A Chimp at Vandalur Zoo

Often, it is the spur of the moment plans that really work out when well drafted ones fall by the wayside. Thus, a chance remark: “shall we go to the zoo tomorrow?” led to a day trip that was throughly enjoyed by the children. My 9 year old cousin and P’s bum chum was also drafted in for the same and off we all went to Vandalur zoo (or Arignar Anna Zoological Park, to give its proper name), some 31 kilometres away on a rather hot Saturday morning.

As it has been years since any of us adults had been to the zoo here, we were as excited as the children. The entrance fee was pretty nominal at Rs 20 for adults and Rs 10 for children. The zoo authorities, in their bid to reduce on plastic refuse, were making the patrons throw away any ready-packed snack items and were providing old newspapers in which one could repack the same. An excellent idea, we thought, as we proceeded to roll our Krackjacks into the paper cones. As we walked in, we were talking about when was the last time we visited the zoo and how it has changed since then.

I really couldn’t remember when I was there last but I could remember far fewer trees and dirt tracks, instead of the leafy trees of today that lined the neatly paved roads, which made walking around on a hot sunny day much less strenuous. For those that find it difficult to walk the 3-odd kilometres, there are battery-powered vehicles and eco-friendly cycles for hire, again for a very nominal cost. But typically, the demand far exceeded the supply and there were long queues for both and we decided to just walk slowly.

Once the children saw their first monkey, the “waah we want a cycle” chant was forgotten. The white tigers cage and the lion enclosure were closed for maintenance but enough and more monkeys, a variety of birds, hippos, bears, otters, crocs, snakes, tigers, panthers, elephants, giraffe, zebra and even a ‘jaguvar’ (sic) awaited their pleasure and they came to a halt in front of the aquarium, bone tired but sated. They wolfed down their lunch, reciting tales of bravado: “did you see the size of the tiger?” “I saw the tail of the lion – it was orange!” and other tall tales.

There are lots of shady picnic areas dotted all over the zoo area and you can make a grand day of it, packing food and having it under the trees, with elephants lumbering in the distance. There are also two snack and drinks parlours and a TTDC restaurant (located rather inconveniently near the entrance) and even a Sangeetha restaurant situated right opposite the entrance if you want to close kitchen for the day.

With the summer coming up, you’ll be wise to visit our four-legged and winged friends as soon as possible for a wallet-friendly day out with the whole family!

Last week saw the children participate in various activities at their respective schools – in their own patented ways. M’s school had a sports day for the little ones, held at one of the small playgrounds near the school and the whole family, grandparents included, were invited to participate. The children were all issued with cute blue and white uniforms and looked ever so lovely in them. As we’d dropped her off earlier that morning at her school, when we arrived at the venue at H-Hour, we were quite eager to see what she was going to do – and were much charmed at the sight of her peeking from behind the shamiyana and giggling with a friend. Just that morning, she had demonstrated to her brother how to run in her brand new plimsolls so all was well, we thought.

The march past – - or rather, the march in place – started and we could see her in the distance, still having fun, peering into the crowd to spot us. We waved to her merrily.

Next came the drill. She walked out with her colourful ring, stood in the front row.

And started bawling.

And ran to me. And that was that.

No amount of pleading or hissing, on her brother’s part, would make her budge. Still, he tried. He almost convinced her to participate and took her back to her teachers. Then they did something she hated – they dragged her by clutching her arm and set her off again. We could see her run her race, sobbing loudly. So we brought her back with us and we all watched her friends run, skip and do other assorted kiddie stuff together. After 5 minutes, when she realised she will not be compelled to run again, she was in her element. Chatting away to glory, laughing loudly and generally being a belle of the ball without actually going to the ball.

A few days later, P’s school had its Annual Day celebrations and as he was acting in the English play, we all trooped to the school to see the programmes. The Theatre Club has been practicing for weeks now and P, we knew, was a ‘Shaolin Scholar’ and as the school makes sure the dialogues are recorded before hand (to prevent having mikes and wires tripping up the children and the actors forgetting their lines on the day), he was pretty confident. The play was second in the day’s order and we watched with quiet pride as he did his bit competently. He has no stage fear – even when he was in Foundation Stage, 3 months shy of his fifth birthday, he still spoke his Nativity Play lines clearly and paced himself well so we actually understood what he was saying. No mean feat for a small child! So to see him do justice to his role — albeit, a small one — wasn’t surprising.

Afterwards, he got changed and sat down with us to watch the other programmes and was roundly teased by his sister for wearing makeup. When it was the time for Tamil dance drama ‘Meenakshi’, he suddenly burst out laughing! The character Lord Shiva entered the stage and he pointed and went: “that is a girl, Mummy! I saw them practice the other day and was shocked to see two girls getting married. Rather progressive, I thought – then I heard Girl 1 is Shiva! tee hee!”

Kids!