a tale of the monkeys and the girls

07:15 am

Trrringgg! Ah! The alarm! Another enchanting morning. I looked around to see a couple of beautiful smiles and hear warm greetings and then did a quick mind scan of the schedule for the day and smiled to myself. Humming as I picked up necessary stuff, I danced my way to the door.  I let the door wide open to let in the breeze. BANG! That was me slamming the door and cowering in fright in my room. The monkey was patiently lying in wait.

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This is how we begin our day. Hostel life, more than anything else, is a constant battle against the monkeys. A fight over rights of pathway, rights to use the washroom, rights to drink water from the dispenser, right to eat food without having to share it with them, rights to reclaim our clothes from the clotheslines, rights to the use of our cupboards and dustbins, rights to our bags, rights to our phones, spectacles and watches,  rights to our dupattas and what not. As evolved as humans are said to be, the monkeys appear to be the constant victors. All our mail boxes are flooded with complaints on one side and brainwaves regarding monkey control on the other side. They form an intricate part of our lives, as much as we hate it.
I always think back to those innocent days when I would stand outside the monkey cage in the Thiruvananthapuram zoo and admire the smart monkeys. As a kid, there were a million stories that I heard and told about the clever nature of the monkeys. Every single one of those stories mocked the other animal/human involved in it. Being on the receiving end of that is not exactly the greatest prospect in the world. The stories we've heard about Hanuman! The way the Indian society glorifies that one character and the vanar sena that helped Lord Ram! It's shocking to realize  that these ones I fight over my food with, are the successors of those ones who are worshipped! Never did I imagine that there would be one day when I would be compelled to think of genocide, just for mental peace. The same smartness that awed me, when I was small, disgusts me now. All hysterical screams ringing through the hostel set me thinking about the so called power that we, as humans, have over this world. Every single resident in here is as susceptible to these 'less intelligent' beings as is a tick.
"Monkeys!!Arggghhhhh!!!". That is what all of us have been reduced to. There have been times when I've spotted a monkey sitting on the parapet, listening intently to my conversation. As I look at a new born monkey, it surprises me that I have become absolutely incapable of recognizing the beauty I saw in it eons ago. Oh! There! A monkey is clawing at my window sill. Given circumstances, I'm pretty sure it knows I was writing about it. Time for me to fight over rights to the stationery on my table! Adios.

alpha

The thought of vacation has always conjured up the image of 'India'. Forests and mountains; rains and the waves; grandparents who pamper me, aunts, uncles and cousins; festivals and functions and oh so much catching up to do; the sight of animals crossing the roads with us; the rickshaws and the best of the lot - no school. It had never crossed my mind that some day,  that same world would force me to stand on my own shaky feet. 

Leaving home was an inevitable step, but that fact never completely hit me or was understood by me till the day I actually left home. In the eyes of the world, I was 18 by then, and should have been ready to fend for myself. But I felt like a newborn. The fact that, if I didn't go for dinner before the mess closed, no one would even realize it  and that there wasn't a mom to save me food for later may sound simple but definitely didn't feel so. Having to wash my own clothes, maintain money in my wallet, see that I don't run out of supplies, find transportation every time I wanted to go somewhere and just the plain, simple task of maintaining records and papers, all seemed so big. All so new. All so different. All so cold. 

The completely different surroundings that I have been thrown into makes me look at everything as a brand new phenomenon. These little happenings have prompted me to put it down on paper. Which is what I intend to do here. This blog contains just the overflowing thoughts of a freewheeling mind.