From 11-27 through 12-12 this past year, I went to Mumbai (Bombay), India, to work at my company's Indian division. Although my focus was work--2 weeks to complete a lot of work--I had one free weekend where I got in a little shopping and took a tour through the Kanheri Caves, Sanjay National Park. Over centuries, Buddhist monks traveling through Mumbai (they never stayed in any one place so as not to form any attachments) chiseled out an incredible monastic retreat into natural granite caves that pepper the hill nestled in this preserved spot of natural forest just outside of the busy (an understatement) city. Pictured behind me is one of the great stupas which houses the ashes of venerated Buddhist monks. The broad base stands for the earth, the rounded portion stands for water (the globe of the earth which is mostly water), the brazier above that stands for fire, and the connection to the ceiling defines space. There are no words to describe the wonder and peace of this locality!
Although I had to get used to the traffic and mad rush of the city (not to mention the driving and learning how to cross the street--you must experience it to believe it!), I was thoroughly fascinated. It was easy to love the many wonderful people I met. What an incredible experience!
I did see some knitting and crochet in one of the shops along with the woven Kashmiri shawls. There was nowhere to buy the wonderful yarn, though. I did meet someone from Kashmir, and he was very impressed that I would know about their famous fiber (not all cashmere actually comes from Kashmir). Even so, after the work was done, I still found time to knit in the evenings. Shown below are Christmas socks for my brother in law. The pattern is called "Heinrich" and can be found in Op Art Socks, by one of my favorite sock artists, Stephanie Van Der Linden. Each sock pattern is a tribute to individual optical illusion artists (in the case of the socks below, Heinrich Fuchs).
Nice, Mary!
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