Monkey Rights

Lately, for the past few months anyway, a bunch of monkeys has been making regular visit to our area. They are from the nearby hill forest. Dad said it’s because they don’t have enough food in the jungle anymore. On top of the hill there is a sort of lover’s lane where the smarter ones can go and get food. They will bug loving couples until they are given Pagoda Brand groundnuts or some other tidbits, as payoff. I wonder whether they have tasted any other brands. He he… I have seen some of them drinking from soft drink cans. They are that good. Cool hur! Once they have collected their goodies they will then go up to their nearby trees and wait for more couples to turn up. Dad said they are so human. It’s like going to the Cineplex. First get your snack and drink, then look for a comfortable place and then settle down to watch the show. Ha ha!

Those that raid our housing area are more organised. Dad said they are the gatherers and not the beggars… he he. Today, the regular bunch came by. They walked along the fencing, perimeter walls and the electric cables from one house to another. They always come to our garden because we have two fruiting papaya trees. We had them for a while now, but we have never even eaten one because the monkeys would usually get them before we do. But, I am so glad they came to eat the papaya because otherwise they might not have much to eat, because, the rambutan and chiku have not fruited yet.

Dad said, even though the two papaya trees are in our garden, they actually belongs to the monkey. Some birds or the wind brought the seeds and they grew on their own. When they became visible, dad decided to let them be rather then full them up. Then, the rain watered them, the sun shone on them, the earth supported them and nature just took care of them. Dad didn’t do anything at all. He didn’t teach the papaya trees how to grow or when to sprout their leaves or when and how to flower and then fruit. They did it all by themselves. Nature just took care of them. And, since the monkeys are also part of nature, they have all the rights to the papaya, more so than us, because they needed it more then us. You can’t expect them to shop for papaya at Tesco, right?

Today, there were a few very young ones. They were really small. They were so so so cute jumping from tree to tree doing what monkey loves to do. One of the really tiny ones got up the papaya tree to pick a half-riped papaya. That papaya was much bigger than her (anything that is very cute is always a ‘her’ to me, he he), she then struggled down with one hand holding the papaya and quickly disappeared into the rambutan tree. Probably to share it with her mom. She was so cute. She was so tiny and yet so strong and independent. And so cute too. Her mom must be so proud of her.

Then, they went off to the jungle. Happy.

I hope people won’t cut down the jungle to build some silly condo. If so, they won’t even have a place to go back to. Monkeys have rights too, you know. They have rights to their jungle and rights to their fruits. Monkeys can’t live in condo. They won’t know how to use the toilet. He he…

I hope they will come back soon for their papaya. I was so happy to see the tiny ones today, I almost cried.

And, did I tell you they were so cute?

by small bright head