Elephants and Art

This morning we saw an elephant. He was
casually watching a cricket match with a young
man, swishing his tail back and forth at buzzing
flies. I realize the elephant was not in the wild,
but I still thought it was amazing to see him out in
the open. He actually looked small in the field,
whereas elephants in the zoo seem so much bigger
because of the confined space in which they live.

Stores here sell beautiful carvings of elephants.
some of the pieces include extravagant gold
or silver armor covering the elephant, others
are more simplistic but equally beautiful.
One art store near our apartment sells so many
wonderfully crafted items, and so many wonderfully
tacky ones too:
- A painting of the Mona Lisa but she's dressed
as a Hindu princess complete with nose-ring
- A glass table, the pedestal of which is a
carving of a the waist-down of a beautiful Hindi
servant - the glass top emerges from her narrow
waist as she sits with legs bent at the knees, the
rest of her emerges from the top of the glass so it
looks like she's holding the table as a serving tray.
- Innumerable brightly painted statues of the
various gods (Ganesha is my favorite)
- A line of ebony elephants, decreasing in size
- Exquisitely carved wooden .... things ... to
hang on the wall; some are frames for mirrors,
some are small shelves, some are hooks for coats.

I've restrained myself from buying anything so far -
I think my strategy is to wait until I've been here
a bit longer and checked out the best places for
local crafts. But I'm tempted to go back to the place and take some photos.