Monkey that babysits infant

Presenting a unique bond of love between simians and human beings, a monkey in Orissa’s Dhenkanal area has adorned a baby-sitter’s role by taking care of an infant human baby when its mother is busy doing household chores.

Every morning, the monkey arrives at the 21-day-old baby’s house and spends the rest of the day taking care of the baby boy. At times, the monkey goes asleep with the infant in the house.

"Initially, I was scared by this unusual affection shown by the monkey towards my baby. But today, the monkey takes care of him the whole day when I am busy with my household work. Sitting next to my baby son, the monkey looks after him as a mother and never harms," said Kamalini Khuntia, the mother.

Rohit Khuntia and Kamalini Khuntia, the parents of the infant were scared and reluctant to allow a monkey to come near the child. They even tried to shoo the simian away. But it did not stop the monkey from visiting their house and play with the baby.

Both of the parents have now given up their fear and now treat the monkey as family.

The unique incident showcasing an astonishing relation of love and care between a monkey and human child has become the talk of the town.

"Look this is an animal but showers love and affection like a real mother to a human baby. For the past 15-16 days, it is taking care of the baby as a mother would do," said, Shantanu Das, a neighbour

Khuntia’s home has today become a favourite tourist spot of sorts, as several curious people keep visiting to witness the unique bond. Who knows the sight may influence the general mindset that usually perceives the presence of monkeys to be a menace for the human world?

November 07 Calendar

Orissa students use pocket money to build Gandhi statue

Bargarh, Oct 1 (IANS): All the students of a school in an Orissa village have been spending a part of their pocket money for the past four years to build a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in front of their school.

The unveiling of the statue on Gandhi's birth anniversary on Oct 2 is a dream come true for the students of the government upper primary school in Haldipali village, about 370 km from the state capital Bhubaneswar.

The school provides education to about 50 children from class one to five. Since the inception of the school in 1957, students and teachers have been regularly singing Ram Dhun at the beginning of the classes but since there was no Gandhi idol in the school, they would treat a stone as Bapu's idol.

For the past four years they had been collecting one rupee each from every student at the beginning of a month to build the statue.

Initially, the villagers were not aware of the children's initiative. When they came to know about it, they decided to support them. An artiste from a neighbouring village built the statue using cement, mosaic, white powder, gum and colour.

"We are happy that the statue will be inaugurated on Oct 2," Sonic Sahu, a class four student of the school said. "The total money spent on the statue would be about 10,000 and more than 70 percent of the money was collected by the school children. Moreover, the artiste who made the statue did not take any remuneration," schoolteacher Prashant Dash said