The Monkey's Demand

"She will not let you go in if you do not give her a banana. That is why I had asked you to hide your snacks and bring to the park," my grandmother told me.

In front of us was a female monkey with a small baby clinging to her breast which would be about a week old as per my grandma.

"But we cannot feed her. they are wild.They need to find their own food.That is what I learnt in school," I replied.

"Did they teach you in school to love all creatures?' grandma's voice was a kind of harsh even though she maintains a great decorum in public.

"Yes, we go for nature walks in school. We went to the nursery once where my teacher told us the importance of birds and bees," I replied.

"What about monkeys?' she asked.

"Well not much. We have no monkeys where I study", I replied feeling a bit guilty.

"We have many monkeys here. Not because they came here after we built our town. We built our town where they lived," she said.

I nodded.

"And the destruction of the local forest led to migration of a lot of monkeys from here. Very few of them remain. That was forty years ago," she continued.

"I see. But are they not a menace? I asked again.

"These are not. They have learnt to live with humans and have a defined territory. And this group is hardly of ten. So the locals do not mind their presence. In fact the monkeys help us to be close to nature.The park that you see and the wild trees growing have the monkeys also contribute something. They disperse the fruit seeds. The jack fruit tree growing there likely is because of a monkey. We never had it when the community set aside this waste land for a park," she said.

'Wow," I quipped. "I never knew monkeys could plant trees."

"You will always be naughty," grandma lightly spanked me. She did it when she wanted to show me how much she loved me.

We were visiting the local park for an evening walk and the monkey was at the gate waiting for someone to feed her, likely because she was not able to move around much due to a small baby.

"I left the banana on the ground.The monkey grabbed it and in a minute devoured it whole.

"She ate the peel too!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, they eat it whole. Now you do not have to bother for finding a dustbin,' she chuckled.

I giggled as we walked into the park.

"She surely know show to get her things done grandma, Just like you," I said.

Grandma spanked me again with a smile.