In the middle of the floor lay a skeleton, every vestige of flesh gone from the bones to which still clung the mildewed and moldered remnants of what had once been clothing. Upon the bed lay a similar gruesome thing, but smaller, while in a tiny cradle near-by was a third, a wee mite of a skeleton.

No two mixings of these paints are ever the same.

Manasarovar, the lake born from the mind of Brahma, is among the most ancient and holy of Hindu pilgrimage sites. Hindu legend tells of twelve Rishis, wise 'Seers’ of pre-Vedic times who retreated to the remote region for meditation and prayer. They stayed many years performing penances and austerities, and were awarded a vision of Shiva and Parvati, the divine Lord and Lady of Kailas. But still they lacked, in this dry land, a suitable place to perform the daily ablutions required of devout Hindus. The Rishis prayed to Brahma so that they might fulfil their duties. From the infinite depths of his all-encompassing mind Brahma created Manasarovar, the Lake of the Mind, as a mirror of his greatness. At the moment of its creation, it is said, the Rishis worshipped a golden linga, the generative symbol of Shiva, rising from the midst of the new-born waters.

The smiths of the heavens are mending the weather; Their hammers are beating the fragments together. The cumulus mountains with nebulous gorges Are dazzled with flame of the wind-bellowsed forges;