(D)odo The Monkey

(D)odo The Monkey

Anandi and Varun walked on the sands of the Calangute beach. They were both dressed in casuals. Varun had had a lot of problems in getting Anandi to calm down that afternoon. She had thrown a real tantrum and it took a lot of convincing on his part to remove the doubts of infidelity from her mind.

Finally, Varun had suggested taking a walk on the beach and got Anandi to agree to it with great difficulty. He had waited till the usual smile was back on her face. It was 5.30 PM by the time they had stepped out of the resort. Arm in arm they walked over to the seashore and stood there letting the waves gently pat their legs. Anandi looked up at him and said, ‘I don’t know what is happening to me Varun. Sometimes I don’t even know myself. I believe you fully now but in the afternoon I was full of rage.’

‘Don’t worry sweetheart. I will take care of you. Till death do us part.’ Varun said tiredly but sincerely.

Anandi reached up to his face and caressed his cheeks. She said, ‘In the afternoon I genuinely thought you had committed adultery. But now I feel like an idiot even thinking such a thing. But I still have no memory of making those scratch marks on your back.’

They sat down at a quiet spot on the sands for some time and got up to go after half an hour. On the way back to the resort they saw a crowd of people watching something and clapping. Anandi was a Tamil film actress, and they were quite sure no one would recognize her in Goa. At least not very easily. They walked over to the crowd and made their way as close to the centre as they could.

To their amusement they saw that a boy and a monkey sitting at the centre. The monkey was very small. The boy shouted, ‘Dodo, Bulti mar’. The monkey neatly somersaulted in the air and landed on its feet. There were claps all around and several people dropped one rupee and two-rupee coins on a small piece of cloth laid down by the side of the monkey.

Anandi exclaimed, ‘Oh, how sweet. Dodo is a cute name. Will he do a bulti if I ask him to?’

The boy grinned at her and said, ‘He won’t obey you Memsaab. He will listen only to me.’

Anandi said, ‘I am sure he will listen to me if I ask him sweetly.’

She walked up to the small monkey, kneeled and said in a cooing voice, ‘Dodo, Bulti mar.’

But the monkey, instead of somersaulting leapt straight up at Anandi, and to the horror of everyone present attacked her face viciously. It dug its nails all over Anandi’s face. Varun shouted ‘Hey’ and tried to grab the monkey and pull it away. But the animal only got more infuriated and scratched at Anandi’s face wildly. Anandi screamed in terror. The young boy also pulled at the monkey frantically and finally they got the monkey off Anandi.

Varun looked at his wife’s face and found himself staring at a bloodied mess. The young boy was petrified, and he held on to the monkey who was still struggling to get away from him. He said in a frightened voice, ‘I am sorry sahib. He has never done that before. Other people have tried to make him do that trick. But this is the first time he has attacked anyone…’

                                                                                            To Be Continued...

This post is a part of #BlogchatterA2Z 2023

 

Please check out the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge
#AtoZChallenge
a-to-zchallenge.com