down memory lane - monkey business

Hello and welcome to all the readers.

Today, i share a childhood memory about an incident which i am not that proud of.

This incident happen in mumbai, india.

I was very young and in 5th/6th grade, not very sure as it's very very long time ago.

Everyday, i and some of the kids from my building use to share a cab to school.
But, in the evenings i use to take a bus (public transport) from my school to my place.

The day in question, i was returning back from school. I got down at the regular stop close to my home.
While walking back towards my place, i saw a madari with a monkey coming towards me.
A madari is a person who does tricks with the monkey to entertain people and earn money.

Not sure, what i was thinking, may be curiousity. I leaned down to pat the monkey and got bitten on my hand.
That was a big mistake as apparently you should not touch or try to pat the monkey without the madari knowing it, so that he can control the monkey.

For few seconds, i was not sure what happened.
The people around me, told me to go to the doctor. But, with the bleeding hand, i decided to go home.

When my mother saw me, she was furious and very upset. But as all mother's do, she took me to the doctor.

Lucky for me, it was a small monkey and i was very skinny at that time, so the bite was not that deep.

Before going to the doctor, my mom told me, you will now have to take 14 injections in your stomach, and that really scared me.

But the doctor told, 3 would be fine. Apparently the injections are given in the stomach if you are bitten by a big dog. I guess it's more of a scare tactic :-)

The doctor patched me up and gave me my first injection and medicine and we returned home.

But, my greatest worry was not been bitten by a monkey, but next day at school what will i tell my friends.
If i tell them the truth i will be a laughing stock.

So i came up with a story, that i fell down on a sharp rock and hurt my hand.

Next day, i sticked with the made-up story at school and it worked fine, till it all came out.

later in my youth, i had few more encounters with the monkeys, but no casualties :-)

So the moral of the story, curiousity does get you in trouble sometimes if not careful.

thank you for reading my post.

Have a nice day.

Farhad
[imfarhad]

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