Now that we are moving houses to another locality, the one thing I am going to miss about our old Parle apartment is the periodic visits of the monkey.
This monkey would make sudden appearances on the huge tree overlooking our balcony, and then would amble along the length of our balcony checking whether any of the French windows are open for him to enter our apartment. Unfortunately for him, on most occasions the French windows would have been firmly shut by my wife who would have been alerted by the ruckus created by his sworn enemies - the crows on the tree.
He had mastered the art of opening the sliding French windows - he would check each French window on our balcony in an attempt to slide it open. Only once was he successful in entering our house - and he went off only after he took a packet of dates from our dining table.
My wife felt terrorized by this monkey. She empirically discovered that whenever anyone in the house uttered the word "Monkey", it would unfailingly manifest itself on the balcony within a few hours. Hence usage of the word "monkey" was banned in our house - we were never supposed to bring up this word in our conversations. My mother, however, found a way around this ban - and she started referring to the monkey as "Maruti" (the mythological term used for referring to Hanuman - the monkey God). I felt that my mother actually secretly looked forward to the visits of Maruti.
Then abruptly his visits stopped. We wondered what has happened to Maruti - has he been caught and put into some zoo? My mother especially was quite concerned - she wanted to take one final look at Maruti as the last day of her stay with us in Mumbai was fast approaching.
Maruti did not disappoint. On my mother's last day in Mumbai he suddenly appeared on our balcony. He took a round of the balcony and then left after leaving behind a large packet of Cashew nuts on the balcony - no doubt his prize from a raid at some other house which he left behind for us as his gift.
That was his final visit : we did not see Maruti after that day.
This monkey would make sudden appearances on the huge tree overlooking our balcony, and then would amble along the length of our balcony checking whether any of the French windows are open for him to enter our apartment. Unfortunately for him, on most occasions the French windows would have been firmly shut by my wife who would have been alerted by the ruckus created by his sworn enemies - the crows on the tree.
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Maruti trying to open
the French window
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My wife felt terrorized by this monkey. She empirically discovered that whenever anyone in the house uttered the word "Monkey", it would unfailingly manifest itself on the balcony within a few hours. Hence usage of the word "monkey" was banned in our house - we were never supposed to bring up this word in our conversations. My mother, however, found a way around this ban - and she started referring to the monkey as "Maruti" (the mythological term used for referring to Hanuman - the monkey God). I felt that my mother actually secretly looked forward to the visits of Maruti.
Then abruptly his visits stopped. We wondered what has happened to Maruti - has he been caught and put into some zoo? My mother especially was quite concerned - she wanted to take one final look at Maruti as the last day of her stay with us in Mumbai was fast approaching.
Maruti did not disappoint. On my mother's last day in Mumbai he suddenly appeared on our balcony. He took a round of the balcony and then left after leaving behind a large packet of Cashew nuts on the balcony - no doubt his prize from a raid at some other house which he left behind for us as his gift.
That was his final visit : we did not see Maruti after that day.
3 comments:
oh ! how sweet of the Mankad.
Thanks Manu :)
Dear Ram I visited your blog after a long gap thanks to Maruthi episode. I read 4 or 5 posts and thoroughly enjoyed reading them. Your narration of the new neighbour us hilarious. Have a great day. With best wishes always. Hari Om. Swami
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