“Monkey Take Shoes?”

the man at Rainbow Café asked. The upper half of his body was leaning out the only large opening of the rooftop restaurant’s bamboo covering – a barrier to protect customers and their meals against marauding monkeys. A monkey had indeed taken my Chaco sandal and run off with it. Scott, my hero, saw it happen behind my back and chased the mama monkey among the rooftops of Bundi.

We were up on the roof of our guesthouse to play cards, drink rum and cokes, and watch the sunset on this Rajasthani town. Our roof was perfectly situated between the towering palace and the lake. We were enjoying our vantage point over the animal kingdom that exists in Bundi – the cows, the territorial dogs, the wiry pigs and piglets, the parrots and pigeons, the tourists, and, of course, the monkeys. One papa monkey had already stolen our shiny bag of moong dal, oh so cavalierly. We watched as he sat on the corner of the next roof, ripped the bag open more, and ate the dal in handfuls, then lickfuls.

Now mama had my right sandal and Scott stood only a few feet away from her. In my mind, I saw the sandal as gone but Scott was determined. “Keep your eye on her. I’m going at her from behind,” he said. I did as he instructed and, within seconds, I watched as mama, who had just been gnawing on my sandal strap, turned, got an alarming look on her face, scooped up her baby, abandoned my Chaco, and ran off. Scott returned my sandal on one piece; it just had some monkey slobber on it.