Advertisement
Published: July 25th 2009
Driving to Rishi Valley - Monkeys and Villages!
As we set off for Rishi Valley, it became apparent pretty soon that the drive was going to be a lot of fun. Initially, we spotted several of the standard animals that you see on the side (or in the middle) of the road: cows, bulls, and dogs. As we started to get out of the city limits however, we started to spot a monkey or two. And then it was like we were in a monkeys-only zoo! They were everywhere - on the side of the highway, on the trees on the side of the road, and of course, in the middle of the highway. This set Carla and Ashley into a state of pure ecstasy, followed by incessant photography accompanied by the occasional shriek of delight. They had never seen monkeys in the ‘wild’ before. They were cute, no doubt, but petting a wild monkey is a terrible idea...especially when none of us got our rabies shots. So we had to settle for slowing down and capturing the cute, if dangerous primates on camera. While I maintained my composure - shrieking, in delight or otherwise, has never been an endearing quality in a man- I too was in love with the cute furry things. My favourite was the baby monkey that was clinging to its mother with one hand while munching on a tomato with the other!
After an hour and a half of driving, we stopped in a tiny village to get some roadside chai (Indian milky tea). One cup of tea was a very cheap Rs. 10 (around 30 cents), and so tasty. Carla and Ashley attracted the attention of every red-blooded man in the vicinity as well as a small group of children on the other side of the road. Carla proceeded to head over to the shy kids and take photos with them! The youngest, a boy, was anything but shy as he flashed his pearly whites like there was no tomorrow! Cute kid.
Back to school!
Going back to Rishi Valley School after 9 years was quite the experience. Before I moved to Edmonton, this was the place I had lived the longest in. It is probably the only place that I can go around and talk about what used to be there and what has changed, etc. When I lived there, I knew my way around the 360 acre campus inside out. I could walk from anywhere to anywhere in the absolute darkness that Rishi Valley throws at you every night. It’s a school comprising of ~350 students and 50 teachers. The emphasis was on overall development, and the education system was designed to make you compete with yourself instead of with your peers. It was designed to allow everyone to bring the best out of themselves. The forested school strongly emphasized sports and physical activity: we had a half-hour of physical training and an hour of sports everyday, and this was in addition to the fact that the only way to get around the sprawling campus was to walk. The school is fully self-sustained - it has its own farms, dairy, and water purification systems. There are no TVs for students, no unlimited internet access, no soft drinks, no gum, etc. It is a very simple and humbling life, and one I learnt a lot from.
As is apparent, visiting my old home after nearly a decade was an amazing experience. The teachers still recognized us (my cousin studied there for 2 years), and that typically led to some reminiscing and talking about where people are today. It was a lot of fun, but it made me feel really really old! A lot had changed, a lot of modernization: every room had a fan now!!! We didn’t have that luxury when I studied there. Pfft.
While Carla and Ashley enjoyed our walk around the campus and our mini-hike up the Cave Rock Hill, it hadn’t started out so well. Their first observation upon entering our guesthouse on campus was that there were no showers. Only 3 metal buckets and a plastic mug. Before they could rue the lack of a shower, they found something else to worry about: there was a scorpion one of the buckets. Rishi Valley has changed so much, but so many things were the exact same. I was glad to see the scorpion in there, cause it showed that the wild nature of the school hadn’t changed in spite of the careful modernization. It was good to be back.
Visiting the Ancestral Village
After breakfast in Rishi Valley, we headed towards my ancestral village: Nimmanapalle Agraharam, Nimmanapalle being the biggest village close to our ancestral village. The paternal side of my family has owned land there for generations, and a few of my forefathers were born and raised there. As a result, we are always welcomed with open arms. The villagers are always extremely friendly, and very giving - even if they don’t have very much. After looking around the village and walking through our ancestral home, we were taken to the mango groves by Reddappa, the man who has served as care-taker of our land for over 40 years. I have met Reddappa a few times, but according to him, I came up to his waist the last time I saw him. That must’ve been a while ago as the man was all of 5ft 4 in. His 3yr old grand daughter followed us to the grove, and provided a lot of the entertainment on the way. I understood most of what she was saying in Telugu, but she spoke the village dialect...and it didn’t help that she was 3 years old. The first thing she said out loud was: “ these people are not crazy, they are nice.” That confirmed the fact that the village has not seen white people since the British left India in the late 1940s. Once she decided that Carla and Ashley were not crazy, she didn’t let Carla go. She was really cute, and I don’t think Carla stopped smiling the entire time that that girl was around us. We then proceeded to check out the massive mango grove, and Reddappa even managed to pluck a semi-ripe mango for us.
Rishi Valley Re-union in Bangalore
The drive back from Rishi Valley was largely uneventful, and incredible tiring. We rested up briefly, but had to head out within a couple of hours to meet two of my old friends from Rishi Valley : Rahul and Ashok. I hadn't seen them in 9 years, so I was looking forward to it. We met up at a nice little pub on St. Mark's Road called Noon Wines. Good times.
Bangalore - MG Road + Bull Temple
The next morning we headed to MG Road, and met up yet again with Rahul. We grabbed some delicious lunch at Hotel Emporium before walking down the busy busy shopping area. After a cup of filter coffee at 4pm, we got in a cab and headed to the Bull Temple. On the way, the cabbie showed us some of the other major sights such as Tipu's Palace, and so we killed two birds with one stone. After a couple of hours at the Bull Temple, we headed back to MG Road and met up with Rahul. This time we were looking to have a couple of beers and bar-hop a little to get a taste of the B'lore weekday nightlife. At around 11 we had a late dinner at Koshys before heading home.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.093s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0455s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Geetha Vanam
non-member comment
Hi, who else were in your batch ?