An encounter- a close shave

Being brought up in an urban city , it is nearly impossible to have any sort of wildlife encounter. It is mostly  dogs, cats, crows, pigeons, sometimes cows and buffaloes are the only species that we were in contact with. In Chennai, though places like Guindy park, Vandaloor zoo, IIT-M promise you of a fabulous encounter with the kingdom of Animalia, it is quite difficult to encounter a monkey outside these places as evolved species(of monkeys) are quite dense. Perhaps the later evolved species(the humans) are rather too busy to notice it.

My first encounter with this interesting animal was when I was an year old. It was when we went to Solingar hill to have my hair shaved. As a kid, it was so confusing to differentiate between a saloon and temples, as most of the time I was taken to temple with long oiled hair, and return back shaved. My Paati had preyed to the Lord, that she would shave my hair in five different temples and Solingar temple on the hill top was my first(encounter with both the monkey and barber). While we were all set to climb up the hill with required amount of snacks and water, my while family (of 15 people) started scaling the hill. My mom, both grandmothers and aunts all had flowers on their head. I was on my mother ( she carried me as i was only 1 year old), when i encountered a dog sized mammal with a longer tail following us. Suddenly it jumped on the wall of the stairs, overtaking us and got near me. The dark eyed mammal stared me , we were eye to eye. I never winked out of excitement.But money had other plans, it pulled off flower from my mothers head and ran back. That was the only close encounter i had with that breed. Never in my life, I saw monkeys that close near me.My mom gave me a small doubtful glance but was sure it could have not be me,as i dint have evidence of proof against me to accuse me. Next target of the day was my aunt. My aunt  was a little behind us. When she turned to see if it was me, she had shock of her life, A monkey behind her. We climbed the hill as soon as possible and had the darshan of lord.

Now it was my turn to be shocked. I was taken to a place where an unfamiliar face smiled and greeted me. The unfamiliar face now pointed to my head or something above it. I turned up to realize that Now I was on my Uncle's lap. It is customary that babies sit on their maternal uncles lap during its first hair shave.While i was figuring out that my uncle was tightening his grip on me, there were sprinkles of water from the other side. Now the unfamiliar face had a booo booo( knife) in his hand. I was often referred to it as "boo boo" as told by elders signifying the danger it would cause when i went to handle it while at home. The unfamiliar face now brought the "boo boo" near me. Now with the grip tightened, and approaching "boo boo", i felt uncomfortable.  The uncomfortable face looked as if given a chance would shave off my head. I burst out crying loud , shaking my hands and legs to defend myself. My Uncle couldn't control the situation single handedly now. My father came down to help him, ( well i thought he kneed down to help me) caught hold of my hands. I defended the approaching"boo boo"  by shaking my leg. My mom got hold of it this time. The "boo boo" was nearing. Now only thing i could shake is my head. The unfamiliar face now shouted " O my god!!! hold the kid's head". My other uncle came for rescue of the unfamiliar man(barber) this time. After all the tantrums, i was glad to see my head remain, but it was lighter this time.

We went down the hill, this time pre-equiped with a tree branch as stick to keep the monkeys away. I was shown the same species which i encountered uphill, to divert my attention. It was now in a distant branch presumably looking at my shaved head. After going home, when i saw myself at mirror, i saw a similar kid like me without hair. I touched mine, and realized, my hair was gone too. I cried badly every time i was remembered about it (while touching my head or seeing the mirror again) for a month.