Up yonder that tall tree, grew plenty of arecanut. The buffalo & gazelle looked on hungrily whilst I made it right to the top with my super hands & feet and gorged the delicacy. I still remember those days when we used to huddle together as a single family, in a single file. My mother used to take off the lice on my back while I used to take of the lice on my sister's. It was so much fun playing hide & seek among the trees, swinging around the creepers.
Wind in my hair & sand on my feet, I used to hop around the woods. Up from my vantage point I could sense the malice of the approaching tiger & warn the gazelle of incoming danger. My tail wriggling back & forth I would rattle the branch to scare the owl away. I would fight my brother with broken twigs & we would then feast on the banana branches. The forest was full of goodies. Right until the arrival of the human being.
When they came the green forests turned grey, what was once our playground, was fenced & we couldnt play anymore. The food decreased as the trees began being cut. My family soon split as the others went far away looking for forests undiscovered by man. I decided to adopt to the changes and started hanging around with the tailless beings like many of my friends.
The food became so scarce that the remaining of us had to cross the fence to satisfy our hunger. The tresspass was not tolerated & my friends started getting killed one by one, either when dogs bit them, or when they were poisoned or when they were shot. What they worshiiped as their God were being hopelessly massacred. I had once stared down the barrel of that gun, but before he could fire, I ran away & hid in the forest.
I have no one to play with now & no food left in the forest. & so Dear Almighty I now look at the setting sun and wish I were not a monkey.
P.S. - In memory & support of all those monkeys being mercilessly killed in the malnad region by heartless cold blooded farmers.
