Monkey Business in Dhaka

Art: Lisa D'Cruz, 5, India

When Shabbir visited his grandmother, Dadi, in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, he took a box of sweets for her.

Near Dadi’s house, a monkey followed him. Shabbir had never seen monkeys in Dhaka before. The monkey seemed very hungry. Shabbir gave him a sweet from the box. Soon, another monkey appeared. Shabbir gave him a sweet too. Then, to his great amusement, a procession of monkeys followed him.

Shabbir reached Dadi’s house with an empty box in his hands.

“Welcome, my boy,” said Dadi, spreading out her soft spongy arms, “You don’t have to bring me sweets every time you visit. They are not good for my health. Well, now that you have brought them, I will take only one tiny bite.”

She took the box from Shabbir’s hands and to her disappointment found it quite empty.

“Huh?” she asked, “Did you drop them on the way?”

Shabbir replied, 

“Oh no, Dadi, I gave them away to some monkeys who looked very hungry and did not seem to have any health problems like you.”

Dadi was visibly annoyed.

“Oh, those hooligans! We don’t know where they came from but they have been creating a ruckus in the neighbourhood. Have you been feeding them? I tell you, my boy, don’t give them any food or else they will stay here and never leave.”

Shabbir requested,

“Dadi, they are so adorable. May I play with them and feed them while I stay with you?”

Dadi turned around to look at him. Then with a hint of a smile she said, 

“What? You want to play with them? They are already treating the neighbourhood as their playground. Do you know that they use our overhead water tank as their swimming pool? We have to keep the covers of the water tanks locked. Has anyone ever heard of keeping water under lock and key?”

Shabbir laughed as he imagined the monkeys frolicking in the water tanks.

“Dadi, they are so interesting!” he said.

“Interesting indeed!” said Dadi while shaking her head.

“Do you know how clever they are? While people are not at home, they slip the youngest one into the house through the window bars. Now this little one opens the main door and they all troop into the house and vandalise the place.

“One day when I returned from the market, it seemed as if a tornado had gone through this house. Food was all over the floor, pillows were strewn everywhere, make-up boxes lay open on the dining table...It was total chaos, I tell you!

“I turned around and noticed some movement behind the curtains. When I pulled the curtains, these jokers came out jumping and screeching and ran out through the door. And they were wearing my favourite red lipstick!

“I tell you, my boy, don’t feed them anything. If you do, they will stay and never leave us in peace.”

“Where will they go, Dadi?” asked Shabbir.

“They must return to whatever god-forsaken place they come from” said grandmother, quite annoyed.

Shabbir wondered where the monkeys had come from. After talking with a few neighbours, he found out that the city had expanded in the last one year and had encroached into the natural habitat of the monkeys.

When the trees were cut down to build buildings, the monkeys lost their homes. So they made their homes on the rooftops of people’s houses. 

Shabbir felt very sorry for the monkeys. He explained to Dadi how the monkeys had lost their natural homes and had no place to live.

Shabbir taught the monkeys a few tricks like tight-rope walking and riding bicycles. Being clever, they learnt quickly and made up a few tricks of their own.

The Monkey Show that Shabbir put up on the city street attracted many visitors who donated money for the welfare of the monkeys. Dadi, Shabbir’s grandmother, who had developed a fondness for the monkeys, built a shelter for them and fed them. The monkeys found a new home in the heart of the city. 

(An original story based on a newspaper report. Compiled by the following members of our Children’s Creative Writing Group: Anna, Brinna, Mrunmayi, Naya, Pratyush, Ved, and Yash.  Protected by Copyright, November 2015.)