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Bizarre story: monkey anarchist squatter in Calcutta

Daniel Brett | 16.11.2001 17:44

Monkey anarchist halts Bank of India building project and raids bank workers offices

Just a bizarre story I heard from relatives in Calcutta. There are reports that a large monkey has battled with the authorities and developers to stop his home from being destroyed. The monkey, one of the many that roam city streets in India, has been living in an old colonial building next to the Bank of India in Calcutta for years.

The building was thought to be haunted by the ghosts of prostitutes who once served British soldiers when the city was the capital of British imperial India. Consequently, the building was deserted and a family of monkeys moved in. But the Bank of India decided it would pull the building down and put up a modern, five-star hotel.

However, the alpha male of the monkey tribe is having none of it. Somehow he's understood that the Bank wants to pull down his home and he's protecting his property with his life. Agile and measuring over five feet in height, he has engaged in sit-down protests on the stairways, preventing developers from passing to examine the building. Anyone who tries to forcibly remove him is treated to a slap round the face from the monkey squatter. No-one will exterminate the monkey population for fear of upsetting Hanuman, the monkey god.

Bank staff in the next building have also had to take measures to protect themselves from the anarchist monkey. He has figured out when the humans have lunch and how to get into the building. At lunch-time, the monkey breaks into the Bank and steals the lunches of Bank staff, screaming and throwing papers around. Sometimes he brings along an entire tribe, who have shut down some floors of the Bank.

This story just goes to show that monkeys are more intelligent than humans and this particular monkey is an example to us all of defending your ground against authority and capitalism. We need some of this monkey magic in the UK.

Daniel Brett
- e-mail: dan@danielbrett.co.uk

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  1. awesome story! — rob