A punch is always important. It exists everywhere, in a joke, in a script, in a speech or in a harsh, hard game like boxing. No wonder, a punch is always the talk of the town.
The Punch we are talking about right now is different though. Punch is a baby macaque. Hardly seven months old. The baby monkey was abandoned by its mother. Nor was the clan kind. True to their group titles such as 'barrel', 'troop', and what not, they bullied him!
The game changer was a plushie. Monkeys are a community oriented species. Punch hence needed to jell in. The zoo caretakers could not be the substitutes. He was hence given a soft toy. This orangutan immediately became the mother substitute.
Punch carries it everywhere. He curls with it for a nap. He does not allow anyone from the 'troop' to touch it. In the process, he has become " socialised" every possible way.
As is etched in the popular imagination, Darwin established that monkeys are our ancestors. Hence the relevance of the story! Even amongst the human species, due to post partum depression, mothers abandon their babies, while amongst animals, it is because the kid may not survive, weak as it is, the harsh "survival of the fittest" law of the wild jungle.
Yet the small little life requires support, warmth, love, affection, empathy. Even a toy mama can provide it vicariously. No wonder, Marathi has this proverb, "even if the mother is dead, let the aunt survive" n revive!
Pratima@ Love, affection, gentle kindness are as necessary as oxygen for life.
Quote of the day: "A mother's love does not make her son dependent and timid. It actually makes him," asserts Cheri Fuller, "stronger and more independent."
Word of the day: expectant. Expectant is a person who has or shows an excited feeling that something is about to happen, especially something good, in brief, a person who anticipates receiving something, mostly beneficial.
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