Has it ever happened to you that you have encountered monkeys at the close quarters? During my Ph.D. days there were a lot of monkeys at the college campus. I remember that I was coming down the stairs, quite late at night along with another student. I had a hand on the railings of the stairs. Then I suddenly froze, as next to my hand was a monkey merrily sitting on the same railing and dozing off! The other student told me not to panic and just to keep walking. Thankfully the monkey went back to sleep again and let us walk off peacefully.
Then after quite some time I was walking around the campus market with a friend . She was munching on a chocolate and I a cream roll. Remember how buying such things used to be a feast in the college? Well, we met monkeys soon again on the road. They gave us quite stern glances and terrified I threw away the cream roll frommy hand and the monkeys went after it. In the meanwhile my friend put the cholocate in her pocket and once again we walked off. In comparison to the monkeys at my campus, the Jaigarh monkeys were extremely well behaved and left me and Sunil pretty well alone mos of the times.
So what is your monkey experience?
I love monkeys and at the same time I am terrified of them – I could watch them all day – from a safe distance. Aawww…
Generally I am not afraid of monkeys. I shall recount two experiences here: Firstly, that of having spent about half hour at Sanchi near the great Stupa watching a big friendly family of them; and secondly, a momentary scare I got when a monkey unexpectedly jumped passing right through my left shoulder while trying to photograph the mean fellow!Incidentally, I have an image of a sweet fellow shot near the Jaigarh Fort.:)
Too many to recount here from my olden days at Shimla. But i do remember one from Jaipur when my daughter had the shock of losing a banana from her grip to one very cocky specimen. She was just 2 years old, but remembers it even today.Well, another one i can’t resist mentioning is when during college days, three of us friends were going up a steep walk to a temple near Nashik. We stopped and sat down on the pavement to catch our breath. Suddenly my friend shouted ‘oye, …’ and stood up looking to catch the thief who had put his hand in his pant pockets. Turned out, it was a monkey trying to get to the brightly coloured medicine wrapper sticking out of the pocket.
That is what I like too Fida.Indica, I am sure the monkey didn’t like to get photographed! Rajeev, thanks for sharing. I can imagine how strange it would have been for your daughter but she is brave! And the second is too close, I mean I would freak out if I found a monkey anywhere that close to me!
Ah am I glad I came across you – wonder how much INR it takes to do a world trip on shoe-string budget? Do you know? Loved your pic in the rain in London…..superb!Julia
lol..to think what Ive inspired – some monkey business this 🙂
Julia thanks a lot for your comment. I have not traveled much and I like in India, so I really have no idea about the cost of a shoe string world tour, in fact I would like to do one if I could afford it.Laksmhi, yes you are the one!