A DELHI STORY Ever heard of a monkey going bananas over booze? Here's the story about one. Every day, for the past six months, a small yet distinguished simian has been coming to the Gole market area of New Delhi. He heads for one of the Government owned liquor vends there with the air of a regular. Discriminating enough to rub shoulders with connoisseurs of liquor, our friend is picky-he won't drink just anything. Says Mr. H.P. Das, who runs a magazine store next to the DSIDC liquor vend, "It first breaks open a bottle, licks some of the whiskey off the floor and only if it is good drinks the rest." Mr. Vijay Khanna, manager of the DSIDC vend agrees. "The monkey has a very evolved palate. It does not like the cheaper brands. It likes Aristocrat, McDowells, and Bagpiper. On one occasion it got hold of a bottle of Black Dog scotch whiskey." Ranking high in its list of favourites is red wine. Some months ago it polished off a few bottles of Riviera wine. In summer, beer is the monkey's drink of choice. It has been guzzling Strohs beer. Between slugs it munches monkey nuts and roasted gram. To get what it wants, says Mr. Khanna, the monkey touches his feet or tugs his clothes, asking for a bottle. It is usually safer to comply for the monkey can be destructive. It goes about breaking bottles and smashing crates if its request is turned down. Unsure of its mood, the liquor vend manager often down shutters if they are warned of the simian visitor's arrival. To make good their losses, liquor vends claim insurance for damage to goods due to monkey menace. For all its hard drinking, it's not always that the monkey can hold its drink. Sometimes it is too drunk and must take a nap, which it does by putting its head on its feet. And after all that, where does it go? To the bus stop to board a bus on route 851 or, 871 going towards Karol Bagh. It enters the bus through the front entrance [in Delhi you enter through rear entrance], takes a seat, and when it has to get off, just pulls at the bus conductor's feet and then disappears into the crowd.... To show up the next day at Liquor vend in Gole Market. Soni Sangwan, Hindustan Times, New Delhi, April 24 p.s. The title is mine and not the news paper's. The monkey seems to be negotiating Delhi better than I am. Cheers, ajit sinha
