Maya was
sick of the bloated belly. Her child was already ten days overdue.
“ I think
,we ought to see the doctor today?”
“Yes, mummy.
I look like a baby elephant”
Next day,
after the examination, Doctor Nisha seemed a bit worried.
“We should
not wait anymore. I think we should operate. How about today evening, or
tomorrow? ”
“ Not today,
Maya’s mami is arriving today evening.
She would be a great help. If possible ,we should wait for her”
“Ok. So
tomorrow morning at nine?”
As the car
was getting in the gate, Maya saw a hoard of monkeys jumping over the boundary
walls of not just their house but also of their neighbours and chasing them
were a whole lot of street dogs.
“Oh my, what
a bother these monkeys have become! And these dogs, they can only bark from a
distance and make a ruckus.”
“But today
there seems to be a lot more dogs and this big one is not from our lane” observed
Ma.
“ Look at
that monkey , on the tree. That one is huge and the others seem to be in awe of
him”.
“ I am sure,
they also have a hierarchy and he must be the Monkey king.”, saying so Maya
moved inside the house accompanied by her mother.
“ Hmm, she
is going to lose her baby. Poor girl”, thought the one whom Maya had called the
Monkey King. After all, he had the divine power to see what others could not
and Maya’s future loss made him sad. For
some reason, he felt very protective about her , but what can he do?
Now he must
lead his tribe ahead who were waiting for his command. He whooped loudly and
moved ahead. Other monkeys began chattering and began following him. One little
monkey could not jump up to catch the branch overhead and fell.
Madly
barking dogs were immediately all around him , ready to pounce on him and tear
him to shreds.
Seeing this,
the Monkey King came bounding back, growled fiercely at the ferocious dogs,
quickly grabbed the baby monkey and jumped on to the closest branch where the
baby was immediately grabbed by his anxiously following mother.
But alas,
one of the dogs caught the left rear leg of the
Monkey King and he fell back on the ground.
The dogs
were too scared to go near but would not leave him alone either. He alone
fought the dogs valiantly. His size and
aura were enough to keep the dogs at bay but they were too many. They
continued to bark incessantly at the fallen King and some managed to maul him.
Hearing the
ruckus, Maya rushed out.
On realising
what had happened, she shooed the dogs away. She could see the injuries on the
Monkey’s leg but was too scared to go near.
“Stay away.
Are you crazy, that monkey will bite you”
“ But mummy
, he is injured. We must do something”
“Silly girl,
can you not see the monkeys on the trees all around? If you so much as go near
him, they will attack you. Get inside”
Saying so,
mummy pulled Maya back inside the house.
From time-to-time
Maya would look at the monkey from her window. Most of the passersby would
tease him, some naughty boys threw stones at him while some made faces and made
fun of him.
Soon the
injured monkey, dragged himself near a wall and tried to lick his wounds. His
left rear bone was broken . One of the
dogs had also injured his tail. Other wounds might heal, but how is monkey to
survive without the use of his leg and more importantly his tail. He was tired
and he simply closed his eyes as he sensed his end.
At night,
when everyone had gone off to sleep, Maya slipped out of the house and placed a
bowl of water near the monkey. As soon as he saw the bowl of water, he
immediately began to crawl towards it and gulped it all in one go.
Maya’s eyes
were filled with tears. She rushed inside and got some more water for him and
offered him two rotis which she had gotten from the kitchen.
The monkey
greedily ate the rotis and looked at Maya. She saw , not gratitude, but
affection in his eyes
“I will get
one more roti got you”, saying so Maya
again rushed inside.
He
remembered his mother who used to feed him fruits and berries.
As Maya
offered him the roti, now less scared of the monkey, who was looking intently
at her eyes, she swore , she heard him say, “ Ma” as he breathed his last.
Maya was
struck dumb and could not comprehend that the monkey was no more and just then
she felt a movement in her tummy followed by a rolling pain.
