The Monkey Man

We leave Monday and are winding down our preparations. We'll probably leave things we wish we hadn't and take things we wish we hadn't. I'm going with the one thing I can't possibly be without and she's out shopping for last minute gifts as I write.

Carol found a story in this morning's Oregonian Edge. I'll quote just in case you missed it:
"In Lucknow, India, the local train station hired 42-year-old Acchan Miyan to be a "Monkey man" and act like a monkey and scare away real monkeys that were harassing passengers around the station. "There used to be many monkeys here and they'd cause all kinds of mischief," said one passenger. "Sometimes they'd tear the seat covers in trains and snatch bananas from passengers. Acchan's act protects us from the monkey menace."

This story is rich with really good stuff: smart railroad folks in Lucknow (tri-met would hire a consultant, form a task force, and get lots of non-monkey input); good on Acchan--like Warren Buffet, he was born with some valuable skills; maybe this would work at town hall meetings with our domestic terrorist monkey menace, and so on.

We'll be in Lucknow sometime in October, and we will now feel safe traveling with bananas. I hope Acchan has found permanent employment and, if so, I hope to talk to him.

Dell Smith, who along with his very cool wife Helen, led these trips in 03 and 07 wrote the following to his students about India: Jawaharlal Nehru stated, "She was like some ancient palimpsest on which layer upon layer of thought and reverie had been inscribed, and yet no succeeding layer had completely hidden or erased what had been written previously. All of these existed in our conscious or subconscious selves, though we may not have been aware of them, and they had gone to build up the complex and mysterious personality of India… "

I'm thinking about this and I'm thinking about Mother India, and I'm thinking about our students, and I'm thinking about the Monkey Man and I'm thinking Holy Cow!