Accepted into the monkey family
One of the most extraordinary things happened today.

In the camp here, we have about 2 dozen monkey's (bonnet macaques) which pretty much hang around here, as they get continuous food from our leftovers and they feel pretty safe here in the camp as the predators usually stay away from here. They usually wait outside the place where we eat and at every opportunity they get, they jump in, grab the food and rush out. Infact they are quite a problem for the staff here. Since the time I have come, I have started feeding them, so they don't mess with the guests coming in and give the restaurant a break.

Over the past month, they have gotten more and more comfortable with me. The first week, I had to throw food at them, two weeks later they started to grab it from my hand and in the last two weeks, they don't even bother that, and let me feed them directly to their mouths.

There monkey's have a complex social lives. The Alpha male eats first, followed by the other males, then the females and the young ones at the end. If the order is screwed up, the alpha male attacks the human or the other young ones, who are eating without the alpha male. So I start off with the males and feed them well. They go back to the trees and sit down with their belly's full. Then the young ones come out and I tell you, they are the best. Since they are still pretty young, they do not see humans as a threat (unlike the older ones who are always scared of the humans) and get pretty close to you and start to hold your hand etc. Infact the monkey feeding session is one of my fav part of the day.

Yesterday I was feeding the monkey's near the hammock and usually few of them sit on the it, few on the trees and few on the ground. I was feeding the ones on the ground and I suddenly feel a hand in my hair. Then I realised, it was one of the monkey's grooming my hair while sitting on the hammock. The monkey played with my hair for about two min and then went away. In the primate world, grooming is a social ritual. They do this not to remove ticks, but to build social bonds within the pack and it is the human equivalent of a warm hug.

This was one of the most touching moments in my entire trip here. The monkey actually accepted me in its pack and acknowledged that by doing this. You might find the whole thing funny, but you have to be there to feel what I felt yesterday.