Funny how some things can exist right under your nose and you never notice them! This sweet, crumbly little building stands on a road I have criss-crossed more times than I care to remember. I've looked at it while walking past. I've gazed at it from a car window. But it was only last Saturday that I actually stopped to look at it properly. Little did I realise that I was in for a treat.
This old structure - the annexe to Hotel Cecil - built in the typical dhajji-style (wood, plaster and hay between them for insulation) has the most incredibly embellished windows. They're made of a tin cover for the chajja (the little slanting cover which protects the window panes from rain) and wood. Supporting the chajja are gorgeous little arches carved from wood. The patterns are a mix of the floral and the geometric. Some of these are cut into the tin, forming extremely attractive shadow patterns. The windows are, as Baudelaire would say, profound, mysterious and dazzling.
This old structure - the annexe to Hotel Cecil - built in the typical dhajji-style (wood, plaster and hay between them for insulation) has the most incredibly embellished windows. They're made of a tin cover for the chajja (the little slanting cover which protects the window panes from rain) and wood. Supporting the chajja are gorgeous little arches carved from wood. The patterns are a mix of the floral and the geometric. Some of these are cut into the tin, forming extremely attractive shadow patterns. The windows are, as Baudelaire would say, profound, mysterious and dazzling.
j
i go to this window
just as day dissolves
when it is twilight (and
looking up in fear
i see the new moon
thinner than a hair)
making me feel
how myself has been coarse and dull
compared with you, silently who are
and cling
to my mind always
but now she sharpens
and becomes crisper
until i smile with knowing
- and all about
herself
the sprouting largest final air
plunges
inward with hurled
downward thousands of enormous dreams
just as day dissolves
when it is twilight (and
looking up in fear
i see the new moon
thinner than a hair)
making me feel
how myself has been coarse and dull
compared with you, silently who are
and cling
to my mind always
but now she sharpens
and becomes crisper
until i smile with knowing
- and all about
herself
the sprouting largest final air
plunges
inward with hurled
downward thousands of enormous dreams
- e e cummings -
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1 comment:
The architecture of Cecil Annexe has one parallel in Shimla and that is BANTONY cottage as well as main house near Grand Hotel.Unfortunately this private building under occupancy of HP government for a long time has met negligence of vast magnitude by the occupants who are so adamant that even after vacating it,they would not allow the owner to restore it quoting those rules which can not be found in any book
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