Fri 26 Jan 2007
Eating some fruit on busy Bangalore street
Posted by Julio Hernandez-Miyares under All About Work
eating some fruit on busy Bangalore street
Originally uploaded by julio.miyares.
India is a marvelous country. You see citizens such as this one freely roaming around in the heart of a busy and large city such as Bangalore.
Apparently a “live and let live” attitude even to those lower on the food chain except of course for those we actually have to eat.
Taking the long (20 plus hours), two-part flight back West this coming morning. When I return at least at the outset till I get back to my beloved Columbia County, I will be in the home of the Hummer, drive-in McDonald’s and endless stream of strip malls.
Lets hope this is not the same destiny for India.
Tags: Julio Hernandez-Miyares, Bangalore, India
February 2nd, 2007 at 3:17 pm
While randomly searching things related to AOL I came across your blog. And the monkey photo! Since I am from India, the picture resonates with me and brings back memories of many monkey “close encounters”. I can remember living in an apartment as a small boy and walking into our kitchen to see that a large - correction, ginormous - monkey was helping himself to some of my mom’s delicacies. I ran out screaming like I was being attacked by a deranged gorilla! Nearly scared me to death.
I am not sure if you have ever heard of the resident monkeys of New Delhi’s South Block, a huge office building for government agencies. Perhaps this link will help. I remember my brother visiting the South Block office of a senior bureaucrat with a Malaysian colleague and the bureaucrat went through major classifications of the monkeys in the building, including “senior monkeys” who were allowed to prowl for the best pickings by the rest of the group.
On another note, I remember how the highly intelligent langur monkeys mentioned in the linked article used to come to my aforementioned apartment complex. I remember how my brother and I would stand in the balcony with a loaf of bread and hand slices to the group’s leader who would be bold enough to sit on the ledge and ask for more. My earlier fear was overcome simply by the fact that I was only second in line behind my bigger, older brother in case the monkey decided to turn “attacking gorilla” on us!
Apart from the “live and let live” attitude you mention, another important thing is that monkeys are considered to belong to the clan of Hanuman, India’s famous monkey god. Therefore, Hindus tend to shy away from harming monkeys. Which is also the reason why the Indian government hired other monkeys (namely, langurs) to do the job! Funny, isn’t it?
I quite like your blog and would like to add it to my blog roll on my website.
Best regards,
Srini