The 100 Monkey Road

What part of the world has stolen your heart?

For some, the answers may be far flung across the world in exotic destinations or grand landscapes. But for others it might be their hometown with all the familiarity and comforts that come from growing deep roots. As with most people who love to travel, there are many places in the world that I would love to experience before returning to places I have already been too. But southern India holds a nostalgia for me that I won’t be able to replace. Southern India is of course a huge region. It contains paradisiacal beaches, lush jungles, arid plains, blue mountains and bustling, vibrant cities, both ancient and modern. (See Kerala, Tamil Nadu, The Nilgiris, Mysore and Hyderabad for some examples).

But let’s start with the Hundred Monkey Road.

When I was in the fourth grade my family had made transitions from Pakistan, to the USA and then finally to India. We were new to India and were traveling around the country for business, education and some tourism. One stop on our journey was the Nilgiri Mountains in Tamil Nadu. We took a taxi from the industrial city of Coimbatore towards the mountains looming in the distance. Once leaving the city, the land surrounding the tree lined road became gradually greener as we approached the slopes of the mountains. The fields turned to lush forests that edged closer and closer to the road until it was almost a canopy. And then, at the foot of the mountain we saw a monkey. Then we saw another and another and another. As we wound our way up the mountain, we kept count of all the monkeys we saw by the side of the road eating jackfruit, staring at us or playfully chasing each other. When the jungle had given way to bright green tea plantations at a higher altitude, we had counted 100 monkeys and finally decided to stop keeping count. As an aside, once you spend any length of time in India monkeys evolve from being an “aw cool!” experience to a nuisance or even a terror. Oddly enough, I have been chased by more monkeys in my life than dogs. Monkeys are the worst.

Anyways, from that point on in our family, that road up the western ghats was christened the Hundred Monkey Road. Over the years, cruising on that winding road became a familiar yet always exciting experience. Not the physical ride itself of course. That usually ended in motion sickness and me retching my guts out of the window of a moving bus, or washing my visibly gray face and hair from having sat by the window above the diesel exhaust. No, not the physical journey but the emotional one. Heading up the mountain meant seeing my friends at boarding school again and the anticipation of a new semester (no, it was not like Harry Potter. That will have to be another post I suppose). Heading down the mountain meant summer break, or Christmas with my parents, or a possible trip to America. That mountain road provided me with many a story and many fond and laughable memories. Chai, chili bajji, near death experiences, tropical urinals, obnoxious music and blowing chunks were all par for the course.

It is a shame that it has been so long since I have visited that part of India. If you are thinking of places to go when you visit India, Tamil Nadu and the Nilgiris are wonderful options for your journey. When the average Westerner pictures India they are usually picturing the north and its Mughal architecture and history. Tamil Nadu, while very much India, has a very different culture and topography and is therefore a very different experience.

So why am I going on about the Hundred Monkey Road? As with the often used analogy, life is like a road. It’s filled with twists and turns and forks, chai stops, pee breaks, motion sickness, beautiful vistas or ugly trash piles, bad drivers, slow traffic, distracting billboard advertisements and 100 monkeys. It is amazing to look back on our journey and see where we have come from and all the unforeseen twists and turns and stops that we made along the way. We all have deeply joyful memories from the journey, but most of us also carry deep wounds from the accidents and fender-benders we have experienced. The Hundred Monkey Road carried the joys of the experiences I had with my friends at boarding school and the deep relationships I forged, and yet it also bore with those joys the heartache of being away from parents or the tearing away of all those relationships when I finally descended that mountain road to return to America for good.

What joys do you carry with you from your journey? What pain and heartache do you carry? Do you have burdens and wounds that have never healed or that you have never confessed or let see the light of day? Dear friend, do not carry those pains alone. My dorm parent often told me when I was in tears and homesick in the 7th grade, “Cast your anxiety on Him [Jesus] because He cares for you (I Peter 5:7). Some wounds cannot heal with time or medicine. But there is a person that can heal all pain and wounds of the heart, the body and the soul. His name is Jesus. He truly does care for you even if you do not know Him yet. Time and medicine can be tools for Him to heal, but they are not a necessity in order for Him to heal you. So please, when you reflect on your journey and your metaphorical Hundred Monkey Road, speak to Jesus. What is there to lose? With a sincere heart, ask Him to reveal Himself to you and I have no doubt He will.

To finish, I just want to reiterate that monkeys are indeed the worst.

Until next time. Safe travels friends!

Seth

P.S. If you appreciate or enjoy the work I am doing at Marvelous India, feel free to say thank you by buying me a cup of chai!

Buy me a cup of chai