On our drive back from Gandikota to Bangalore, we saw a stunning road cut through a mountain. The road had barricades and mountains on two sides. Swathy stopped the car. She wanted to get down and make a reel. I said, “Mobiles are the first thing that monkeys will snatch away. Don’t ask me what they do with it”. Swathy didn’t believe that the innocent monkeys would do anything. I stopped her from rolling down the windows and cautioned everyone to remain seated in the car. To support my panic, I recalled my interactions with monkeys.
Once, in the CIFEL campus in Hyderabad, a monkey quietly entered our room and opened the wooden cupboard. I was engrossed in my assignment and didn’t notice the monkey. When I put on my thinking cap, I looked behind and was stunned to see a monkey close the cupboard quietly. I managed to cover my scream with my hands over my mouth. The monkey held a packet of groundnuts and walked away without looking at us. We quickly closed the door. I opened the cupboard to see that my bag of snacks was open. From a packet of home-made poha chivda the monkey had picked only the groundnuts and eaten them, spreading the poha around. He ate a few small bananas and left the skin there neatly. OMG! I didn’t even know the monkey was around for so long.
Another instance happened in the Jatashankar temple in Pachmarhi, a hill station in Madhya Pradesh. The temple is in the caves, in the depths of Mother Earth. On the way, I bought the local plate of coconut, sweets, and flowers, to offer Lord Shiva. Before entering the final cave there is a flat area to remove your chappals and shoes. I placed the packet of offerings on the ground and bent down to remove my shoes and socks. When I got up, the packet was gone. The monkey had quietly whisked it away in a second. I gasped. Eventually, I had only prayers to offer to the lord.
During the same trip in Pachmarhi, we hired a jeep to the sunset point high up on the hills. I carried only my mobile to the sunset point. On returning to the jeep, we saw the driver walking around worried. He looked at me and pointed at my seat. The monkeys had ransacked my small haversack. The monkeys had opened the chips packet, biscuits, and toffee, ate it all up, and left the empty packets for us to clean. The juice bottles were missing, and my wallet was lying open!! Money doesn’t make sense to monkeys yet, hence it was scattered. Thank God for small mercies!! We cleared the seats, threw the waste in the bin, and drove back.
I shared other instances I’d witnessed in Hampi, Nandi Hills, and other places. After hearing all this, Swathy still wanted to try her luck with the monkeys. The others stopped her and reluctantly Swathy started driving ahead.
What’s your experience with monkeys?
Observations:
- Avoid eye contact with monkeys.
- Keep your mobile, keys, wallet, clutch purse, etc inside a bag. They don’t pick bags.
- Monkeys operate quietly and swiftly.
- They operate in groups.
- When they intend to trouble us, they scream and laugh.
- If we chase them, they pass objects around in their group.
There are many places in india where you come across Monkeys. They usually do not mean any harm as they just need something to eat.
They are always in groups, we should not provoke abd try to carry some snacks and give it to them to avoid any attacks from them.
Saptashrungi temple in Nashik, lentadri ashthavinatak are couple of places where I had encountered monkeys.
Yeah….not to provoke monkeys.
Temples seem to be their favourite hideout. 😜
Had a similar experience at the Vani temple in Nashik, I was unaware that there were monkeys around the temple until one jumped over and snatched the Pooja thali from me. Luckily there fellow worshipers who shooed away the others or I would have definitely lost my purse too.
Whooppss…!! Quite a shocker before entering the temple.
We have descended from Apes…close to monkeys, and all encounters could be viewed as meetings with earlier models of ourselves! The monkey menace was rampant in nikoo 1 and many residents promptly covered their balconies with netting to protect themselves. Monkeys descending on nikoo are very smart. My experience was the monkey could open the kitchen door through the window by operating the latch. Opened the fridge and carried away dry fuits apart from bananas. Those days nikoo homes occupation was much lower. Today the monkeys are probably overwhelmed by the number of people alert and floating around in nikoo!
Oh oh…! I heard about monkeys opening the door and lock it daily.:) Monkeys in the premises is still frightening.
I also had many experiences and tales of monkeys. They only want something to eat foods or snacks. In many temples they are present in groups.
I’m sure…. temples are a place they will get food for sure!
😂😂 hilarious to read now but would have definitely riled you up then!
Oh yeah! Some shivers….
I have myself witnessed a few encounters. In many zoos along with my kids, Saptashrungi Temple, Hampi and others.
But the latest was at Antharagange, near Kolar. It was an experience which we will never forget. My dad had his backpack on when suddenly a monkey came, he sat on my dad’s head, opened the bag and checked the stuff. The monkey didn’t find anything to eat so closed up the bag, sat for a few seconds and then left.
Again after sometime, when we were sitting quietly under a tree , 3-4 monkeys started hovering around us. We realised that they want something from my bag. They came opened the bag and took a packet of biscuit that I had with me for my kids. On finishing up, the older monkey of that group tried snatching the bag from my husband. And in that hustle the monkey suddenly bit my husband’s arm. And the rest is history — Hospital rounds, rabies vaccine, follow ups, check-ups for a period of approx 5-6 weeks..
This is horrifying …!! Hope your husband is fit and fine now. Your father too might be all shaken up.
Reminded me of Amboli and Trimbakeshwar trips where monkeys are so common. One should carry a bag pack and not a loose bag when they are around, as they are constantly looking for food. Feeding them is not a good choice as they soon multiply and snatch whatever you carrying.. mobile should be last thing you keep in open.
Food I understand, what do they do with mobiles?
Quite a few thrilling experiences with monkeys in your case!!!
Had one in Lonavala, where a monkey removed a juice tetra from my back pack’s side pocket in a flash, and ran away! Mind you, I was wearing the bag on the shoulders. Of course, no height by any means to challenge a monkey….
Opps…! Quite a scary flash that was. What keen eyesight the monkey has, to spot the tetra pack…!!
Funny experiences! Especially the cave temple and your cupboard ones. 😄
“When they intend to trouble us, they scream and laugh.” – something I learnt. Yes, they can be naughty.
“If we chase them, they pass objects around in their group.” – you bet!
That’s the reason I didn’t chase the last time when i brought back a lunch box of a poor traveller from the monkeys.
I’ll probably share my story offline. quite different from yours.
Thanks for sharing!
Yeah…I have many more stories of monkeys during my treks. Looking forward to hearing your “good” monkey stories.
Monkeys snatched away all our lunch, it was spicy poori made at home..I think that was our family visit at Baneshwar…so I share the exact same experience with monkeys and food as you do Miss😏
Awww….that’s sad. Hope you got something to eat later.
Encounters with monkeys are a common thing in most temples. I feel a little scared after seeing them. At that time, we always try to ensure that whatever we have in our hands does not get snatched away, but till now
this has never happened, we hope that it will not happen in future also.
Lucky you! I too hope you don’t have any monkey menace.