The Mischief Monger

I still remember those early junior college days where we used to prepare hard for our IIT JEE.The trainings and test would be rigorous and trainers would set pretty difficult question papers for us.My focus for that entire year was IIT.Gradually days passed  and exams were nearing.I was staying away from my family as I was studying in Pune. My family lived in Mumbai and I would get a chance to meet my folks during weekends. The entire event in this story happened during one  fine Saturday. Sunday was my exam.After 14 hours of rigorous study,I had finally decided to take a break. I learnt that my neighbour Chetan from my Class in the neighbouring Dorm had slept. I was studying continuously for 14 hours and he was sleeping continously for the same duration.

‘Wheeeeee…..Krrrrrruuuuuu……Kreeeee….,’ One could hear a long whistle of snore resonating at its highest frequency.I knocked the door as I wanted him to focus on  our preparation.

‘Chetan,…abey motte…Uthooo yaar,’ I knocked his door. Finally ,I realized that the door was opened. He lay sprawled out on the bed.He was just wearing a polka dotted boxer.His belly resembled the peak of mount Everest.His synchronized movement of his belly and lips amazed me.He was snoring away to glory.

I screamed at him  at the top of my voice to wake him up.He seemed to me like ‘Kumbhakaran’ who never planned to wake up.I made a last attempt at waking him up,but he remained firm like a rock.I finally surrendered after many failed attempts to wake him up and returned back to my room.

Continuously studying for 14 hours had taken a toll on my body.The one fact about my room was that there was a banyan tree located near my window which had no grills.This served as an entry for unwanted guests in form of sparrows,monkeys,crows etc. It was 4 pm and no power at our locality.Hence I had to open the window.There was an unexpected fresh but cool brisk wind which blew through my window.I dozed off as I was too tired after studying.

A Monkey surfaced on my window and saw a plate of fresh bananas.He was a young and  probably got lost from his troops.He was hungry and the fresh sight of bananas attracted him and he jumped in my room. He gorged on the bananas and saw me sleeping on the bed.I was wearing  my ‘Being Human’ T-Shirt and a boxer.The Boxer had printed pictures of fruits such as Banana,Watermelons,Mangoes and grapes.The monkey was probably more hungry and was hunting for more food. He saw my boxers and he could not resist at the sight of the watermelons.He jumped over me and dug his teeth deep into the watermelon. Luckily it was at the back of my boxer.

‘Oh my god…I am not going to clear IIT man…’He was being  pessimistic.
‘Where is your exam center?,’ he asked me.
‘No Idea dude…must be Aundh…Let me check,’ I said and rushed for my room. I had placed my admit card on the table which had the banana.I got tensed and panicked as I learnt that I had misplaced my Admit Card.

I searched my entire room but I could not locate my Admit Card. I thought for a while and came to a conclusion that the monkey had flown away with my Admit card.

I ran out of my apartment and searched for the monkey everywhere.I asked almost everyone for the witty primate.Afte 30 minutes, I almost gave up.But I had no options. A tear rolled on my cheeks as IIT was a dream for me.I was trying hard to clear the IIT JEE and had prepared for it since class 10.

I was sobbing and weeping.Everyone from my colony were looking at me. I controlled myself and wiped my tears. I was ready to tackle the monkey.

‘Kheee…Kheeee,’ I heard a sharp sound from top of a tree. I was delighted to see the same monkey seated at the branch of the mango tree. It had my admit card. I threw a stone at it and in reply it threw a mango at me.I rushed to the near by shop and got 3 bananas for the monkey.I threw the banana at it. It caught the banana just like how Jhonty Rhodes did it in the cricket field. I threw all the bananas at the monkey but each time the catch got better. I helplessly looked at the monkey.

An idea struck on my mind. I luckily had another Fruits printed boxer with me.I called Chetan and asked him to get the boxers for me. It looked like the monkey enjoyed eating the boxers. Chetan came after 10 min with a similar boxer. I waved the boxer at the monkey. I directed it to throw the admit card down  by showing different actions. It understood my gestures and it directed me to throw the boxer up. Its rightly said that Man and Monkeys are ancestral cousins. We both understood each other and the monkey threw the admit card below and I threw the boxer up. The monkey had made a paper ball out of my admit card.I caught it and put it on my pocket.The boxer could not attain the desired height and as a result it came down after reaching a certain altitude.Chetan and me ran away after we got our stuffs.The monkey glared at us and was highly disappointed.