Hey, hey, I saw some monkeys!

I'm a city girl, born and raised, and except for my brief forays into Waterloo, mulet capital of the world, I've pretty much spent all my time living in Toronto. Therefore, I'm not really used to seeing animals around. The only animals that I grew up with were my absolutely lovely dog Skippy (z"l) who was a long haired miniature dachshund, who had purer and nobler blood than most humans, and my brother Fred. So one of the reasons why I love India so much is that there are so many different types of wildlife, even in major cities! And now that I'm up in the Uttranchal area I'm thrilled that I'm starting to see monkeys!!

I think that monkeys have to be the most adorable creatures in the world. Each time I see one, I have to stifle the urge to pick it up, hug it, kiss it, take it home and dress it up in a sailor costume. They're just so cute! And up here in the north, they're ubiquitous. I took about 30 pictures today alone, which I will be posting on my blog as soon as I can find an internet cafe that has a computer newer than 1965. Today, when I was in Haridwar, I went up to the top of a hill to a Hindu temple called the Mansa Devi Temple. On the 1.5 km of steps climb up to the top, there were tons of vendors selling prasad (offerings, with coconuts and flowers and other things) to bring up to the goddess. And there were tons of monkeys, stealing the prasad! It was so much fun watching them, run away into a tall tree branch where their human victim couldn't reach them, and unwrap the prasad to get to the food. They were so, so, so cute. Luckily they didn't steal from me because I didn't buy one in the first place. I decided that going to the temple was avoda zara (worshiping false idols) enough as it is, I don't need to do anymore. I may still be going to hell, but I'm aiming for the second class level. You know, where it may be scorching hot with pillars of fire, but at least I'd have air conditioning. Anyway, back to the monkeys! It's when I see things like that that I really believe in evolution. Their behaviour is so similar to ours - strikingly similar to my brother Fred's, and pretty similar to the rest of us humans.