(for the beginning of the story see previous posts -
http://barbarabash.blogspot.com/2012/02/drawing-in-caves_25.html
http://barbarabash.blogspot.com/2012/03/in-ajanta.html
I notice I'm not ready to take on the "big guys" -
the dynamic gods and enormous seated buddhas.
Instead I focus in on the attendants, the guardians,
the helpers . . .
Nandi the Bull is the mount and gatekeeper
for the god Shiva and his consort Parvati
Later in the day
I focus on the small figures above me -
looking down . . .
Next morning at the Shiva cave 29
I am completely surrounded by a crowd
of children from Uttar Pradesh.
Bright-eyed girls with colorful jewelry and hennaed hands -
slender boys with sparkling tikka marks on their foreheads -
all so curious and excited !
Many photos are taken as I draw -
At the last Jain cave (32),
finding a quiet spot . . .
Everything is about to change -
(searching everywhere, then pulled into the complex process
of acquiring a phone in India).
But first - for a long moment -
I just keep drawing -
absorbed and happy.
