On Wednesday, I wrote about seeing a monkey in a tree eating cereal (Early Morning Fun). He had probably found the cereal in a nearby garbage bin. During lunch, the monkey was in the rafters of the dining hall. He had stolen a towel from someone and was creating quite a sensation carrying it along the outside rails.

Then yesterday (Friday), I attended the afternoon play practice. The cast had divided into two rooms to learn the finale dance. The children were in one room and the adults were in another. All of a sudden the children ran en masse from their room into the adult room, screaming. Their screams were more excited than frightened. The monkey had shown up in their room and they had run away from it.

When the combined practice began in the main room, the monkey decided to visit. Chaitanya did a valiant effort trying to maintain order. She told everyone that the monkey wanted to see the play, so they should let him do that.

He sat high up in the rafters and watched quietly for awhile…

and then began to wander.

Soon, he came down to our level. First, he tried to carry away an electrical box; and then took the loose end of an electrical cord and started scratching himself with it. The cast only were able to use the room for a short time more but it was nearly impossible to keep order when a creature was in the room that would likely steal anything that was left unattended. Besides it was fun and exciting to watch the monkey.

Some of the cast are animals in the play. Eventually, they roared their animal roars at the monkey and he ran away. Luckily there was still enough time left for them to finish learning the finale dance. I imagine it will be a memorable practice for many.

To read the previous Amritapuri posts in this series click here.