Talakona - Planet of monkeys

Disclaimer: This is just a fun story about our encounter with monkeys. It's not intended to demean the monkeys or their monkeyness in any way. We didn't actually get attacked by any monkey. We were not in any monkey territory intruding in to their monkey lives. TL;DR: No monkeys were harmed - mentally or physically.

My husband and I went to visit the popular Talakona waterfalls near Tirupathi. To reach the waterfalls, we boarded a bus to Bakarapet from Tirupathi(59 kms) and then an auto to Talakona from Bakarapet(47kms). The auto dropped us at the entrance of Talakona. We thought we would reach it in few steps, but we were so wrong. It was 2 kms from there! We couldn't find any other auto and the auto that dropped us left. So we decided to walk.

Here and there we spotted some monkeys. There were some vehicles going by that way. We didn't see anyone else walking. Also, we were not talking to each other so much as we just had a fight.

I saw a monkey looking at us, so I moved slightly towards my husband. He laughed at me and said it won't attack, just keep walking. So I did and it left.

After walking for few more meters, we spotted some kiddo monkeys along with a huge fat monkey. Let's call the huge monkey Bobo. Now Bobo looked at us and I pointed out the same to my husband. He laughed at me again.

He won't be laughing in a minute.

Now the following scene happens in less than 60 seconds. But like nightmares, this lasted about 60 minutes for us.

Warning: Graphic content ahead.

Bobo was on the other side of the road. He started walking towards us crossing the road. That was enough to scare me. And I tried to shoo it away from the distance. And my husband told me not to be scared and it will go away. He wasn't laughing now however.

Mobile users: click on images to get an enlarged view of Bobo.

Bobo starts walking towards us

It kept walking towards us despite the shooing. It was dangerously near us. My husband, probably thinking that Bobo was after the water bottle in his hand, threw it in Bobo's direction. Bobo took the bottle-throwing-act as an act of a nuclear war missile. Bobo ignored the puny plastic bottle and bared his teeth at us.

Water bottle missile

Bobo targeted my handbag. The moment it was just in front of us, my husband abandoned me(that's when I knew that I can't rely on him for Zombie apocalypse) and moved a little towards the middle of the road. Bobo started moving towards me and I moved to the other side of the road by many steps. This was the moment I was in absolute fear. In a second, I imagined several ways Bobo might attack me with his nails-may be he will rip off my face. A thief may just stab you in your tummy for your handbag, but the monkeys have no such OCD - they may just rip your skin wherever they can reach out.

Bobo wants my handbag

My husband probably struck by guilt that he left me all alone to fight with Bobo, tried to get Bobo's attention by saying 'hey'. As soon as Bobo turned towards him, he did this - he started talking. To Bobo. Now, this is a panic situation, we are very close to Bobo and Bobo may hurt us. This is when you expect that your brain will come up with some solution. But, instead my brain reminds me that it's hilarious that my husband is talking to Bobo and being silly. This made me forget about the grave situation I was in for a second( this is when I knew that I will never survive a zombie apocalypse).

Husbands starts diplomatic talks with opposition.

But when Bobo turns to me, my brain's survival instinct finally kicks in and ....I start talking. To Bobo.

I start begging Bobo for my life.

Finally Bobo decides that he had enough fun bullying us and walks towards the kids as majestically as his monkeyness will allow him.

Even when we were fleeing the situation, I looked back at Bobo joining the kids and imagined all the kids doing the Bobo chant.

Bobo, the Hero

A family gave us lift to the waterfalls in their vehicle and it was very awkward describing them how the monkeys have threatened to attack us. Worst part was when we reached the area where Bobo bullied us, there was no Bobo and there were no kids. I am sure the family would have thought that we were some nutcases.

Angels save us

This is the story of how Bobo, the majestic monkey united a fighting couple. If you ever visit Talakona, say 'Hi' to Bobo on behalf of us.

Thanks to the anonymous family from Bangalore for saving us and being so nice to us!

~