A gift for Aline

Out of pity, in part to make her life sweeter, in part to make my conscience lighter, I then gave Aline a gift. It was a Rajasthani tie-die scarf -- I had bought in Udaipur about a decade ago from a weavers' coop which no longer exists. It had been first woven in colorless silk with a square grill pattern of imitation silver thread (real silver thread cannot be used in pieces which are intended to be tie-died because it crumbles during the tying process); then it was tied into a great deal of tiny round circles -- one circle to each small square outlined by the silver thread; then gradient-died in a wash of rich purple and dark blue. Before handing the scarf to Aline, I took these photos.

The scarf has always made me think that it was a page from a richly colored and silvered manuscript; a holy book of some kind. Several times I dreamt about trying to decipher it.