29 October 2005

Monkey sense




click to enlarge





Do you risk your life to survive ?
I was in a forest, a couple of weeks ago, a tropical rain forest near Valparai, Tamil nadu I was taking pictures, my camera bag was unzipped but closed. Actually it was half zipped. There was no way you could see the contents of the bag.


This chap( female ) was watching me for a long time, I was afraid too. I wanted to move away, but I was lost in the beauty of nature.
I kept my eye on the bag.
She moved away, joined her family, I relaxed, continued taking pictures.
I saw her climbig down from the tree but she did not come near me. She just sat there deep in a thought, perhaps contemplating the chances of becoming a philosopher ?.
Peace and quiet.
No breeze, not even rustling of leaves.
All monkeys sitting still, no activity.

Suddenly I heard loud screeching noise, a couple of monkeys started to fight, rest of them started swinging on the tree branches. Sudden monkey business all over.
My attention was diverted for a second, next second I saw her sitting with my half finished biscuit packet
she was so fast.

I just saw her walking away. very neat job.
She came,slid her hand inside the half zipped bag and flicked the biscuit packet
ALL IN A FLASH, very neat execution.
The fighting and screeching stopped, silence again, rest of the monkeys looking at me.
This was a planned attack. I was angry at myself, then I was really annoyed at her, who was eating my biscuits all by herself, without sharing with her friends who helped her to steal.
I felt so inferior to these intlliget creatures.
After all we decended from them, and according to the law of natural selection, we are SUPPOSED to be smarter than them for God's sake !! Perhaps I am dumb, perhaps I am excluded from this process of natural selection. I have a sophisticated camera, and I check my e-mail every five minutes...... what for ?
Is the technology helping our natural instincts or destroying them ?

WE ARE NOT SUPERIOR EVEN TO AN ANT believe me.



7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish you should have been a wild life photographer. But your love for portraits have served its purpose.

Anonymous said...

Looks like u were waiting for a chance encounter having an ubziped bag.In the real animal world the tamilnadu police (as seen from many tamil movies)they wait for an encounter to shoot down criminals.Thank god Monkey Justice Prevailed the monkeys just took your biscuits.Anyway I am surpried that u didnt give them sooooooome

Anand kumar said...

Sorry to nit-pick but monkeys and humans descended off the same ancestars. So you don't have to wonder who forgot to pass to you the 'flicking' gene.
BTW, I am a chennaiite too. Hopefully being in the same city might make you less irritated of me after my first para.

Sophia said...

These monkies are so cute! I wish we had them running around here in the United States. It sounds like the little monkey had a nice meal out of your biscuits. :)

You take beautiful photographs.

Hayden said...

wonderful, rauf. Thank you for leading me to these pics, this story. It seems to me that the difference isn't in quantity of intelligence, but in the application. Most of us no longer focus on physical well-being, on survival. We are completely out of touch in that area, unfocused. soft.

rauf said...

Thank you Hayden, yes I have written about it in some blog that I can't really recall.

Jagan Chaluvadi said...

The last lines were amazing, that is very much true.
"WE ARE NOT EVEN SUPERIOR TO AN ANT"
H.G.Wells in his novel, THE TIME MACHINE describes very well the evolution of man.
Alexander the lead role travels through time into the future and he finds man has become primitive again.
We think we are advancing in technology but forgetting the most basic, important things in life.
You sir described it in your style....
Loved it.....!!!!!!!!!!!1