THE MONKEY CHASE

It has come to my clear conscience by now, that New Delhi, the capital city of India is the most happening city. Early august of 2025, my friend Yash visited me in New Delhi. We were supposed to meet after a long time and had planned to have a nice lunch at a nice restaurant. As usual, he came to see me from Chandigarh and we called up another friend Shaurya to tag along . I had recently moved to city and hence, rather wished to see around the city than sitting at some place that i could do anytime. Luckily, Yash is a localite from Delhi. He has a spirit of an explorer, same as me who enjoys experiencing places than sitting for meetings.

It is of my great interest to see and witness wilderness through safaris but how could i have done that in a metropolitan city like Delhi itself. Suddenly it crossed our minds of why not visit the zoo?

When i was younger I often visited Kolkata with my parents. My parents would take me and my cousins to a zoo for a picnic. When I recall those days, it wouldn't be less than any adventure at an age of 7. We would have ice cream on a cone. But wouldn't eat anything else, even at the resting area or small canteens, the zoo would have. I would constantly question my father till he would bribe me for favorite chocolate by the end of our day than eating at the zoo. At that time I wouldn't understand the reason why? but this time when I am all grown up, I literally witnessed the reason more humorously than absurdly.

As certain, we dressed up in nice clothing thinking of eating at some restaurant nearby to my place. Both of my friends, came to pick me up and booked for a cab to drop us near Khan market, where one can find ample of good places to eat with outstanding ambience. On our way, I looked at Yash and he looked at me, with a glace asking "Is it really the place you wish to go? "and with my eyeroll he knew. That very second, we changed our location to drop from khan market to the National Zoological Park.

As we reached our destination we didn't look at the time. The zoo opens at 9am and closes by 5pm. We reached at exactly 4:55pm. To our luck, we somehow managed to get the tickets. After five in the evening, no tickets are sold but in case, you are still inside strolling through the zoo, they do not rush you out until you exit yourselves. They make an announcement later when the zoo completely shuts for visitors.

You wouldn't believe the time we entered after a quick security check, the zoo was entirely vacated, so as we thought. The Delhi zoo, officially, the National zoological park covers 176 acres. It is located near the Red Fort area in New Delhi and houses over 1,300 animals from approximately 130 species. Each one of the habitats created for animals have a board displaying information on the residing species inside. We were able to get the of sight of tiger, jaguar, alligator, deer's, many bird species, snakes and other wild life. I might have forgotten many other animals we witnessed together, but I cannot in my life forget "monkeys" that we had an interaction with. The only mistake I did unknowingly was to wear heels at a place spread 176 acres. For my girls who ever visit, please take this as a reminder or more likely an advise because despite of the walking, you may even need to RUN!

UFF! the number of monkeys the zoo has out of their respectful bedrooms, Gosh! I felt my life was threatened. Usually if you visit the zoo on time, there are a lot of people around where any such free walking animal wouldn't dare to come after you. But here we were, all alone walking and stalling through the zoo while enjoying ourselves not knowing about the chase that was to come with just an ice cream.

At a stall I suddenly wished to have ice cream just the way I would as a young girl. We stood by a stall, bought three cones, one for each. My eyes suddenly fell on a few monkeys one of whom had a clinging baby to her chest at a distance. I glanced at her and shouted saying look at how beautiful it is! the baby monkey and the mother. All of a sudden she started walking towards us and I didn't realize it was walking towards me. The moment I did, he started moving faster and my heart was skipping beats with speed of a light. I shouted and the monkey squealed. I held fast my purse, hid behind my friend and realized it was after my ice-cream! Yash shouted, gulp the ice cream, gulp ice cream and in a blink i threw the ice cream in another direction. In that moment I thought I I saved the three of us. We all laughed till I realized it wasn't the end. Another money ran toward Shaurya's ice cream and I snatched and threw it away. But now one last comrade was left, this time it was Yash! I usually call him a monkey jokingly, but never thought he had the same cleverness in outsmarting as them! He felt it as if it was a competition. The monkey mother started following us and the moment she was after Yashi I panicked and asked him 'either throw away the ice cream or get ready to adopt rabies'. Determined him, the moment he saw her running he gulped it to the last bite saying not this time mama monkey! i wouldn't let go my my 20 rupees.' She suddenly sat to rest looking at him, clearly disappointed.

Even at this point I had the courage to think 'no more ice cream no more monkeys.'

While walking through the zoo, we ended up near birds, to be more specific ,Vultures, where they were inside a glass room, with a caged roof for ventilation. Beautifully planned and maintained for their comfort. There were green cloth like shades over the walls from outside to protect them from excessive direct sunlight. But to our excitement, there sat three monkeys like the three of us above the shade. We thought, what could go wrong?, let slowly walk towards the glass window, and as soon as we stepped under the shade, the three squealing monkeys slid over the shade chasing us. For a second I thought, today will be the the doom of us, but there was God sending angels in the shape of seven men in turban who helped us by scaring them away with a stick. No wonder the chase was thrilling as much as it was threatening.

Have you ever come across the story of the cap seller and the monkey? On my way back to my apartment, I was reminded of this tale, which I was told when I was in my kindergarten school. I am sure you must have at least once during your childhood come across this narrative. Let me remind you once again. It is about a cap seller who would sell caps under a banyan tree in a village. On that banyan tree sat a monkey. The monkey would steal his caps for sale on sight and wore them. But one day in frustration the cap seller throws all of his caps away. But the moment he was supposed to leave, he noticed the monkey throwing them away, imitating him. Then the man quickly gathers all his caps and runs away.

This story somehow tells about the wit and imitation skills exhibited by monkeys that I could witness with thrill, horror yet excitement. It is remarkable the way they learn through human imitation yet they use their cunning ways to gather or more precisely barter objects and food from humans especially in areas with heavy human- monkey interaction.

For a precaution, do grab your things tight and never feed them in open, or else you may encounter a potentially aggressive animal when it comes to barter. Unlike me don't get carried away by their naturally cute and innocent faces, or else they may get naughty!