When In Chandigarh: zoo day

We went to the zoo today. I think we have mixed feelings about zoos, as do most people. I go to the zoo a lot in Seattle with Violet because it’s right by our house and she loves it to pieces, but Tyler and I are always a bit nervous to go to other unknown zoos. It’s just that sometimes, they are, well, a bit sad. Several years ago we went to the zoo in Barcelona and we left wishing that we could rescue every single animal there. Concrete pits, crowds throwing chewing gum and peanuts. A bad scene.

But I have to say, the Chandigarh zoo was extraordinarily impressive, as far as zoos go. It mostly contained animals that seemed rather local to the area. Violet was sad not to see a giraffe, but the baby Indian Elephant made up for that, as did the tigers and the many many many monkeys. In general, the exhibits were quite enormous, and the whole thing seemed a bit more like an animal safari park, rather than a zoo.
And, oh my word, the aviary! It made my world. Really, truly, fantastic. Upon entering the park there is this huge lake filled with gigantic pink pelicans. At one point Tyler turned to me and said something like keep calm, but slowly look up, and there in tops of the trees were these gorgeous nesting storks.
The stork is a bird that we don’t really experience on the other side of the globe. Well, let me tell you, they are a really big deal on this side of the earth. Beautiful, massive, girthy birds, that just stand around on spindly legs; they look like skinny little old men wrapped in bulgy tunics; much more vertical and upright that flamingos or emus. They stand so still; they must have extraordinary thoughts rolling through their heads to stand so completely still.
Painted Storks. They are white with a bit of pink on their behinds, and beautiful striking black and white under-feathers that reveal themselves when they fly. The exhibit is large enough for the birds to fly all about these huge trees, where they stand around the tops in their nests.
Simply stunning.
But then you see one up close, and their faces are so funny with these crazy bug-eyed expressions. They look a bit as though they came right out of some old natural-science illustration journal from Darwin’s day; as though they should be along side sketches of odd 2-toed cats and half-made-up sea creatures. Exactly the kind of thing I live for. I hope I can find some time eventually to draw some of these birds. I think the sight of them is going to stick with all of us for a very long time.
In short, we had a lovely day. We hired a taxi to take us there an back, as it is a bit out of town. Actually, it’s not exactly in Chandigarh, but in Mohali, which is a good half-hour out of town. It’s really wild to get out of the city and start to see the life that is surrounding the city. Everywhere you look, people. People, people, people. And beautiful dark cows in the center medians of busy roads, along with small children building bonfires and beautiful women dressed in beautiful colorful bolts of cloth. There are lots of orange stands, banana stands, and men on bicycles carting around loads of gravel, bricks, marble, and more people. Brick half-standing boxy buildings that house shops and canteens, and then every once in a while, a huge modern hotel or cinema looming over, as if it just popped out of nowhere.
It was a fun day, and Violet and I were happy to have Tyler out and about with us (he has been extremely busy with teaching lately). India continues to surprise us. Pictures now.... (click to enlarge)