Little things

Sometimes it's the little things that make you happy. Like the other day when we came out of our apartment building and saw a monkey with a pink sheet on the wall across the street. I have no idea where the monkey found the sheet, but  it was sure having a good time with it.

First it examined its prize a bit.

Then it tried it on.

And finally, it tasted it to see if the sheet was good to eat.

The monkey was still chewing on the sheet when we left, but has since abandoned it, so I'm guessing that it did not find the sheet to be particularly delicious.

Another thing that makes us all happy is seeing our favorite stray campus dog. We've named him Prakruthi, because, as I've mentioned, he hangs out at our favorite restaurant of the same name. Zion is particularly fond of him, and asked us to take some pictures of him and Prakruthi when we saw him relaxing in the shade a few days ago.

Robert was taking pictures of them too, which is why Zion is looking in the other direction with particularly wide eyes. Trying not to blink and all. And as you can see, the dog is looking in that direction too-- clearly boy and dog have bonded ;)

Actually, last night Zion suggested that it would be really nice if we could take Prakruthi home with us when we go back to New York. Sigh!

And finally, no post about the happiness of little things would be complete without a picture of our local Happiness Station!

Oh Coke, bringing happiness wherever you go!

(The white sign with a Coke bottle on it is advertising a 200ml bottle of Coke for Rs 8-- about 15 cents.  The green sign above it says that Prakruthi will accept all outdoor catering jobs at reasonable rates. I can barely express how much I wish we could bring them back with us!)

Sundays

On Sundays, Prakruthi is relatively quiet and uncrowded. It's pleasant to sit in the shade, sipping coffee, eating piles of delicious food and people watching.

Or dog watching. We've named that stray dog we saw being fed cookies a while back "Prakruthi". We've spotted him hanging around the patio pretty often, and there seem to be a few people that he's especially fond of, and will run up to, tail wagging, as soon as he sees them. Naturally, these people all feed him cookies. Most of them do it surreptitiously, under the table, but the kids and I usually spot them because we're constantly on the look out for that dog.

Anyway, we decided a while back that we'd go to Prakruthi for lunch every Sunday. This may not sound particularly thrilling, given that we eat there 5-6 times a week, but trust me. We all love our Sundays there (the kids, it must be admitted, are particularly attached to them because we buy them a sweet on Sunday), and I know I'm going to miss them like crazy when we're back in New York.

Today as we were leaving we saw something new: monkeys at Prakruthi. The kids were particularly charmed by the baby one eating off a plate someone had left. Naturally I took pictures.

Then a much bigger monkey, with either cuts or sores on it face started walking in our direction, so we got out of there sharpish. Early on in our stay here we were warned that monkeys with sores on their faces care a disease that has a 100% fatality rate in humans, so we take that pretty seriously.

We had a lovely walk home through Jubilee Gardens. Eventually the kids walked off ahead of us to talk about Archon (a video game they're currently obsessed with). They looked so cute I could hardly stand it.

And when we got home, Liel drew me a picture of a Yellow Wattled Lapwing mama and baby. The mama is holding a jewel in her claws. These birds live on campus, and she's been reading about them in our zoology of the IISc campus book. We haven't seen any yet, but hopefully we will. Anyway if you follow the link above you can see what these birds look like. I think her ability to re-create what she sees is improving!

Re-create and improve. Liel's birds are delightfully plump and stubby-legged!