Nature

I watched a monkey snag the glasses off of a young Indian man yesterday. A crowd began to watch in suspense as he began tossing some food, which he had to purchase from a nearby vendor, up to the monkey. I was confused by this, but soon understood its point. Once the monkey got ahold of the food the boy was tossing up at it, the monkey dropped the glasses down to the boy. It was a spectacular and hilarious sight. The monkeys here sure are troublemakers and will quickly pounce on you to grab whatever you have in your hand.

However, this got me thinking about nature and how we understand nature. Indian cities--at least in Northern India--have animals all over the place. Cows calmly walk down bazaars, forcing cars and motorcycles to wait for them; wild hogs are seen leaping into the open sewers to "enjoy" human waste; monkeys and dogs are rampant throughout the streets. As showed by the boy with the glasses, Indians have learned how to live among these troublesome animals. They haven't gone around with a pistol and removed all the monkeys from the city. They don't honk their horns at cows and demand that they be moved to caged in areas. They live among nature.

Back in the states, we have designated nature preserves or special parks set aside where we can leave "the city" and enjoy "nature." As environmentalism becomes an ever-increasing concern and issue, we need to really reflect on what it means to be "natural" or "nature-friendly." Perhaps we should stop insisting that cities only contain humans and domesticated animals. Perhaps we're going to have to get used to avoiding cow dung while walking down alleys as I have, here in India. Perhaps we're going to have to learn how to work with monkeys in order to retrieve our stolen glasses.

Hare Krsna
Dylan