A World of Monkeys

Looking into her eyes I could infer that she was my wife. Now she too was transformed into a monkey.

Prevails a proverb that, when pigeons en masse quit a house, calamity arrives with its allies. And, this occurred with me today. My house is infested with pigeons. Every morning their glottal coo breaks my slumber.
But this morning that didn’t happen. Today’s morning was different, a deviation. As I got up, I found not a single pigeon in and around my house. The sky was overcast. The atmosphere seemed somehow dull and melancholic. A strong hunch cropped in my mind that some untoward incident would betide.
I was anxious. Dark clouds of anticipation shrouded my heart and face. I was aghast. My wife was appalled at my state. Coming near and caressing my hair she asked, ‘What’s the matter? Why do you look so depressed? What happened?’
Looking directly into her eyes, I said, ‘I foresee some big mishap.’ Before I finished, my wife was startled by an unknown fear. Closing in to me, she pressed her palm over my lips and said, ‘Wait. Don’t utter a word further.’I am well acquainted with this nature of my wife. They say, I have a black mole on my tongue. A bearer of this black mole is believed to be minacious. It means, whatever ominous he will utter, will surely fructify.
On such an adage prevalent since time immemorial like anyother my wife too has immense faith. Word for word, she believes, all my anticipations will come true.
Thus she advised me to shut up – may I not speak of some imminent danger and may it not come true. Abiding by her advice I also shut up.
My phone rang, when I was sipping tea. A friend had called. My son aged about four years was playing game on the computer. At the same computer table, my phone was on charge. I went to pick up the call. I talked to the friend eyeing at the game of my kid son. We gossipped for a long time. The friend seemed more forlorn. He had been a victim of repeated treachery of his own people.
Thus with full of hate for them in a depressed tone he said, ‘People of late have been totally like monkeys.’ In order to console and pacify him I said, ‘Haven’t we the human being evolved from apes… You must be aware of Darwin’s theory. We learnt it from his theory of evolution, what do you say… ha… ha… ha…’
Soon we switched the topic over to contemporary political affair of our locality and while chit-chatting again in a serious tone he said, ‘What I find, what occurred fifty or sixty years back is repeating of late. Not a thing changed.’
‘Don’t forget my friend that “history repeats itself.” Then we gossiped for some time, all worthless things.
During the course of gossip, I marked twice my son looked at me suspiciously. I, however, didn’t pay much importance to it. Let me reveal, my son is a brilliant chap, a child prodigy. I am sure there must be some reason behind his curious stare at me.
I stay in a 3-BHK house. The main door opens into a big hall. The computer table is located at one corner. I was talking to my friend over phone in the hall itself and my son was playing game on the computer. The kitchen is adjacent to the left of the hall and its door opens into the hall. Next to the kitchen, there is a guest room which remains closed most of the time. The toilet is beyond the guest room. After that two rooms are there; one, my bed room the other, my son’s room. This is the basic lay-out of my house.
Once gossiping with the friend was over, I put the phone back on charge. My son was still busy in his game. I looked at him casually and started for my bedroom to take rest. I saw my wife busy in the kitchen. On Sundays, she prepares some special dish for lunch. I entered my room and dozed off. I think I might have slept for some thirty minutes. I could have slept a bit more but my slumber broke by the weeping sound of my wife. Fearing some mishap I ran towards the hall to check, why she was crying.

On reaching the hall, I found her totally broken, her face pale, lips black, tears rolling down her cheeks and she was shivering in fear. She wished to speak something but was unable as though her throat was squeezed. Holding her tightly I asked, ‘What happened? Is everything ok?’ She tried to speak, but not a sound oozed out of her lips. At last she pointed with her finger at the ceiling fan.
A baby monkey was sitting on the blade of the fan, hanging its long tail down. The scene angered me. I brought the walking stick from the wall that hanged there as a mere show-piece and wielded it at the baby monkey to shoo it away.
My wife winced at once, ‘Stop!’ From her reaction I realised that I was about to commit a grave sin. Before I asked her anything, she said, ‘Don’t do that, please don’t. He is our son.’ I was stunned. Suddenly I searched for him on the chair where he was sitting before the computer just a few minutes back. The empty chair astonished me. I cringed in me. I tried to sooth my wife, ‘Don’t worry, he might be here somewhere, might have gone to the toilet.’
My wife didn’t allow me a word further. In a frightful voice she said, ‘I was in the kitchen. I heard a loud sound. As if something jumped in from somewhere. And with that came the shrieking of a monkey. My heart pounded. I thought a monkey might have entered. It might bite our son. I at once ran out. Guess what I saw!’
She couldn’t speak further. Her voice choked. Still in dilemma, she pointed at the fan. In a quivering voice she repeated, ‘It’s our son. It’s our son. That monkey… I mean, one who is sitting on that fan is our son… I mean, our son has transformed to a monkey.’
My wife’s explanation bewildered me. ‘What the hell you are saying? I cannot understand you. What sort of madness is this?’ I almost shouted at her.
In a shaky voice my wife said, ‘As I rushed into the hall hearing the sound, at once I saw him. I distinctly heard him calling Mā! Mā! Do you know that? I recognise his voice. I am damn sure, he is our son… but now, he has transformed to a monkey.’ She narrated keeping her finger raised at the ceiling fan.
The baby monkey, who was our son before a few moments, being tempted by the raised finger of my wife jumped at her. My wife shrieked out of fear. I too chilled to my bones. Our reaction aggrieved our monkey-son. He jumped hither and thither. His behaviour was unusual and unnatural as if he had strayed somewhere. His eyes evinced that he felt to have been lost. On the spur of the moment we realised his intention. He wished to escape from the house and mingle in the outer world for good.
Realising the gravity of the situation I pounced on the main door to close it.
Whenever I am in, usually I leave the main door open for fresh air to come in. But, before I reached the main door, the monkey-son escaped with one jump. Before leaving, he waved his right hand to us as if he bade us farewell, Bye Papa! Bye Mama!
Seeing our monkey-son escaping, my wife screamed out ‘Follow him, catch him’ and collapsed on the floor like a felled tree. She almost fainted. Now I was in a dilemma – whether to go after the monkey-son or attend to my wife.
Deciding to attend my wife as I knelt down beside her, in a feeble voice painstakingly she urged, ‘Go after him, don’t waste valuable time. Bring my son back. I cannot live but for him. Go… quick.’
She implored me pitiably. She was distressed.
I too hurried to rescue our monkey-son. Hitting the road I looked around. But my monkey-son was untraceable. I ran from pillar to post. I tried a lot but in vain. I couldn’t find him. Hopelessly I walked down the road and paused for sometime to determine my next step. Just then recalling the state of my wife, I hurried home back. I have no words to narrate the state of my mind at that time.

I was considering to shift her to hospital immediately. Still worried for her, I entered home. One more bitter surprise waited for me there. On reaching home, I found a huge female monkey sitting at the very point where I had left my wife lying. Looking into her eyes I could infer that she was my wife. Now she too was transformed to a monkey.
My monkey-wife looked disheartened and desolate finding me returning home alone. Tears flowed down her cheeks. Perturbed at her state and in order to console, in a soft voice I told her, ‘Wait, I will search our son out by any means. Don’t worry, I will settle things. Have trust in me. I can do anything for you people.’
My monkey-wife growled at me. Throwing a hateful grunt she glanced at me. Suddenly she stood up on her hind legs. As our monkey-son had waved his hand before leaving home, she too waved at me in that fashion. Waving her right hand she as if bade me farewell and rushed out through the main door.
I followed her. On the main street she was running at a great speed. I tried my best to run after her and catch up with her. But it was impossible for me to come anywhere near to her. Soon she vanished from my sight.
Even if she was not visible to me anymore, I didn’t stop following her. May be, I could locate her somewhere nearby. On the main road of the city, I was running relentlessly. A number of vehicles overtook me one after the other, cars, bikes, buses, auto-rickshaws and many more. But I didn’t have time to pay attention to them. I was just running aimlessly.
Suddenly a question of my son struck me, which he asked me once, ‘Were we monkeys initially?’ Another day he again asked, ‘If history repeats itself, can we be monkeys again?’ Beforehand I have confessed that my son is a child prodigy. Only now I understood, why he looked at me suspiciously.
Just then a Mercedes car passed ahead beside me. My eyes suddenly fell on its left side mirror. A chill ran down my spine. I found a monkey face on the mirror. I thought it could be an illusion. I continued running. I found another monkey running on the road. I looked into the mirror once again. Still in doubt, I raised my hand and the monkey in the mirror replied raising its hand. Now, I realised that not only my kid son or my wife have transformed into monkeys but I too have changed into a grown-up monkey.
I was still running on the road though internally I had been terribly hurt. At a distance I found a tree. My eyes caught a baby-monkey sitting on one bough. After sometime, I found a grown-up female monkey nearby. I realised them to be my family.
Happily I ran faster. I was eager to meet them as soon as possible. Just then I turned my head to an 180° angle. I was astonished to find out everyone transformed to monkeys. Monkeys drove cars and buses. Even monkeys were walking down the street. Now I understood that the whole human race has transformed into the monkey-race. I tried a loud laugh ha… ha… ha…

(The original story in Odia, titled ମାଙ୍କଡ଼ମୟ ପୃଥିବୀ, has been published in the October, 2025 issue of the ‘Sahitya Charcha’ magazine.)