Sincerely yours...

A bustling city like Bengaluru is perhaps the place you look at high rise malls, endless traffic, and people scurrying to work or home like ants and presume that here people have time for not even themselves. In any case, you do not expect anyone to have time for any lesser creature than humans. At least that is what I thought till the time I came out of an ATM on the perennially busy MG road. There was a stair case leading down from the metro station above right in front. An adult rhesus monkey was coming down the flight of stairs, oblivious to the thick traffic blaring away their horns and hooters. It appeared as though he owned that place and it is at his will that maddening world went around him. Curious to see what he is going to do next, I stood there watching. He reached the last but one step and squatted himself comfortably, neither looking at the traffic nor at people hurrying around. His gaze was fixed at something ahead. I followed his gaze and found one elderly women on the footpath selling variety of things, including nick-knacks. Then I saw this man approaching her wearing a well-worn working dress with grime and grease all over. He gave some coins to the women in exchange of what looked like a small packet of biscuits. He patients opened the packet, pulled out one and patiently walked over to where the monkey was seated. He stretched the biscuit towards the monkey, who in turn stretched out one hand and took it from him. Then the monkey went about munching the biscuit as though he had all the time in the world. The man waited attentively and proceeded to feed that fellow with two more. The final stock of two biscuits were then handed over to the monkey in one go. Clutching both in its lips, the monkey turned around, climbed the flight of stairs and perched himself comfortably on the railing of the landing. There he went about finishing those two biscuits with same unhurried indulgence. By now the monkey curiosity in me was at its peak and I slowly walked upto where the man was standing next to the women seller. In colloquial Tamil, the woman said to him, “Poor thing. We can only give him some biscuits. Don’t know what he will do for water?” The man nodded sadly, tut-tutting her as though he regretted not having arranged for a bowl of water to go with biscuits.

In the din of my thoughts that followed, I didn’t register the maddening honks of traffic. Here I was thinking of the grand mansion that I will make for my family to live forever, of the great properties and monies that I will bequeath to my progeny and the grand pomp and grandeur with which I will glorify myself as I walk towards my sunset years…and, this man who perhaps is not earning enough to eat three square meals a day tut-tutting his regret for not having brought a bowl of water for a stray monkey. There is a lot of commotion inside me right now. When it settles down, perhaps I shall share some more thoughts. Till then….