Not My Monkeys

Several years ago, I was inspired to keep a quote book. Truth be told, I was intending on emulating someone I rather deeply admired and took the idea from him. Not that it was thievery by any stretch of the imagination, but it's become something I'm very glad I did (though that admiration has somewhat been redefined over the years). I collect the quotes I find in books and hear on podcasts. I'll jott down phrases spoken by friends and the famous, and anything other collection of words that tickles my fancy. Any and all are typed out on my phone, later to be transcribed into my handy little book. It's fun to flip through and see what struck me as impactful over the years.

There's a quote scrawled in the margins of the early pages of the dog eared quote book that seems inexplicably applicable to my adventures in India. I think I found it online, so it's veracity should be questioned but I like it all the same. "Not my circus, not my monkeys" my looped handwriting reads. I do think it is attributed to a Russian Proverb, but the quote kept popping in my mind during palace tours, car rides, and street wanderings while India. I suppose that could be read as a very prophetic and deep analysis of the cultural differences I was scrutinizing, but mostly it was because there are monkeys everywhere in India. Monkeys everywhere=monkey quotes. It's simple logic.

Granted, there could be a little more depth to that quote than I give it credit for. There's a certainly carelessness that accompanies me when I travel. Not that I abandon all sense of a schedule, but things just don't matter like they do back home. I guess that's where the "not my circus" part of the things may come into play, but the monkeys were actual monkeys and were nothing metaphorical. Running around on palaces, chomping on fruit in the middle of the road, and swarming the rooftops of all the neighborhoods; Yes, the monkeys made India pretty magical.

And while there weren't monkeys running around all the places we visited, India still maintained that magic...case in point, the Taj Mahal. There is something surreal about seeing one the proclaimed seven wonders of the modern world. Not that I was counting, but this was number three out of seven, soon to be followed by a fourth in the spring (I'll pretend readers are dying to know where that mysterious location will be, but you will just have to wait for that announcement). I do think since the spring of 2016 will cross off four out of seven, I might as well just make it to the next three. It would be a shame to just stop halfway, and never see the others.

The thing that is difficult to realize is that travel is like a virus. It's something you catch and its voracious appetite is only temporarily satiated when you book a trip but the craving only intensifies to consume more culture, experience new adventures, and taste new foods. I'm contemplating my time in India while chomping at the bit to get onto my next cultural meal. It's a vicious cycle. India held many adventures, and still maintains a mystery I didn't quite fully decipher during my time there. It's a place I'd visit again, though I don't think that chance will come for another couple of years...Maybe on a trip to see the seven world wonders for a second time.