.  I have added another family photo taken in front of the Taj taken around 1972.  I am the young man on the left.

Another Paul Raj

I came across this painting which is attributed to G D Paul Raj but the signature is not legible so it could be one of his but I am unsure.  I wondered if it might be by his wife Pankajam PaulRaj.  It is a slightly different style to most of the others I have seen so far.

I have rescued another cine clip of some women working in the paddy fields it was taken at the same time as the last one.  It looks very hard work up to your ankles in muddy water and bent double as well.

Finally a view of the Taj Mahal taken from the side again this is a clip from one of the family cine films.  I think the blue sky frames the dome very well.

Early picture from the 1960's

I thought I would publish some early photos taken of myself and my family taken between 1961 and 1967 in Madras and Agra.  The photo below is of myself and my father at the Taj Mahal taken in 1967.

The photo is grabbed from a cine film taken at the time so it is of low quality.  I will have to see if I can upload a short movie clip.  The next photo is taken in Madras in 1962.

My sister and I are sitting on the wall in front of the beach side temples with an avenue of carved cows.  The next photo is of the house in Madras where we used to live before moving to Calcutta, I think it was called Hadley, very grand.  Hope you like the photos, I have now blown my cover and you know what I look like.