Monkey myhem

As such Barpali is a town where peace and tranquility prevailed over Centuries. Over here seldom we witness any crimes. But once a while, our town is invaded by foreign intruders. They are none other than gangs of monkeys who cause mayhem so long they campaign over here. These monkeys are of Rhesus macaque (Macaca  mulatta) species which could be identified for  their red faces. Basically these species of monkeys are aggressive by nature, even though smaller by physic as compare to their counterpart black faced monkeys of India.

When so ever they invade Barpali they go on a rampage at the vegetable market. They loot vegetables be it brinjals, cabbages, cauliflowers, beans and so on which are stockpiled openly on the ground. They even snatch away the polythene bags from our  hands while we carry fruits. That apart those primates invade the narrow streets of Barpali. They target each individual homes and loots whatever eatable they can snatch in the broad daylight.

At home we got plenty of fruit trees. Each of them bear fruits as per their season. Be it guava, berries, mulberry, mangoes and custard apple. And these monkeys raid our residential complex. Seldom we the family members ever get aware when so ever they enter the complex as each of us are preoccupied with our own work. It is always our two pets Dany and  Diana who raise the alarm by barking loudly near the trees. When so ever they bark for couple of minutes while leaving apart her daily household errands, my mother goes to the lawn to check what the issue is. My mother yells at these monkeys but seldom do they pay any heed to her. Every summer those raucous monkeys destroy the raw mangoes. I would not be hurt so much only if they eat them. But instead they drop half eaten fruits on the ground, because these are freebee for them. Neither I nor any other birds could eat such touched fruits.

The felony of these monkeys does not end here. Once a while, they do surgical strike in our residential complex. When so ever they invade our house they mostly leap from the zizaphus tree to asbestos of the shed. One afternoon when Daina barked I went to drive away the monkeys while carrying a stick. I was helpless as my stick could not reach the height where they were at. When I waved my hand one of the elderly monkey showed its teeth as if it wants to bite me. In the meanwhile a youngster was started jumping with aplomb. It hanged on the aluminium wire where the wet clothes were dried. I was worried as it was leaping on my new red colour underwear that I had purchased by paying 150 INR. When I ran towards the baby it jumped away while carrying the red under garment. All the monkeys jumped outside the wall. I went to the backstreet to chase the prankster. I found few children of the street jumping, pointing their fingers and shouting “a mankad, a mankad…..khoo….. khoo”. I was helpless as the youngster was on top of a house while holding my underwear in its mouth. It would have been an embarrassing situation if I shout at the young monkey, so I returned home losing yet another possession of material life.  

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E.Kiran Mohan(The Writer)

C/o.Dr.E.R.Rao (M.D)

Main Road, Near SBI,

At/PO : Barpali-768029

Dist.Bargarh,Odisha, India