I live on a campus tucked away in the Aravali Hills. It is almost a 15 km drive away from the heartland of Gurgaon, and one has to drive through a long stretch dotted with farmland and interspersed with villages, till one reaches the Aravali ridge, that incidentally continues into the bordering state of Rajasthan! The forests here are reserved and hence, our campus one of the most eco friendly, to justify its otherwise commercial existence. We have our own generator backup, rainwater harvesting setup, water filtration plant that reuses all non potable water and our residents’ commitment to preserving nature! As a result, we have regular hikes in the forest, surveys of all the birds that one can see here, talks with the local ministries to help us protect the forests and the likes. We are as one would like to claim a harmonious campus in the heart of nature.

As a result of this close proximity, one cannot avoid the coexisting fauna all around us. We have been living on the campus for five years, and the first year we moved in, the greenery around was minimal. Trees had just been planted and hardly had anything but a utilitarian design value. Our landscaping however was not run of the mill, and hence, not smooth lines of hedges and manicured lawns. We had planted trees too, that would grow to give shade, fruit and something we had probably not anticipated then, shelter! In the last two years, with two successful monsoons, the flora had a burst of growth. Trees shot up and branched, flowers bloomed all year round and the campus became greener and cooler. Such is nature, that this immediately made the environment homely for the fauna. More flowers attracted more bees and insects. More bees and insects along with the cooler branches of big trees, attracted more birds. And soon, in an interestingly artificially induced replay of an ecosystem, the monkeys couldn’t be far behind.

Two years back, we had the wasps housing by our bedroom window. On one hand, we felt safe within the netted windows observing life’s amazing creatures going through their life cycle, and on the other, walking around in the open was becoming hazardous, making me wonder what I was doing in an apiary. Apiary indeed! Every building had a bee hive comprising of millions of aggressive and big honey bees, their live hives weighing at least ten kilos. Small corners on window sills were the domain of the ferocious looking angry yellow wasps. Many a times, a lost soul would wander indoors, making me panic stricken till it found its way back to its nest! Simultaneously we were fortunate to witness the egg-laying phase of a wasp, the sole purpose of them making a nest. It was indeed amazing to see their small fist sized hives laden with white eggs, validating the miracle that is life!

The birds on the other hand were an absolute pleasure. Sunbirds, bee eaters, sparrows, cranes, seven sisters, drongos, sparrows, mynahs, cuckoos, robins, barbets and kingfishers have all been sighted by my untrained eyes! As I look down from my balcony, with my morning cup of tea, it is always a pleasure to witness the sun birds, merrily sucking the nectar from the bottle brushes! Petite and chirpy, they were adding wonderful sound effects to the visually colourful environment. The sparrows, as is their nature, love making homes in houses, in close proximity to humans. In a way fearless, as they search for a concrete nook or cranny to nest, they are an interestingly determined species. The first nest they made was in the hollow of the bit of the AC that protrudes outside. Eventually they laid their eggs, till another goon of a bird, a black one with yellow beak, a slender body and mean eyes, attacked its nest and maybe stole its eggs. How alarmingly similar their struggles for life are to our human race! This bitter experience hence, they desperately wanted to nest inside our home. Every time I would leave the balcony door open, these chirpies with grass and straw in their beaks would land up in my house, coyly stacking the strands against the space between the curtain rod and the pelmet. What a clever idea and an engineering marvel was what I thought observing their dedicated effort at layering dried grass against dried grass to make a villa for themselves, with security taken care of. Of course, I couldn’t leave my balcony open all day or invite these sparrows into my home like this, and I would invariably shake the curtain to upset the foundation of their future nests. Surprisingly, the sparrows never gave up and it has been more than 3 months and they haven’t yet given up. It is almost like a game for me to open the balcony as if to invite them, and with tireless resilience they keep getting dried fibres, and in a serious chirp of discussions start rebuilding again. I also wonder watching them and while playing this cruel game of man against a small puny bird, where in the line of evolution did humans lose this resilient and never say die spirit? Well, that is another story!

Eventually, the monkeys arrived on campus last year. First they were three, a male, a female and a young one! Seemingly harmless, hopefully lost in their jumping from tree to tree, more like a tourist than an immigrant. The initial mistake we made on campus was to let them feed. Our dining hall staff would gladly offer them peels of vegetables and other wasted food. This made the monkeys wonder, whether they should leave this destination at all? Lots of high trees to swing on for little roger to play and grow, lots of food all around to feast on and lots of children all around, which made the environment safe and entertaining! What more could a monkey be ambitious about? Thus, the monkeys stayed on! Their family has now grown to a whopping eight, as a result of incestuous affairs! They are all around us, grating their teeth when we pass by, as a warning sign to others. Being an environment friendly campus, we just can’t think of what to do! We don’t want the forest officials to come and capture them in an unsure fate net. We don’t want to hurt them either and hence emails were floated regarding the behaviour of monkeys and the dos and don’ts if we are in close proximity. Guards would shoo them off from buildings and terraces and window sills by aiming native hand made rubber balls. My home seemed to attract the monkeys too. Once, when the balcony door was left invitingly open, while we were at work, the pack ventured boldly into our home, raided our kitchen, feasted on a few peeled potatoes and an open pack of lentils, some cough syrup (sadly not the Phenargan) and left when the guards noticed activity in our balcony and started making noise near our kitchen window. We were called back from mid work, and asked to keep our balcony doors locked all the time in future. The other time was when I was in the toilet and my wife and daughter having returned from a tiring day, were relaxing on the sofa with their backs to the balcony and of course a balcony with an open door. A risk taker of a monkey saw this opportunity more as a source of frolic than anything else. He first sat on the railing of the balcony, at which time, my one and a half year old daughter, babbled some words, which to her meant ‘MONKEY!’ but to my wife garbled letters of an infant. She continued reading her newspaper! The adventurous chimp soon landed himself inside on our dining table and then brazenly crept up right next to their sofa. By this time, my daughter’s incessant calls had made my wife take notice that something was right and to her utter shock turned her head to find the monkey seated on the floor right next to the sofa! From inside the toilet I heard a whole lot of shrieks and screams and screeches, which I couldn’t all decipher then, till I came out to find my wife making paper balls to throw at the monkey which amused, sat and observed my wife in her foolish act of scaring the monkey. One could almost notice the grin on the monkey’s face, when I decided to act. Armed with the rubber wiper from the toilet, and drawing forth my animal instincts, I ran out in a gorilla like frenzy, clenching my teeth, doing a few monkey jigs and jumps, screaming like an arrow had struck my chest, and holding the rubber wiper more like the trishul in the hand of Lord Shiva. The alpha male act worked its magic, however fits of laughter it generates in your mind as you visualize the scene, and ever since I can hear fearful chatter amongst the monkeys when I pass them by! If evolution were to work itself out in a matter of years, soon I will get cornered and attacked by these otherwise harmless creatures! Till then I can only shoo off the peering, innocent monkey eyes that belie the mischief they are capable of, from all my windows and balcony. I also thank god, that the legend of a leopard, rather a wild cat, the jackals, the foxes, the snakes and the mongooses, all live outside the walls of our campus, in the vast forests of the Aravalis. However, I can’t stop myself from always asking this question and feeling guilty with the honest answer that my mind throws back at me, ‘Whose home is it anyway?’