THE ELEPHANT PLATE
Jaipur Inn September 2018 – Push at the Jaipur Inn——Pushpender, our host the wonderful Jaipur Inn. One long wall is mosaic with broken ceramic, plates broken in a long-ago earthquake, with an occasional elephant entire. Staying there made all the difference in our visit. It’s now my home in Jaipur.
MONSOON TEMPLE
Prosperous-looking merchant in a pale green sari – Drew monsoon rain from a portal in the Palace with a mob sheltering here – Man cleaning his nails notices my interest——It’s quite a palace, up there on the hillside, but it was just pissing rain!
GAURI THE COW
Gauri- lives in a temple——“Excuse me, may I draw your cow?” They gave me a stool and brought tea. She lived in a little temple just off the street in Jaipur, swishing the flies away in the monsoon rains.
BHATI MAHARAJAH
Bhati Tours *****FIVE STARS – Bhati at the Tomb of the Maharajas——- It was still pissing rain, so I asked for a place with roofs where I could sit inside and draw the outside, and was driven to this place. Bhati Tours in Jaipur made our trip sublime, every day a car and English-speaking driver for a nominal fee, so I immortalized him here. Also the Mahrajah’s tomb.
MAHARAJAH PALACE DOG
Magnificent marble everywhere, but what’s a palace without a dog? He posed rocklike for a long time.
THE AIR FORCE BOX
Books & Books for Reading & Exchange – Nehru – Push’s Dad – Push’s Dad’s service crate – “Do you want to know what the best room in [that] house was? Your husband’s study. Because everything in that room meant something to that guy.” — Monty to Mildred in Mildred Pierce, James M Cain—— Everything tells a story, photos everywhere, and yes, the service crate from Push’s papa, the Air Force veteran, a friend of Nehru.
JAIPUR STONE DANCE
“Can’t you see that everything is perfect?”* *Drawing this while listening to vintage Ram Dass… – Look at this and hear Ravi Shankar- Jaipur 2018- Istanbul 2020——I spent some Lockdown Time completing drawings from photos I took back in 2018, like this fetching 17thCentury stone frieze. Heaven.