The Monkey Menace

Somewhere in January of 1995 : Going to a temple atop a hill in Shimla. It was a school trip. I was the youngest. As it was a school trip and we were actually not that old, our pockets and bags were actually filled with lot of stuff to eat. I particularly remember Poppins !! The way was infested with monkeys all over. I don't remember much, but I do remember this.

One of the monkeys suddenly leaped from nowhere on to the girl behind me. I was pretty normal. But what I saw was something I never expected. The monkey, checked the pockets of the girl,looking for food and also opened the camera pouch and was about to check what was inside, but a dog came and the monkey was on top of a tree in no time. We were saved by the dog.

Conclusion : Monkeys are smart, and they learn a lot by visuals !!

Somewhere in the range of 2002-2004 : Dr. Kalra's Clinic, I was there for a checkup. I don't remember whether I was there for myself or just accompanying on of my friends. But what I saw was.

I young kid, not more than 2 years old, had a scratch almost 0.5 centimeter deep on his cheek. Not a good view. The mother of the child said it was monkey !!!

Conclusion : Monkeys are dangerous.

Some few months back : Another temple infested with monkeys, monkeys got hold of the clothing, and waited until we gave them something to eat.

Conclusion : I say smart, I say clever, I say Indian !!!

Yesterday : I was on a trip to a very dry but watery place. Confused ?? But trust me, it could not be described better than these two words used together. At some place a thought came into my mind. Suppose people ahead went out of there minds, something happened, and now all the monkeys are furious. I pushed the thought out of my mind. And I carried on.

Half an hour later, I saw as if somebody decided to play the thought which were running in my mind. And now the monkeys were furious. When we were climbing up, the monkey was directly above my head hanging on a branch. A couple on the left.

And then ...

A direct eye to eye contact with the monkey. The monkey gives a war cry, I get defensive, and give my own war cry. I continue walking and realise the monkeys on the left were directly now behind me. Cautiously I move side ways. The first monkey plans to attack and approaches. I thwart his attack, by a dummy bag throw motion. The monkeys goes far back. And this gives me enough time to get out of the danger zone. And so I did get out of the danger zone.

And trust me, until I reached to the place from where I started, I was on the look out for monkeys.

Conclusions :
1. Don't trouble monkeys. They only need food. You throw stones at them, they get furious.
2. Attack is the best policy of defense.
3. Don't think of anything bad, lest someone up there decided to have little fun with you.

There are few who know I afraid of monkeys, and those who know, they know it big time !!!

... so let go...

The fear. We all have different types of fears. But all the fears converge, in a way, to a one particular kind of fear. the Fear of Loosing. It is an emotion, which we all experience, for certain kind of things. A scenario where we may loose what we have. Those anxious moments before exams or sports, they are the fear of failure, the fear of loosing out your prestige in front of others and more importantly the fear of loosing out your prestige in front of yourself. The fear of height or water or other kinds of phobias, they are the fearing of lossing your self to death.

Whenever we are in a state when we are not able to imagine how things will next be, we are in a state of fear. This hinders us from taking the next step, because you will invariably think, 'What if I don't make it??'. The element of risk. No wonder why they say, 'The greater the risk, the higher the returns'. Its not the returns we are thrilled about it is the journey towards those results, which makes us thrilled. That every moment, before you reached there, when you thought, 'Ohl, only if this happens'. The joy is not in achieving what you wanted but the joy is in understanding that you have worked your way despite of all the odds and have been successful. There are those, but certainly in very less numbers, who just try and inspite of there failures still smile.But I am not talking about them.

But an altogether different things come into picture, when you bring some of your traits and mix them up with your fears. I think thats when most of us make mistakes, stupid mistakes. Its not wrong to make mistakes, but its wrong, when you repeat them. There are some mistakes, which are irreversible, and then there are some whose are reversible. It is commonly said, 'To Break is easy, but to fix what is broken is equally difficult if possible at all'. Some us do not venture out to
mend what they have broken. Mostly I believe for the simple reason that admitting that have you have made a mistake is difficult. All kinds of excuses are given, especially, the name of misunderstanding. The motive is often discussed. The motive when action was being done, and the motive when apologizing. But whatever kind of excuses or reasons you may give, it does not change that something wrong was done. Admitting it and maybe mending the consequences can altogether help in a different way. In a way, to understand that, it doesnt change what you actually are. It may change the other peoples' perspective, but if the perspective can be changed that easily, it can be changed, again so easily, with a admission to fault. We just have to understand that, it is not important. We just need to let go

so let go, jump in
oh well, whatcha waiting for
it's alright
'cause there's beauty in the breakdown
so let go, just get in
oh, it's so amazing here
it's alright
'cause there's beauty in the breakdown

-Let Go by Frou Frou

PS : I have told these are random thoughts, so don't complain, if it is
not streamlined or if it is not in sync or if there is jumping of thoughts in between. Don't complain if it doesn't make sense, because it makes sense to me !! So Let Go !!