Mythic langurs losing out?
It was while browsing the net that I came across this piece about 'langur menace' in the India Today web edition dated 31st July, 2014. And these langurs are such creatures whom you can hardly afford to ignore, let alone not getting scared; unless, of course, you are one of those professionals who have willy-nilly accepted it as their fate to ape the apes - whether to entertain their fellow homo sapiens or to con their lesser brethren away.
And now the Parliament House, the Indian law-makers' haven, seems to be too perturbed to wish this menace, as posed by these primates, away. Such has been their insolence that even the corridors of power have failed to tame them. Irrespective of the presence of grandiose and overbearing details of power, they have remained unfazed. And lo! what a nuisance, they don't even recognize there could be something as what they call 'tacit understanding'. They would rather go about looking for food or fun, whatever it is they feel like having at some certain point than be fraudulent and thereby, stars forbidding, risk a term in the Tihar. Given the state of affairs, one website even went as far as to paint the whole episode in very jocular terms:
"..They don’t acknowledge the hierarchy of power and have no qualms about frequenting the high-security Parliament complex or the North and South Blocks on Raisina Hill, which house important ministries such as defence, home, finance and the prime minister’s office... "
But then, on a serious note, the menace of langurs infesting the capital and its suburbs has clearly been on the rise for some several years now. Robbed of their habitat, they have gradually made their way into the heart of the city, abetted by the fact that they've always found generous patrons among the Hindu Delhites who are rather reluctant to miss out on the opportunity to earn some 'punya' (divine blessings) out of feeding these 'disciples' of Lord Rama, that great protagonist of the Ramayanic mythology.
So, at last they are up to this. According to reports, some forty people have been hired, ostensibly to chase the monkeys away. The disguisers would, as claimed, mimic and frighten away the anthropoids. Yet the question remains, with 'ram-bhakts'
abounding in the changing machismo of the day, how can that be achieved? Or is it that these mythic primates have lost out to their modern tech-savvy counterparts, poised to give way to a disloyal, and more than that, an ungrateful lot....?
And now the Parliament House, the Indian law-makers' haven, seems to be too perturbed to wish this menace, as posed by these primates, away. Such has been their insolence that even the corridors of power have failed to tame them. Irrespective of the presence of grandiose and overbearing details of power, they have remained unfazed. And lo! what a nuisance, they don't even recognize there could be something as what they call 'tacit understanding'. They would rather go about looking for food or fun, whatever it is they feel like having at some certain point than be fraudulent and thereby, stars forbidding, risk a term in the Tihar. Given the state of affairs, one website even went as far as to paint the whole episode in very jocular terms:
"..They don’t acknowledge the hierarchy of power and have no qualms about frequenting the high-security Parliament complex or the North and South Blocks on Raisina Hill, which house important ministries such as defence, home, finance and the prime minister’s office... "
But then, on a serious note, the menace of langurs infesting the capital and its suburbs has clearly been on the rise for some several years now. Robbed of their habitat, they have gradually made their way into the heart of the city, abetted by the fact that they've always found generous patrons among the Hindu Delhites who are rather reluctant to miss out on the opportunity to earn some 'punya' (divine blessings) out of feeding these 'disciples' of Lord Rama, that great protagonist of the Ramayanic mythology.
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| Photo courtesy: India Today |
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| Langurs used to be a regular sight at Raisina Hill.
AP Photo/Gurinder Osan
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abounding in the changing machismo of the day, how can that be achieved? Or is it that these mythic primates have lost out to their modern tech-savvy counterparts, poised to give way to a disloyal, and more than that, an ungrateful lot....?
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