This detail of the “Favorite Reading Postures” is often associated with
the verse :
“I woke my Love
Soon after dawn
I watched him open his eye”
The verse is quoted from a compilation of original verses of Mumbiram under the title “Deluges of Ecstasy” that was composed sometime between 1975 and 1978 during Mumbiram’s years in America.
The charcoal rendering from which we see the detail here was made in India. Books are a recurring theme in Mumbiram’s charcoal and watercolour Rasa Art. Distant Drummer has compiled a collection of such works that are juxtaposed with verses out of the High Five of Love. This is the “Book Readers – Love on the Gutenberg Galaxy” Catalog.
The title and the image fit each other in an amazing way.
As in many other works of Mumbiram, the anatomies of the figures get intertwined in the sweetest puzzling ways. Let us not question who the book belongs to. The hand holding the peacock feather is her right hand that is appearing from under his head. She is halfway lying on his chest crushing his neck-beads under her bosom. She is awake, he is still asleep. She has been reading the book he fell asleep with.
Or is she writing something in it ? Whose flute is it anyway ? Has she been awake all night ? Did he just fall asleep ? Is she going to soon wake him up just to watch him open his eye ? Could he be watching her through his slightly ajar eyelids ?
To engage in such speculations about the details in a rasa art rendering is the joy of tasting the rasa that the rasa artist has cooked up. To rejoice in the exquisite details in the faces, gestures and postures of the lovely book lovers is just the icing on the cake.