Has anyone ever read "A Passage to India" by E.M. Forster? No? Me neither. But apparently it talks about the Borra Caves which is where we went last Thursday. It was crazy cool. One of the program directors, Dr. Charles Nuckolls, actually went into the caves some 30 years ago. Back then you had to get a local villager with a torch to show you around. They went deep into the caves finding an underground river and following it out to another opening in the caves.
Now days its been commercialized by the government as a tourist attraction. So now there's artificial lighting, crude steps, and walkways. One can't go throughout the entire cave system like before, but it is still very cool nonetheless. Dr. Nuckolls brought three older men from the fishing village where he's been doing his anthropological studies. Their caste is called Jalari. One of the men, Pentaiya, is 80 years old and would not go into the caves because he was scared. Going into the earth did not seem appropriate because that is where some of the demons and things live. The other two men, Lakshminaiya and Potaiya, went in but Potaiya too got scared and left soon after entering.
Monkeys? Wow, that's pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds great -- I think caves are intriguing. I like the story of a program director being given the tour by torchlight.
ReplyDeleteyea...that looks so fun. the caves are beautiful. i didn't realize they were taht superstitious there, but i guess i should've after seeing pictures of decorated cow poop. cute monkey!
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