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And I still love monkeys too…

While on the topic of scary-funny animal incidents, let me share this one too.

This dates back to when I was 8 and my brother 4. We had gone to Nagpur to visit my father’s parents.

They lived on the first floor of a bungalow. There was a terrace attached to their drawing room.

One morning, my father and grandfather had gone out and my grandmother and my mother were busy in the kitchen cooking lunch. My brother and I were left to our devices.

We were rummaging through grandfather’s wooden cupboard taking advantage of his absence. Suddenly I saw a very old matchbox. I read the year written on it. It was nearly 30 years old. I opened it and to my pleasant surprise, I saw that it was full of matchsticks. I was very curious to see if they were still working. I wanted to light at least one. So I told my brother. He too got very excited.

Then, somehow, and thankfully, I got the feeling that my mother wouldn’t be too pleased if she caught me lighting matches, especially inside the house. So my brother and I went to the terrace. Excitedly I opened the box, took one matchstick and was about to light it when suddenly, there was a thump very close to me. I looked up to see this a huge (at least that is how it seemed to 8 year old me) monkey right in front of me ! I simply froze ! I don’t remember my brother’s reaction. Then the monkey grabbed the matchbox from my hand.

I was so scared ! I grabbed my brother’s hand and rushed inside the house and with a loud bang shut the door behind me. My mother heard the noise and came to see what had happened. She saw the two of us standing next to the door and looking very scared. We told her what had happened. She carefully looked out of the window next to the door that opened out into the terrace and saw that the monkey wasn’t there. Then my fear subsided and guilt took over…I had managed to lose my grandfather’s carefully preserved matchbox of thirty years :(

I rushed outside to the terrace to look for the matchbox and to my great relief, there it was…exactly where I was standing ! Phew ! As I picked it up off the ground and looked up into a tree right in front of me, I saw the monkey sitting in the tree and staring down at us ! But this time I was brave…mother was with me. So, showing great ease, I slowly walked back in…and didn’t venture out of the house alone at all for the remainder of the day :)

P. S. Wish you all a very Happy New Year ! May this year bring all of you peace, joy and abundance :)

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Comments

Noisy Quiet said…
Smart monkey :) Your mother probably spoke to it earlier and said "keep an eye on the kids while I make lunch and don't let them get into any danger!" ;)
3 January 2011 at 22:10
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