Travels with an Identity Thief – Part Three – Seeing Through Marilyn’s Eyes

As a writer assuming the identity of a visual artist, I amfaced with a special set of challenges. Marilyn thinks in pictures, whilst I processlife through words. To be true to my ‘character’s character,’ I must learn toexperience the world as she does, to open myself to her emotions as triggeredby the colors and textures around us, to let my eyes experience the worldbefore my intellect.
On the other hand, to be true to myself as a wordsmith, I amcommitted to finding the language that will convey Marilyn’s experiences asvividly as possible. No wonder I am totally exhausted at the end of each day!
It was not until I reached Aurangabad, two weeks after myarrival in India, that my shift into the visual mode gained noticeable momentum.  Who can visit the rock-cut caves of Ajanta—discoveredin 1819 by a band of British officers hunting a tiger—without being transfixedby images masterfully created by the great sculptors and painters of 2ndCentury India?
Marilyn had pored through books of photographs and listenedwith fascination to her husband Shankar telling Jataka tales of Buddha’sreincarnations and the Bodhisattvas. No way had this prepared her for aface-to-face encounter with the ancient world.
Later that same day I visited a market in Aurangabad, alongwith hundreds of shoppers caught up in the Diwali festivities. From the grey stonesand ancient murals of the caves out into a modern riot of color… what atransition! I could hardly snap pictures fast enough. This one will definitely inspireMarilyn to paint as she never has before.