Of Monkeys and Men

After one night in the very religious Haridwar, we are in Rishikesh. Rishikesh is a city on the banks of Ganga, where the Himalaya begins. The district of Lakshman Jhula, around the suspended bridge over the river, is a very pleasant place despite the regular invasions of hippies and monkeys. We spent almost a week here, during which we had some very long walks, we visited temple, we rested.

We were in Rishikesh for Diwali, the celebration of lights. This is a hindu celebration, to enlight the path of Rama returning from exile. And in the facts it is mostly about launching fireworks all the time during 5 days. Every shop sells their selection of fireworks and other explosive stuffs and people make them explode a bit everywhere in the streets.

During first weeks here, we got to hear religious music from all the variety of religion India offers : sufi qawwalis at Hazrat Nizam ud-Din in Delhi, sikh music in the Golden temple of Amritsar, tibetan buddhist chants in McLeod Ganj, hindu mantras at Har-ki-pairi in Haridwar... It was a very nice change to listen to music as a concert. It has been a long time we didn't attend to any cultural events (since we left Latvia...). The musicians were talented. Indian music is really intriguing. At first you feel like you follow the rythm, until you realize you were totally wrong. They start on 15/16, then add or take off one quaver, they suddenly go faster, etc. The most impressive were the improvisations and how they could follow each others.

Also one morning in Rishikesh we woke up at the music of something that first sounded like a kind of bagpipe, but wasn't. We went out of our room and down from our balcony an old beardy skiny man was playing in front of a basket where a cobra was raising its head out.

In Rishikesh we got close to the "common fauna of India". Beside holy cows, stray dogs, boars in garbage, we also saw one peacock climbing up the bushes. And too many monkeys. Monkeys everywhere. On roads, on bridges, on roofs, in trees...  On the first day we arrived, we met one on the terrasse of a café. After some minutes of observing people and posing for their cameras, the monkey jumped on our neighbour's table to steal a hanfull of pasta!

But now we are leaving India. Destination : Kathmandu.