Do I sound like one of those “Carry off the elite evening with this excellent sable coat” fashion types? Sorry, because the fun that I have with fur is in capturing it, not for putting it on, but on the original mammal!

We walked around in a small village called Buranskhand, where we took a nice chai break on our drive to Dhanaulti.

Buranskhand…the name itself carries a story, I realized, when I saw a notice saying, “Fresh rhododendron juice available here” (the shop was shut, alas, I couldn’t try it) and the Hindi version said, “yehAn tAzA burAns kA ras milthA hai”. So I realized that “burans” is the Hindi word for Rhododendron, and “Buranskhand” means, “Area of the Rhododendrons”.

Well, anyway….I looked up the slope and found this beautiful

HANUMAN LANGUR

sitting there:

He seemed in such a relaxed, almost-human pose! I decided to go just a little closer, and the Langur didn't seem bothered by me, so I got some portraits: and

Here’s the wiki about the Hanuman or Gray Langur

The fur of the Gray Langur (indeed, of any Langur) seems tailor-made for photography. Whether back-lit or side-lit, the texture of the fur is a delight to capture! So…that was the “fun with the fur” that I had….here’s the last shot of this sage-looking animal, which seemed to quite like the idea of having a portfolio done!

It says a lot for how human it is, that when I uploaded the pictures to Facebook, I got the usual “tag your friends” on all the photos, asking, “Who is this?” :)))))