The Menace of Monkeys

Monkeys are found universally. In India monkeys can be seen from North to South. and from East to West.The monkey population is enormous in rural  as well as urban areas. Even in a place like Delhi the monkeys  are innumerable.The population of monkeys  is on the  increase. They are a  source of great nuisance. Recently  I  read  in The Times of India  that  senior  Officials of the Municipal Corporation  of Delhi  petitioned in the Supreme Court of India that they should be relieved of  their duties  of controlling the monkey population.Their numbers have increased beyond control.The reason is that people give them food. Monkeys are considered  to be the  living representation  of  Hindu God Hanuman.  The officials feel that as long as the people feed them,this menace cannot  be controlled.About two years back a senior civic official died when a monkey attacked him in his house. After this incident the authorities  become active  and made efforts  to shift  the monkeys  to far off  forests,but  no positive results were seen .
  The monkeys  happily continue with their antics. There is a comic side to many of these monkeys'  aggressiveness.   Some of these antics ,though a source  of nuisance, are amusing and bring a smile.I will narrate some personal experiences with the monkeys and some which  have been  shared by friends and relatives.

•  Our colony witnesses  attack by  hordes of monkeys in intervals.Some times a lone monkey enters the house,opens the frig and takes away the fruits. He will,then as if to tease us, sit on the parapet wall merrily eating the fruits and throwing  down the seeds and the skin.
• We had planted corn in our kitchen garden.  A naughty fellow pulls out the ripe ones and consumed them .
• Many a time a whole crowd will  raid the garden and destroy all the plants.
• I remember  that when I was the Principal of a school a class teacher had collected  fees from the children which amounted to a big sum. She kept her purse on a table and was taking her meals, when a monkey just landed from nowhere,took the purse and ran away.She started shrieking but the devil ran away with it and within  a minute or two was seen sitting on the parapet of wall of the roof top. There was great chaos in the school. All the staff and the pupils crowded in the compound watching the high drama that was being enacted. The clever monkey held the purse tightly under his arms. All actions failed to take away the purse from him. The roof top could not be reached as there were no stairs leading to it. A lab.Asst. of the school took an empty purse and climbed up to the roof of a  neighbouring building and waved  an  empty purse as if to tease the monkey. He, then threw the purse in the school ground. The monkeys are known to be copy cats .He too took the purse from his under arm ,looked at it carefully for a few moments and as to tease the person on the next roof top threw the purse down. Ha,ha,ha.
• Another incidence  of a similar type was seen by my  husband in the market place. A monkey  was strolling in the market place. Suddenly his attention was drawn to a dry cleaner's shop.A coat was hanging there.The monkey took a fancy for it.In  a flash he grabbed it and climbed on an electric pole. Any amount of cajoling and coaxing had no impact  on him. He held on tightly to it, and went on to sit on an electric pole.A crowd gathered there. A resourceful person threw a banana  at the the  monkey , presuming that he may throw away the coat.But the opponent was  more clever. He grabbed the banana but held on tightly to the coat. Hey hey hey.
• A very interesting thing happens every weekend, Sundays and holidays. Hordes of monkeys invade the North and South Blocks of Central Secretariat  and take charge of the buildings,which  houses the top most beaurocracy.,including the Prime Minister and  other Ministers of Govt of India.It appears that they take over the reins of the Govt. adminstration  on such days.Oh ,oh, oh.
•  I usually used to work in my office till 60 clock in the evening. Once when I was delayed, a monkey  appeared,  peeped into my room a nd went back He returned every ten minutes, looked inside my office and quietly retracted.I was amazed. What was all that. I called the security gaurd and asked him about the monkey. I was amused when I was told that after I leave my office a  monkey family occupies it and makes it their abode. Thereafter they do not brook any interference.

I want to conclude that the simians cannot be     vanquished and we have  to accept their
  suzerainty at some time or the other.

 

Images courtesy google