I had a monkey in my apartment today!

[CarolynRitesh 0]

My adrenaline has been rushing for a few hours, just wanted to share one of my little experiences here in India that makes it such an interesting place to live!

After taking my shower and lying on the bed while checking emails, I had a little surprise in my house. I heard a thump from the bathroom, and just assumed that the wind had knocked down something (it has been a stormy pre-monsoon season this year!) and kept on typing. A few moments later, I saw out of the corner of my eye that something was moving from the open bathroom door into the bedroom. OMG - a monkey (not sure of the Latin name for this particular monkey, but they are all over India hanging around temples, along roadsides, etc.) was confidently and curiously walking through my bedroom to the living room! At that moment I was calm, but as soon as he left the room, I jumped up and closed the door with a racing heart. THANK GOD I had the phone in the bedroom with me, so I immediately called Ritesh (who was already at work) and started to lose it.

Knowing that the house was all locked from the inside, and that all the other windows have screens on them, I knew I would have to face that monkey. At first it didn't seem so difficult, he seemed pretty calm and not mean when he first ambled through the bedroom. When I opened the bedroom to make a run for the front door, I saw him turn from his path into the kitchen and started running towards me. Uh, THAT freaked me out a little - monkeys, unlike other animals, do not run AWAY from people, especially when they have been hand fed so often.

After a few frantic discussions with Ritesh and another friend, I decided to calm down and try my 'run for the outside door' plan again. This time the monkey (we shall call him Harry, but until he was out of the house, he was 'that crazy killer monkey!') was closer to my door with dried spaghetti noodles in his mouth and hands. And this time, he was mad... He started to growl immediately and jumped for the door. I closed it, but not before I saw that he had jumped on a sink right next to the bedroom and his arm was at head level as he tried to push it open. OMG!!!!! Now sheer terror set in, and I decided that I would stay in the bedroom forever if necessary, but there was NO WAY I was facing that monkey again!

In between frantic phone calls to friends, colleagues and my landlord, I could hear things getting scattered about, glass breaking, and other signs of mayhem. This did NOT help my mental state! Then I heard water running - he had turned on the tap in the sink by the door?! What, to get a drink? To hide the sounds of his destruction? About 1.5 hours after this escapade began, all those people I had been speaking to suddenly converged on the house at the same time calling me, ringing the doorbell and yelling out for me. Thankful for their moral support, but still hesitant to open the door, I called out from my dungeon - I AM NOT COMING OUT OF HERE WITH THAT MONKEY ON THE LOOSE!

A figure appeared at my window, someone had gone to the roof and swung down to the balcony to my aid with a large piece of fruit. Now we have a plan! I will open and then stand behind the bedroom door while my new friend holds the fruit and calls to the cheeky monkey. Hold my breath, put a blanket in front of me (yeah, I know, not the greatest defence, but it gave me emotional comfort!) and open the door. Nothing. Call again. Nothing. I am now worried about him (for some reason, I assumed it was a he!) jumping up in my face if I peaked around the corner. Wait a few seconds, muster up some courage, and look around the door - NO MONKEY! Ok, now everyone will just think that I am crazy, I am telling you THERE IS, ok, maybe WAS A MONKEY IN HERE!

Another minute passes, and it is now or never - run for the front door. Unfortunately, my helpful landlord in trying to get into my apartment had locked me in from the outside! Ritesh grabs for the keys and starts to unlock the door and pulls me outside on the front balcony. A crowd has gathered - all the neighbors, the transport driver who was there to pick me up, the landlord and his family, and someone from the office of my hiring company are all there - but where is the monkey???

We look up at the roof of the building next to mine and see him sitting on the corner enjoying some bread that he had taken from my house, looking quite smug. We looked all over the apartment, and the only way out was through the 2nd bathroom and a tiny air shaft entrance that he must have climbed out of to escape. Needless to say, all the possible entrances have been locked up, and the kitchen will need to be completely re-sorted. I am just thankful that all of our interview paperwork was spared (it was sitting on the coffee table, next to a bottle of water that got tipped over, as well as the bread that he ravaged!). Gotta love India!

[almaty 19]

wow, that was an excellent stroy..that rude monkey needed a well deserved spanking

Edited March 28, 2008 by almaty

[Imua 0]

OMG, so funny but scary too....

It was probably a macaque, they are running wild in India and Nepal. You should never carry plastic bags around the temples in Kathmandu because the monkeys hear the rustling and they think it's food and they'll jump you.

There was an article in the NY Times about how they are so rampant in Delhi that they would rip IVs out of patients' arms who were on stretchers waiting to be admitted to the hospital because they wanted the glucose water....

[CarolynRitesh 0]

Oh yah, when I was in the bedroom, one of the things I thought of was an article I read a few years ago about how gangs of monkeys will get into a house and just rip it to shreds, I kept thinking that his family would start coming in after him and attack me. (Yeah, I can be a drama queen!)

I know he was probably just as afraid as me, but man, that was not an experience I want to do again! In September, it was a rat that crawled in through an open window, in December, there was a fire in the building behind us - RIGHT BEHIND US! At least now people are telling me that Hanuman has blessed me!

[CarolynRitesh 0]

wow, that was an excellent stroy..that rude monkey needed a well deserved spanking

Now that I am over the shock of it, I keep thinking of Saturday Night Live - both from Mike Myers:

1) Simon, the boy in the tub who likes to do drawings: "Cheeky Monkey!"

2) The German: "Do you want to touch my monkey? Touch my monkey!"

[Imua 0]

wow, that was an excellent stroy..that rude monkey needed a well deserved spanking

Now that I am over the shock of it, I keep thinking of Saturday Night Live - both from Mike Myers:

1) Simon, the boy in the tub who likes to do drawings: "Cheeky Monkey!"

2) The German: "Do you want to touch my monkey? Touch my monkey!"

My ex actually made friends with an American guy who was studying Buddhism in KTM and somehow adopted a wild baby monkey who had lost her mother - when the guy left Nepal my ex kept the monkey, who the American guy had named George Bush - since it's a female he calls her Georgie. Last summer she was still very young so he kept her on a leash - he would clip it to the window bars in the apartment so she could go in and out but she wouldn't be attacked by the wild monkeys. She was pretty tame and liked to grab onto my finger like a baby but I wonder if she is still like that - I think when they get older they can get meaner.

[Flames9_RN 358]

Probably just an escaped trunk monkey!!!

[Ban Hammer 13,340]

wow, that was an excellent stroy..that rude monkey needed a well deserved spanking

it was luckystrike.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

When I was a teenager in India, we used to have baboons hang out behind our house... and if someone walked with food from the kitchen to one of the bedrooms, it involved walking through an open courtyard where they could see us... they would attack.... so we never took food to our bedrooms.

I still think my mom hired those baboons to do that............

[Alex+R 0]

That story was hilarious!

[CarolynRitesh 0]

Ha Ha!! The Trunk Monkeys are AWESOME! Unfortunately, mine was more like this:

[Flames9_RN 358]

Ha Ha!! The Trunk Monkeys are AWESOME! Unfortunately, mine was more like this:

Thats what happens if you do not pay them enough! they have a strong Union!!

[sereia 0]

hahaha that's awesome!!! india sounds SOOOOOOOOO COOOOOOOOOOOOL!

i'm glad you're okay and the monkey is full

[CarolynRitesh 0]

When I was a teenager in India, we used to have baboons hang out behind our house... and if someone walked with food from the kitchen to one of the bedrooms, it involved walking through an open courtyard where they could see us... they would attack.... so we never took food to our bedrooms.

I still think my mom hired those baboons to do that............

If my Mom could have done that, she would have - and it would have WORKED! They look so sweet and gentle, but OMG, they can get fierce really fast! Of course, one of my girlfriends told me this afternoon that another friend was bitten by one and had to go on a 6 month course of drugs, was in pain, etc. Phew! But there are always good stories to tell here - rats that come in through the bedroom window, fires in the building behind me - but I would not live in any other house in Bangalore!

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

That is hilarious! Oh I wish I could have been there!