Does anyone remember check-post the monkey

liverpool les

I wrote this little true story for my son 18 years ago just wondered if anyone remembers seeing checkpost

CHECK-POST THE MONKEY

A real story for Allan

Check-post was a Rhesus Monkey born in Raxaul a small town near the Nepalese border in UTTAR PRADESH STATE INDIA, When she was just 4 weeks old she was taken from her mother and family by border guards who worked at a road checkpoint

Check-post was very frightened and confused she missed her mother and family, She did not like the Guards at all, they teased her all the time. The only enjoyment she had was when cars and buses stopped at the checkpoint. Some of the people who got out of the vehicle's where very nice to her, She hoped one day some kind person would take her away with them, Away from the nasty guards

One bright sunny morning a big yellow bus with lots of passengers inside stopped at the checkpoint. The Driver got out of his bus and started showing his papers to the guards. Meanwhile a guard was trying to feed Check-post some mashed up Bananas, Check-post didn't like this very much as only being 6 weeks old she was to young to be given solid food she was very thin and weak and wished that she was still with her mother and family getting plenty of milk.

The driver of the bus walked over to have a closer look what the guard was holding. Straight away Check-post jumped onto him wrapping her tiny little arms around his wrist. She clung on for all she was worth, not wanting to let go, Check-post wanted the driver to take her with him on his yellow bus. The more the driver and the guard tried to get her off the tighter she hung on.

The driver asked the guards if he could take her with him the guards said they didn't want to let her go, However they soon changed there minds when a few Rupee’s (Indian money) where offered.

So off Check-post went with her new owner onto the yellow bus. The bus and passengers were on there way to Kathmandu in Nepal.

Check-post was so exited everybody on the bus made such a fuss of her, however she still kept her arms wrapped tightly around the bus drivers wrist as she did not want to be parted from her new found friend. So off they all drove along the road to Kathmandu Check-post was very tired and was soon fast asleep.

The bus carried on through the night Check-post awoke as the bus came to a halt at a tea stall at the side of the road, The driver and passengers got down from the bus to have a cup of tea and something to eat, the driver had searched the bus earlier and found an old rubber glove, from the tool box which was a bit dirty, he asked the people at the tea shop if they could boil it to clean it, which they did, they soon brought it back nice and clean, he made a small hole in the little finger in the glove, then filled the glove up with some warm milk now holding the glove firmly around the top offered the little finger with the hole in it, to Check-post, she drank hungrily, this being the first proper feed since she had been taken from her mother two weeks previously, after everybody had finished eating they went back to the bus for the remaining 120 miles journey up and down the long winding mountainous roads. They reached Dharber Square in Kathmandu next morning.


Over the next few weeks Check-post grew bigger and stronger she would sit on the drivers shoulders holding on to the back of his head as he walked around the streets and markets in Kathmandu after a few weeks, she liked the markets as she was just beginning to eat soft fruit like bananas and mango's and markets have plenty.

Check-post was becoming very tame she would imitate the driver; she had her own pillow and blanket on the luggage rack of the bus where she slept. Every night she would puff up the pillow before she went to sleep, with her head on the pillow she would pull the blanket over her. In the morning she would brush her teeth with her toothbrush, eating most of the toothpaste, she would finish the tube if she had the chance. All of this would amaze many people, whereas to Check-post, her actions were normal, by now she was beginning to think she was human.

On the outskirts of Kathmandu on the top of a large hill there are the ruins of a very old temple, this is known locally as the monkey temple, as hundreds of wild Rhesus monkeys live amongst the ruins. One day the driver decided to take Check-post to the temple, this however proved not to be a very good idea as wild monkeys and tame ones don't seem to mix very well, The driver and Check-post were attacked and chased all the way down the steps. I don't know who was more afraid, Check-post or the driver it was an experience neither forgot in a hurry.

As the weeks went by Check-post had travelled most of India and Nepal on the bus, probably seeing more of the country's than most Indian and Nepalese people see throughout their lives. From Kathmandu to New Delhi to Bombay then across to the other side of India to Calcutta, then back to Kathmandu to start the round trip of about 3500 miles again after a couple of weeks break.

Check-post was now getting very large and the driver had to get a collar and lead for her as she was also becoming very jealous and would attack any females who came too close, Check-post did not like the collar and lead and would try to escape from it. Now being fully-grown at about 6 months old Check-post was getting very restless and longed to be free again. One night in a town called Gorakhpur check-post escaped from her collar getting out of the bus through an open window she ran away. The next morning the driver looked for her, not finding her he went back to the bus and left with the passengers for New Delhi, he thought that he would never see Check-post again. When he returned to Gorakhpur 6 weeks later, the hotel porter where the driver had been staying the night Check-post disappeared asked him to go with him, as he told him he knew were Check-post had gone.

He took the driver to a temple with a tree the oldest and biggest tree in Gorakhpur where an Indian Guru (holy man) lived and there in the tree was Check-post, she had made a new home there.

Every time the driver went to Gorakhpur he would go and visit Check-post at the temple, and to my knowledge Check-post still lives there today.

Allan can you guess who the driver was?