Novel about the Taj Mahal

Every once in a while I come across an author who captivates my imagination, and I go on a splurge reading everything they've ever written.

This year, my author splurge was John Shors.

In June, I read his novel, Beside a Burning Sea, and interviewed him on my haiku web site.

In August I read his newly released novel, Dragon House, which takes place in Saigon.

Now, I've just finished reading his first novel, Beneath a Marble Sky. It was sooooooo good!

It is a historical novel, a love story, and an adventure tale all rolled up in one. It is the story of the building of the Taj Mahal.

I don't think I can stress how much I loved this book! I've never been to India, and before picking up this book, only knew the barest of bones about the Taj Mahal. And yes, I know that the book is a work of fiction, and that some of the details might not be correct, but I DON'T CARE. It was that good!

It has only fueled my desire to visit the Taj Mahal. Someday....

In the meantime, I'll have to get an India fix by reading my fellow GoNomad blogger, Mridula Dwivedi. She lives in India and posts about her travels in her home land (and sometimes beyond).

Haunting Tunes of Nirmala Rajasekar

A few months back, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nirmala Rajasekar. She's an internationally touring musician, who happens to live in the Twin Cities area.

She plays the veena, which is a classical Indian instrument. In our interview, she told me the veena is as old as India.

My article about her was recently published. You can check it out here:

Venerable Veena

If you've never seen or heard a veena before, take a gander at this YouTube video of Nirmala playing her instrument.

Ah.....Romance

Love is in the air . . .

Today is my 5-year wedding anniversary. Hubby and I will be celebrating with a night on the town. Meanwhile, since love is the theme of the day, I wanted to share this picture.

It was taken by Mridula Dwivedi, one of my fellow GoNomad bloggers, who lives in India.

Last weekend, she took a trip to the Taj Mahal and captured this image. It is posted on her blog, Travel Tales From India. If you head there you can see a larger version of it.

Mridula complains on her blog that there were so many tourists in and around the Taj that she had a hard time getting any pictures of the famous structure without people in them.

This shot, though, is a winner. I find it touching and lovely and sweet, and incredibly appropriate that this couple in love is gazing out at the Taj Mahal.

Photo - (c) Mridula Dwivedi