Troublesome visitors in the garden
RADHA H.S.
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The best part of the summer was spent watching the monkeys at play.
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K.G. Rangarajan
"Quietly. You might startle the baby," whispered Sia.
Her twin, Pia looked out.
Outside sat a baby monkey trying to catch a moth.The game went on for sometime. Pia and Sia loved to watch the monkeys. Last year, when their uncle had come, he had bought groundnuts especially for the monkeys. He fed them off his hand. But their father had warned them not to try this. Sometimes the monkeys could get aggressive.
Most people considered them a nuisance. They were that in many ways for they stripped the trees of fruits, ate the flower buds and brought down the tender coconuts. In summer, when they faced a water shortage, they would open the taps to drink water and they never knew how to close them.
"Sia, I can hear water running. Check the garden tap," called out their mother,
Sia checked and said, "It's running."
"Can you see the monkeys?"
"We can."
"Shut all the windows," said their mother as she went to check the front door.
"Shoo... shoo... oh my god, it's sitting on the veranda table," their mother screamed.
The twins ran to the veranda. But by then the monkey had been shooed away. Pia and Sia ran to the back and saw three monkeys swinging from the clothesline. One baby monkey had draped a towel on its head.
Summer mischief
Summer holidays meant spending endless time watching the monkeys. Even during lunch they watched the antics of the monkeys.
"Isn't it a bit like a reverse zoo?" asked Sia.
"How so?" asked Pia.
"Normally, we go to the zoo to stare at animals. Here they are staring at us and we are behind bars, all locked in!"
"Well, I am tired of living in a zoo," said their mother. "They have even eaten the jasmine buds." After lunch, she called the health department.
"Tomorrow the monkeys will be caught," she announced.
"What will they do to them?"
"Will they all be put to sleep?"
"No, no, you silly girls. Why would they kill them? They will catch them and take them to the veterinary hospital. They will check them for diseases before releasing them in the forest."
"Thank god!" said the twins.
"We have been cruel to the animals. We clear their habitat. So the poor monkeys come in search of food.
But once they are back in the forest, they will be fine," their mother said.
The next day men came in a blue van. Over the next few weeks all the monkeys were rounded up. The blooming jasmine bush was the pride of the garden.
But, the twins missed their visitors.
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