Touch Monkey-First Installment

Okay, Jill-fans, I have finally recovered from the circadian cliff dive that is jetlag and am fulfilling Jill's request to post a few words about my visit to Nepal.

Allow me introduce myself--I have not hacked in to Jill's blog. She gave me the secret password to post under her name. My name is Gail, I'm a friend, travel companion, and former housemate of Jill's. I just spent the last two weeks of March inhabiting her & Anuraj's guest room in Bansbari, Kathmandu. Anuraj was gone most of that time on a business trip to Vienna. In the meantime, Jill, Anusha and I blazed a trail of glorious success through the Kathmandu Valley (see slogan above.)

I think Jill was hoping my post read as copy for a holiday brochure to lure all of her friends and family onto the nearest 747: Visit Beautiful Nepal: Himalayan Dreamscape! Yes, there will be some of that—because Nepal is indeed a world class tourist destination, but I also know some of you care more about the pint-sized international wonder named Anusha than Mt Everest. So this entry will be mostly about the “turtle-monkey” as Steve nicknamed her. Then with Jill’s permission, I’ll post one or two more blogs about the other highlights of my visit.

Since you are all Jill-fans and by extension Anusha-fans (come to think of it, this is an Anusha fansite, isn't it?), you have seen the pictures of Anusha looking curiously at the business end of a water hose, you have seen her mussed little brown head and skinny limbs, and heard a few anecdotes. But here is something maybe you don’t know about her—Anusha’s primarly objective in life is to touch monkeys. A lofty goal, considering Jill will not let her within five feet of one. “Touch monkey” is her catch phrase. She says it in a breathy, plaintive, wistful voice--the voice of unfulfilled fantasy.

Monkeys are literally crawling, dangling, and swinging from shrines all over the city. Outside the temple of Swayambunath, we saw about eight of them swinging from telephone poles into the top story window of a house. That was slightly disturbing—if I saw a monkey trying to swing in my window, I would purchase some serious firearms. From Pakistan perhaps.

But Anusha is imperturbable when it comes to animals. I was looking at a magazine with her that featured several photos of taxidermic stuffed animals—vicious wildcats with exposed fangs, angry black bears, etc. Anusha sees the cougar and says, “Cat!’ with dewy-eyed delight. Anusha loves cats, dogs and turtles. (She spent several minutes looking for a non-existent turtle in a well one evening—just staring into the water, trying to summon it.) But especially monkeys. I imagine her dreams are full of them.

She has taken to mimicking monkeys, hanging from any ledge or bar that she can get her straw-thin fingers around. She curls her knees up and just hangs with as much thrill as if she were paragliding (which Steve & I did, by the way, in the Himalayas).

Here is a list of some of Anusha’s favorite words: (Notice how different this list is from the typical American-bred child’s.)

Touch monkey
Monkey temple
Golden Buddha
Touch Buddha
Touch doggie
Doggie come
Moong dal
Taxi car
Barack Obama

How I miss these words spilling lyrically from those tiny lips.

Until my next installment...

--Gail